AAPL is setting up very nicely today for the bounce. Today close even engulfed last Thursday highs.

Next, it will need try to fill that gap from last Thursday and to take over last Wednesday high .. resistance around 385~389 area.

Congratulations!! Very good swing trade infact!

Which miners are you losing out on?

Market tonight will try to grind itself higher.. better macro data like durable goods are much better in July than in June.

Yeahh.. but that news from AAPL really spoil the mood.

AAPL holding up about 12% of Nasdaq. This is going to hurt.

Breaking news: BAC got $5 bln injection from BRK-A.
BAC pops additional 25+%..

This could rally up the financial sector. Shorts will be squeezed!

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Added on August 25, 2011, 10:12 pmManaged to get out from my AAPL Oct calls.. with small profits.
That knee jerk reaction and cover at open was my way out.

Going to wait after Ben speaks tomorrow to see what happens.



This post has been edited by danmooncake: Aug 25 2011, 10:12 PM

Really difficult to trade tonight..
Volume is really pathetic. So, I'm staying out for now.

We still got that gap from last Wednesday that hasn't been filled yet.
So, need to wait and see what happens.

Hopefully so.. need BAC to at least survive because if BAC dies, it will take down the entire financial sector.

Anyway, tonight, I'll just stay at the sidelines and watch.

Closing update for bullish Monday

Dow 11539.25 +254.71 +2.26%
Nasdaq 2562.11 +82.26 +3.32%
S&P500 1210.08 +33.28 +2.83%

Bulls still in charge for Monday after Uncle Ben said he's going to leave things as is last Friday.
So, let's ride this up for now.

Honglun: If you're still waiting for opportunity to sell LVS, watch it.
I think it may be going back to 47/48 level. Good luck!

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Added on August 31, 2011, 9:13 pmTime to lock in some profits today.. before the job numbers on Friday.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Aug 31 2011, 09:13 PM

Horrible job numbers.. worst than expected. We're going down baby.. down!

No!

Short selling, it means you don't hold ANY stocks of XXX but you borrow from your broker to sell it,
then hoping when the price declines, you BUY it back and return that XXX stocks to your broker. You pocket the difference.

In other words, Short selling is buying stocks in REVERSE. "Gostan" trick.
Only mature markets like US allows you to make money either when the market goes UP or DOWN.

Yes, consumer confidence that was reported on Tuesday evening was way lower than expected (44.5 vs. 59.2 prior) - thanks to S&P downgrade. It's the signal the market top here for this wave, time to sell or take profits. Analysts already lowered the expectation for the job number this Friday but now it is much weaker than expected. Aug is even worse than July.

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Added on September 3, 2011, 6:46 amClosing for Friday Sept 1st. US market:

Dow 11240.26 -253.31 -2.20%
Nasdaq 2480.33 -65.71 -2.58%
S&P500 1173.97 -30.45 -2.53%

As expected after this bad job number.. bought back some of covered calls and sold puts
to take some profits here.

Still holding a few more puts over the weekend for the long shares that I've been hedging.




This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 3 2011, 06:46 AM

Yes indeed.. fear is creeping back into the market now. Even SLV has crossed back over $40.
So, those who were trapped above back in early Aug, now can escaped.
Watching that resistance line at $43..

Quite a few individuals have PM me about what is SHORTing.

So, instead of answering the same individual questions, here's my answer, hopefully, this can be a part of a FAQ in future.

Shorting is just trading stocks in reverse (or going the dark side) .

It is SELL first (for the stocks that you don't currently own), BUY back later (at the cheaper price of course!). Its goal is to take advantage of the downside move to get some profits.

But, in order to SELL first, you must borrow the stock from your broker.
Your broker will let you know if stocks are available to short when you execute your order.

Examples:

If stock X is trading at $100, and you think it will go down and if you wish to take advantage of downside move,
but you don't own stock X at the moment, you just execute the SELL order with the option for short.

If stock X trades at $90 later (-10%) and you wished to take profit at 10% move , then you simply BUY it back.
This is call BUY COVER for your short position. You just bought back a stock at cheaper price and you
returned the stock to your broker and pocket the 10% profit (minus commissions, fees and interests).

In order to sell a stock short, you must have a margin account (min $25k). This is the rule.
Depending on the amount of short and time period, your broker may charge you commissions and interests rate.
Individual brokers have different fees rules and margin requirements for shorting. Make sure you know all those rules!

Risks
What happens if trade goes against you? Just like buying regular stock, shorting is the same.
Instead of the price going lower which you expect to make profit, the price may move higher and you could
end up losing because you've sold stock X at much lower than the current price. As the price continues to move higher, and if you can't stand the pain (eg. your broker issue a margin call), you have BUY to cover at much higher price.

What if you can't short?
There are inverse ETFs available which take advantage of downside market moves. They track the general indices
like Dow or SP500 or Nasdaq or even certain sectors of the market, the US investors can definitely buy
those like a regular stock. These type of "bear" shares goes UP when the market moves DOWN. Examples: (Short Dow:DOG, Short SP500: SH and Short Nasdaq: PSQ). Check out the prospectus of these ETFs from ProShares or Direxion.

Leverage
Leverage is when you wish to "amplify" the movement of your stocks movements. Certain ETF products are designed to amplify the percentage movement of certain sectors or indices. The 2x ETF intends to amplify twice the percentage, and the 3x ETF intends to amplify thrice the percentage move. For example, during the worse market downside move on Aug 8th, Dow moves down 5%, the inverse 3x ETF product SDOW moves up 15% (it also goes the other directions in same percentage when market moves up).

The other is Stock Options. Options are very sophisticated leveraging tools. Options allow the US investors to "hedge" either using
short calls or long puts for the short side of the trade. They are sophisticated because they have "amplification" effect as well and they are also good tools for investors to participate in the market without much money.

Briefly those two leverage products are risky and dangerous..if you do not know what you're doing and have little experience in trading and investing, you must spend considerable amount of time to learn those before you engage to using them.

Hope those helps! Good luck to all, and may we continue to profit in this tumultuous times!

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 6 2011, 12:57 AM

It may not bounce for 4th time, get ready for another leg down if it happens.

Guys,

Going over my charts this weekend, we've moved back to the middle of the bollinger band since last Friday but I'm not buying it here. I'm think I'm going to look for that triple bottom at around SP500 1120 area with a stop around slightly below 1100. I do not think we'll fall below 1100 unless something really really bad happens (like Greece completely BLOWS up or close to it). If we fall through, I'll be net short.

Both AAPL and LVS are setting up for nice dip buying opportunities.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 6 2011, 12:25 PM

I'm using a PC to do my trade.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 7 2011, 08:08 PM

I'm on the long side on closing yesterday. Got out from all my short positions and protective puts at open. I was hoping a little lower but there seems to be a lot of hungry buyers at SPX 1135-1140 area.

Added LVS $45 calls, short $40 LVS puts
Added AAPL $370 calls, short AAPL $360 puts.

Added ERX (3x energy) for my swing trade because I've been noticing $39-$40 seems to be floor
here since last week. Going to take some profits again when SP 500 hits 1200-1210 area.

This price range: 1120-1230 is really nice.. you can be long and short at both end of the band and still win!

No financial stock play for me..I'm staying out till we break out.


Note to k-bkeat: The brokers that I use are TD Ameritrade, OptionExpress, ScottTradeOption First and MBTrading.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 8 2011, 01:23 AM

Yes, when it reached 1200, I'll trim some of my long positions and use trailing stops for the rest and see how high it can go.

It is no secret.. once look at the price chart, it is all about support and resistance level. As price moves up the top part of the band, you need to sell, and at the bottom, just buy.

The band is going to get narrower.. which means volatility will be squeezed soon.

honglun - Are u still trading LVS?

I like what I'm seeing now. Made 3 round trips profits already.

Also, Goldman gave its blessing today with PT of $52.

Resistance is still around 49-50 here. Hoping it will break out soon.
If not, it is a buy on pull back, sell the rips until it does so.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 8 2011, 09:53 AM

Looks like we're going get a small pull back today.. ECB decision in factor..ratching down economy, futures was green, now red.
I may get stop out if the selling gets intense before the speech tonight.

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Added on September 8, 2011, 9:47 pmLooks like more bulls were waiting at sidelines.. going to move stop higher for LVS here.

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Added on September 8, 2011, 9:51 pmAlmost there... just need a nudge higher for your price.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Sep 8 2011, 09:52 PM