I started today down $6500+ in my account and every time I refreshed the screen I improved a little until I was down $4900. At that point I stopped being able to access my TD Ameritrade account. A friend of mine said he was having the same problems from his house. I came home for lunch and…
Capitulation?
Tuesday morning appears to be an ugly day in the making. Dow futures are down over 500 as I write this around 8:15 pm EST on Monday. Marketwatch has an interesting article worth reading about our current market compared to 1987, around the crash then. These are the days when one has to wonder if…
Dow Jones ($INDU) Chart – January 18, 2008
I’m charting the Dow ($INDU) again today. I read an interesting article in Barron’s this weekend that highlighted the longer trend of the overall stock market. The short version is that we overbought with such great disregard for the norm that we were due for a good pull back to rejoin the longer term trend. …
Took Some Profits
Today started off like a good dream for my portfolio. I was in training all morning, but at least saw futures were up. During training I snuck a peak at some of my positions and saw I was looking good for today’s option expiration. After lunch I saw a change of fortune (literally) was taking place. …
Friday Option Expiration
As if this market needed more to increase volatility, Friday the 18th is option expiration Friday. It’s not even a normal expiration day, Leaps expire tomorrow too. It should be exciting. MONSANTO (MON) which has fallen 29 points this week has the highest number of options at the 95 strike for puts and calls. I…
Getting in Deeper
Two more limit orders hit today. While MRO was trading at 51.08, I sold two February 50 naked puts (MRONJ) to bring my average cost down on my 200 shares I currently own. I received $388.50 after commissions. Right at today’s market open, while VIP was trading somewhere near 36, I sold three February 35 naked…
Sold CAT naked puts
When CAT was trading at 66.01 I sold two CAT Feb 62.50 naked puts (CATNZ) and received $318.50. I own 100 shares already and was planning to sell naked calls on it on top of the one covered call I already have, but saw the trend line showed it was likely to rise some first. I…
Recession or not
Kopin Tan had a great line in this week’s Barron’s. “Like beer bellies and bald spots, a recession is one of those things whose precise beginning is hard to pinpoint – until the sad evidence eventually becomes hard to refute.” We have no true way other than guess if we are actually in a recession…
Dow Jones ($INDU) Chart – January 11, 2008
Even a novice could chart the recent Dow Jones Industrial Average (aka DJIA and $INDU) to see that support has been broken. The chart below is a five year monthly view. The first big warning of the shift to a bear market came in November when the DJIA broke the 10 month moving average. It recovered briefly only…