Tag: shrinkylinks

Ah yes, Virginia was not disappointed this week. Now if it could only snow here in Dallas this weekend. Of course the real test will be what the market brings next week and perhaps even more important 2012. This slow upward grind on low volume was a classic Santa Claus rally so it will be

2011 is nothing but a memory for me as far as trading is concerned. With Friday’s expiration I’ve decided to take the rest of the year off to recuperate and replenish my psychological capital. I do have January orders working and, as most of you know, we truly never completely leave the markets so I’ll

I’ve always wanted to visit Europe but right now I’m so sick of it that you probably couldn’t get me on a plane over their if the trip was free. Don’t get me wrong, as an option trader I love the volatility but too much of anything isn’t good. I’d venture to say we break

For those that have just started trading you should know that V shaped moves like we’ve seen the past two weeks are perfectly normal. In fact, this high level of volatility is exactly why those of us who’ve been in the business so long love the markets. Not really. In fact it’s becoming tiresome to

Not much for the bulls to be thankful for this past week as the broader market turned in its worst performance for Thanksgiving week since 1932. No question that the market is oversold, the question is when it bounces where does it find resistance. The 10/7/11 gap fill is extremely low hanging fruit for next

The November settlement price for the SPX was 1221.58. Last year’s settlement price was 1195.73. That’s a mere 2.16% gain over the past year so all you buy and hold market participants can spend that increase and spread some holiday cheer. I wrote a post last year about December’s cycle and how it can be

The indicies are split with the $QQQ and $DIA trading above their 200-day SMAs while the $SPY and $IWM struggle to overcome theirs. That 50/50 split is more than likely going to be carried through next week as we enter option expiration. However, there are a lot of potential catalysts with economic events next week

As of Friday’s close this is the third worst start to November on record. Things have not worked out too well for the rest of the month when stumbling out of the gate. There’s plenty of opinions out there as to where we go from here and that makes it easy to form myopic opinions.

Very positive price action this past week for those long in conviction and positions. The close above the 200-day simple moving average is indeed bullish, especially if it hasn’t been above that level in over a quarter or more. The average gain the next week is -.90% while the next month’s returns average +1.3%. Ideally

Coming off of one of the most unusual option expiration days where the market closed near its highs, one can’t not wonder what’s next. Have we come too far, too fast? Not only did the SPX close up nearly 2% on opex but closed above its 200-day EMA while breaking out of the 3-month range.