I am the walrus, goo goo ke choo.

I guess that was the reversal. Breadth never went positive so it was hard to close up on the day, but opening down 400 on DJIA and trading up to -50 was a pretty good rally. With the 2yr yield below SPX dividend yield, it is easy to make the case that stocks are cheap. Still in for a bumpy ride, but the trend will soon change and new highs will be in the cards for 2008. A close above 1400 SPX will be an all clear signal.

Happiness is a warm gun

"Sell at the sound of trumpets, buy at the sound of cannons." Not sure where that quote comes from but we are under artillery fire now. Looking for a reversal bottom any day soon. Probably today as we are in an expiration week and the dealer community is probably short gamma at these levels.

Back in the USSR

So I have been a little too premature in picking the bottom of this market. As we bounced of support at 1380 SPX, we have not damaged the weekly chart too bad. A close above 1435-1440 would be the springboard to a nice rally. Still waiting for those mutual fund flows to come in.

Dear Prudence

consolidation after that nice rally. got my Dow 15000 hat ready for 1Q 2008. industrials have the nicest charts. sick with the winners in this rally. Oil stocks getting very heavy. could see a nice selloff in the larger names as rotation out of the winners into tech should be a good trade for the next year.

happy new year to all of my fans and wishing you and yours a healthy and wealthy 2008.

La Grange

So looking at individual stock charts, I see nothing pretty in the financials, retailers, or transportation sectors. Can staples, energy, utilities, and tech carry the load? They are going to in order for us to make new highs come 1Q 2008. Take a look at any beverage, food, or drug stock. Good odds that they are consolidating for a move upward. If you want to play the beaten down ones, at least buy write them to take in some income. You may have to wait a while to get some good traction in those suckers.

I made some sales at 1522 SPX and am fully loaded again at 1455. Look for a quick rally from these levels into 1490-1515, then a pause. Come January expiration, we should be ready to rally out of a flag into 1550 territory.

See Barry Ritholtz's Big Picture for some great economic insights, especially the negative real interest rate discussion. With all of this central bank liquidity flooding the system, it will keep a floor underneath financial assets for a while.

Cheap Sunglasses

So I am scanning the media this morning and one of the TV shows has a market analyst whose bullishness on tech in 99-02 is noteworthy. This morning, he was the "bear" in the conversation. That is all I needed to know, 300 points later on the DJIA and it confirms most market moves. This afternoon a report on how to "hedge" your home from losing its value. A little too late? The market is a forward looking discounting mechanism. If you listen to what the money honeys are saying, its too late to act. I would take some profits SPX 1485-1495 in order to reload on a pullback, but still looking for a rally above 1540 in Q1 2008.

Gold had a nice dip last week, but I did not buy it. Oil missed 100, probably headed for 78. Aggressive traders could buy put spreads on oil ETF's. Volatility will crash on the way down. This is a commodity play, not an equity play. Stay away from energy stocks unless the chart looks like a breakdown.

Volatility is still high, would be a seller of OTM options vs stock, especially in financials.

I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill

Had the trigger ready to put some shorts on at 1495 SPX, just a bit outside, would have been nice. Ah the beauty of the market, you can get another shot if you preserve your capital. One way to do this is to trade options. Yes, that is the derivative of choice by myself. Having grown up in the pits with my values on paper, it is the only way I can make rhyme or reason of any trade. Today I will start on some basic strategies:

I. Buy writes. Get long a stock you like and sell a slightly out of the money call. Very simple, able to earn good returns with some downside protection. What every investor is looking for. Of course I look for large cap names that have a nice spread between the 30-day historical and implied volatility. Stay away from any event like earnings or merger plays. You want a flat to mild up trending stock. For example, if you bought KO when it broke 50, wrote 55 calls all year, rolled the last one up to 60, you would have easily turned a 20% gain into 30%. That buys a few extra cases of diet coke.

II. Straddles. When a stock hits a 52 week low, I like to buy the ATM straddle to see if we bounce or break. Look for more than 15 day paper, and keep the trade on a short leash. Some recently good trades were on the financials as panic selling created the waterfall and then a mild bounce.