Monday, October 31, 2011

10/31/11 Road Map



On the road again. Colin Twiggs offers a road map that I find helpful at this juncture.

http://www.incrediblecharts.com/tradingdiary/trading_diary.php

'Several weeks ago, when asked what it would take to reverse the bear market, I replied that it would take 3 strong blue candles on the weekly chart followed by a correction — of at least two red candles — that respects the earlier low. We have had three strong blue candles. Now for the correction.

'On the S&P 500 expect retracement to test support at 1200 or 1250. Respect of 1250 would signal a strong up-trend, while failure of support at 1200 would warn of another test of primary support at 1100. A trough on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow that respects the zero line would also indicate strong buying pressure.

'Dow Jones Industrial Average weekly chart displays a similar picture. Expect retracement to test support at 11500. A peak on 63-day Twiggs Momentum that respects the zero line would be bearish — warning of continuation of the primary down-trend.

'The Nasdaq 100 is testing resistance at 2400 — close to the 2011 high. Breakout would signal a primary advance to 2800*, while respect would warn of another test of primary support at 2000. Bullish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow has warned of a reversal for several weeks.'

99 comments:

  1. Does anyone recall where jesse was headed the last time we heard from him?

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  2. Jesse - Not actually, coulda' been Mongolia?

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  3. One thought that comes to mind with the banks reversing course on their monthly debit fees because of public pressure on them is the possibility that the Durbin Amendment is amended again to prevent V/MA hiking fees on smaller transactions to reimburse the banks. If this happens then the price hike that CSTR made will really juice profits even more than I calculated. Right now I'm calculating that the price hike could improve CSTR's EPS by 40 to 70%, which is insane right? Well, if the hike isn't accompanied by higher fees from V/MA then the increase to EPS could be 100%.

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  4. OK, that's good. I thought he might have been stuck in Thailand during the floods.

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  5. tof- If it makes you feel any better, we changed our NFLX plan from DVD (one at a time)+streaming (now a ridiculous $17/month) to streaming only ($8/month), effective mid-November.

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  6. If they start charging $17/month for streaming only, we'll probably cancel the plan and start lining up at RedBox.

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  7. Well, Japan's intervention certainly came at the right moment, right after a nice rally...

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  8. BCON- Looks like the flywheel gizmo didn't work out.

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  9. CSTR - Seems the 200SMA retest is holding up...

    You can bet I'll be a buyer if it does retest $40.

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  10. BCON - Spinning wheel got to go 'round!

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  11. BCON - All that Blood, Sweat and Tears right down the drain...

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  12. GPL - Holding up incredibly well, $2.52 is the number she's gotta hold...

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  13. "tof- If it makes you feel any better, we changed our NFLX plan from DVD (one at a time)+streaming (now a ridiculous $17/month) to streaming only ($8/month), effective mid-November. "

    2nd - Nice. Does the streaming option include new movies?

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  14. I haven't noticed many new movies available on streaming yet.

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  15. jb- Might want to sell those AAPL calls now if you haven't already? You can always buy back in later.

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  16. so what would you do for new movies? ignore and just focus on old ones?

    Here's a recent interview with the CSTR CEO:
    http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/28/markets/tweets_stocktwits/index.htm

    I think one of the things they're bringing to the table for a potential streaming partner is the huge amount of social networking followers / email subs they have...and the massive amount of users using the kiosks on a monthly basis. I think I read that they had 50 million unique customers using them over the past quarter. I see a lot of value to AMZN in a partnership of this kind. Being able to expose those 50 Million people to Amazon.com product promotions has to be something they think highly of...

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  17. CP- What about GMO? At what price would you buy back in?

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  18. tof- The term 'new movies' I define as the ones available today for rental on RedBox. There are plenty of streaming choices for films a year after original release dates- and I can wait a year to watch them.

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  19. MF - any of you guys following this. MF filing for Chap 11 & Corzine getting $12M as severance. Traders being locked out of the exchanges and unable to close positions, etc.

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  20. Man I would sell those AAPL calls right now. IMHO.

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  21. Corzine and MF in the same sentence? I'll bet that happened a zillion times before he became CEO of MF.

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  22. OPEN free falling this morning. I still like this one longer term and would love to buy some for a long term hold at around $30. They spent years building up their network of restaurant customers...I know they got lumped into the local deals space and dumped because of that, and that there are fears that Google will offer a similar service to theirs now that they bought Zagats, but that seems a little bit of a foregone conclusion to me.

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  23. NLS looks like a buy to me. My short term target would be $2.5, but I think it goes much higher on fundamental strength in it's Treadclimber business.

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  24. JB's future trading clears through MF. Funds frozen.

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  25. I wonder if the strength in TZOO is a result of the market thinking that Groupon won't be around for long...

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  26. GMO - Somewhere between $2 and $2.50 I guess, for a possible double bottom assuming the market's moving lower else the money pump was working from $3.5 to $4

    $4 would signal a breakout of the down trend and from there sideways ($3.5-$4) until further notice?

    Also note the draft environmental impact statement was released for public comment, slow progress.

    Personally, I don't see why GOM doesn't just buy out the few farmers standing in the way.

    Also, Mo prices have fallen recently.

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  27. TM - A lower Yen doesn't seem to light any fires there...

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  28. TM - At least the gap up is closed now, that's good in the sense that in order to leave harbor it's necessary to lift anchor.

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  29. If I were trading this market I would actually suggest that going long NFLX makes sense to me.

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  30. only for a trade though.

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  31. TTM - That was a nice rally coming out of $14 area.

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  32. PKX - I'm also looking at this one around $80, anything under $100 is a good opportunity though, I expect.

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  33. Mark- I hope you're joking about jb's futures accounts being locked up. Or we can look forward to seeing Corzine and some variation of MF in the same sentence another zillion times.

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  34. GMO - There's an open gap up from $3.36 that once closed, might be a good time to consider re-entry.

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  35. 2nd- Nope. It's all insured. I suspect it will be available in a few days.

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  36. Newswire...

    MF's largest domestic position was BCON.

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  37. http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/08/18/phone-that-shames-the-weather-bureau/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbS-YyvCl4

    Maybe CVV is worth a look here.

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  38. I decided to sell 1/2 of my CSTR position for reasons that have nothing to do with my conviction in the company. Sold at $48.7 for a 6% gain.

    I'm actually close to calling it quits with work and need to set aside $$ for this.

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  39. Kim Kardashian is filing for divorce. During this difficult time, the Kardashian family requests as much attention as possible.

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  40. tof- Why don't you sell the entire position in CSTR and just day trade the stock? You'll probably be able to quit the day job a lot sooner.

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  41. 2nd - i'm considering it man.

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  42. My buy limit order for reloading 200 shares of TBT (on Friday, I sold 200 TBT at $22 and then 200 more at $22.75) was executed this morning at $21.46. Placing a sell limit order for these shares at $22.50. Let's see if I can turn TBT into a money pump... :)

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  43. TOF, as soon as you sell the rest of your CSTR position, sell December $47.50 puts on it and pocket another 7% on your port or reload CSTR at $44 -- how is that for a trade?

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  44. AUMN is outperforming GDXJ today for a second day in a row, still hanging around THE bottom at $7.50. That bodes well for a major rally in AUMN starting soon...

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  45. David - I'm trying to steer clear of all options to be honest. I've looked at the performance of my accounts that used options and it's a joke how badly they underperformed my other accounts.

    On that note, I sold the rest of the CSTR at $49.05. Gonna try trading levels on it...the big concern I have though is that the streaming partner could come at any time...but I really need to set aside money now for my move into full time self employment and so it's best to take risk off.

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  46. I also bought 1,500 shs of CVV...I figure they have earnings coming up in about 10 business days and the chart looks righteous. A move to $19 isn't out of the cards.

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  47. I managed to get those 1,500 shs at $15.6...the bid/ask immediate jumped to $15.7 - 15.8.

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  48. It sure feels like rally time in the markets by the way. I am compelled to buy BGU for a day trade.

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  49. "It sure feels like rally time in the markets by the way. I am compelled to buy BGU for a day trade."

    I agree, TOF. Today's drop is most likely an overreaction to MF failure, since memories of Lehman are still around.

    Just bought 200 more shares of TBT at $21.23 and placed a sell limit at $22 for these shares.

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  50. I bot 14k shs of NLS at $1.95 that I'm more than comfortable holding for a while. I truly believe a turnaround is fully in effect with Nautilus...on the back of selling off unprofitable divisions and focusing on the cardio machines like Treadclimber, that are selling quite well. The balance sheet is strong and the leverage is in place for $.50 to $1.00 EPS down the road. If that happens you could see a price in the double digits, which would be an insane return from these levels.

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  51. Your Tax Dollar At Work
    Submitted by Bull Hunter #98899
    Beacon Power joins Solyndra in filing for bankruptcy, burning up at least 72 million tax payer dollars:

    http://is.gd/YlFG32

    ------
    Occupy Washington

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  52. T3D- You out there?? Looking hard at MDW.

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  53. "MF's largest domestic position was BCON. "

    Oh jeeze you're kidding, that makes me feel pretty smart. What a bunch of dummies, as if GE/HIT had never previously considered something like a flywheel and studied the feasibility...

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  54. "Beacon Power joins Solyndra in filing for bankruptcy"

    Hey, I'm still waiting to see a car with a wind generator mounted on the roof and I'm not giving up on alt-energy till I do!

    Talk about not creating value, why does news media keep covering for congress by hammering us with these meaningless teasers as opposed to reporting on what's really happening behind the curtain?

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  55. Now holding 25k shs of NLS and 6k shs of CVV at $1.95 and $15.8 avg. Both have earnings coming up in about 2 weeks I think.

    Interesting tidbit I came across on NLS. I didn't realize they're getting into the licensing business:
    http://investors.nautilusinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=617477

    I looked at their last quarterly report and it looks like license revenue increased like 120%, granted from a very small number. But considering that they're operating near breakeven, any extra bit helps. I think this quarter could start a bit of a run in the stock. One analyst has estimates of $0.20 for 2012. I think they did $.05 in adjusted earnings two quarters in a row this year so that estimate might actually be low. If they can do the estimate, I would think the market would pay at least 20 times earnings given the rate of improvement that would market. 20 x .20 = $4, which is over 100% higher than here.

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  56. My buy limit order for 10 AUMN December $7.50 calls just got filled at $0.75. The reason I decided to buy some calls on AUMN is that I wanted to make sure I'll have strength to hold the shares I recently acquired at around $7.50 at least until they double. So when AUMN gets to $10 soon and I'll have a strong urge to take some profits, I'll be able to offload these calls. :)

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  57. The TBT price is getting better and better. I just placed a buy limit at $20.75 for 200 more shares.

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  58. "Home Prices Heading for Triple-Dip":

    http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/113725/home-prices-heading-triple-dip-cnnmoney;_ylt=AoZ37l22zZPRifW0aoh90EO7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1MGZmcmZzBHBvcwM4BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawNob21lcHJpY2VzaGU-?mod=realestate-sell&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

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  59. AUMN was green for a while this morning, and now it is underperforming GDXJ... I still have a buy limit order for 500 more AUMN at $7, which should repel the price away from $7. :)

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  60. China saw repeated boom-bust cycles for thousands of years, and they are wise enough to wait for busts (in China and abroad) before making investments in the long-term future of the Great China. They are showing this skill once again in the European stabilization discussions:

    "Whichever option is chosen, tapping China will come at a price that Europe may be unwilling to pay, said Miranda Carr, head of research at broker North Square Blue Oak Ltd. in London.

    While China wants to stabilize the euro area as 21 percent of its exports go there and it owns 360 billion euros of the region’s bonds, the nation wants debt security and better access to European markets to buy resources and technologies, she said. Sarkozy came under fire from French opposition lawmakers yesterday for lobbying for Chinese help."

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EU-Seeking-Cash-Faces-bloomberg-2340998871.html;_ylt=AkSVxfstvtqcLZmdTPwslLS7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2a2xqcjV2BHBvcwMxMARzZWMDdG9wU3RvcmllcwRzbGsDZXVzZWVraW5nY2Fz?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=

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  61. The jump we are seeing in TLT today is even larger than the one we saw when Operation Twist was announced.

    My buy limit order for 200 shares of TBT was just executed at $20.75. I think TBT is having yet another retest of the $20.50 - $20.75 area, and THIS is the time to buy it (with a stop at $20.25).

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  62. David - Please talk me out of my temptation to short gold.

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  63. TOF: all trading books say that you should only short something that is in a downtrend on the next larger time scale. That is, if you plan to short gold for a few days, look at the weekly chart of gold. If that chart is in a clear downtrend, then go ahead and short it on the daily scale. Otherwise, stay away as the odds are against you. Instead, find something that is in a downtrend on the weekly chart and short THAT -- the odds will be in your favor.

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  64. Great - Greece is now planing on having a referendum on the bailout. This means more weeks of uncertainty and people talking about the end of the Euro (and of course the rest of the world with it).

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  65. China - Yep, from their perspective - Why overpay when you're the only buyer around? Germany's driving a hard bargain as well, I'd happily tell them both to take a hike and default if I were southern Europe.

    What's to lose, wouldn't defaulting as opposed to giving away the store make hero's outta a few politicians?

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  66. So if bonds have outperformed stocks over a 30 year period for the first time since 1861, probably pretty safe to say we are near the top in bonds...

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-31/bonds-beating-u-s-stocks-over-30-years-for-first-time-since-19th-century.html

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  67. "So if bonds have outperformed stocks over a 30 year period for the first time since 1861, probably pretty safe to say we are near the top in bonds..."

    Give or take a few years. :)

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  68. http://money.msn.com/investing/is-rhode-island-the-new-greece-fleckenstein.aspx

    David - Fleckenstein clearly agrees that Gold shouldn't be shorted.

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  69. CP,

    Guess it depends on the terms of the default.
    If you say no to all your creditors when they are offering to cut your debt by 50%, you are going to have a tough time going forward. Especially, when they are the ones who create your money.

    Having said that, I think Greece went bankrupt 4 times in the 1900's and people were still willing to lend to them after that.

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  70. Fleck is a big-time gold bug. Not what I would call an unbiased opinion.

    The case for gold is more economic uncertainty or more $ being printed.

    The case against gold is rising rates or improving economic returns from other assets.

    If things continue to get better, the opportunity cost for holding gold rises and people will sell. At some point (maybe not yet), I think we are in for an 1983 - 2000 type long down trend in gold.

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  71. I'm not David, but since I'm here.....

    GLD weekly chart is still in major uptrend.
    IF and when the moving averages cross to the downside then I would short gold. God has nine lives. Look at a weekly chart from 2008. It looked ugly for a bit but it reversed and more than doubled from there.
    I guess it also depends on your time frame.
    If your the B&H type :>) then you want to short off of major tops when you get that 'bowtie'.
    The big blue arrow still points up, is getting a bit steeper and increasing 'air' between the price and the 200 dma.

    What's pissing me of is missing REDF. 38% TODAY?

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  72. GOLD has nine lives. God is infinite from what I understand. There is no GOD chart in any time frame.

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  73. What doesn't piss me off is my position in GRO.
    I just wish it was MUCH larger.

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  74. wtf happened with REDF / SIFY today? is it too late to say that I sold all of my CSTR and rolled it into REDF at $7.4 today? A cool 50% gain in one day.

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  75. Anyone have a line on a wayback machine? I only need to go back to this morning when REDF was $7.21 and GRO was $1.05.

    No problem, right?

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  76. Good call, 2nd_ave, in getting out of your positions on Friday. Did you start scaling back in at the close today? S&P is already at $1250... We *may* get a retest of 1200, but then we may not...

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  77. CC > Just enter orders online with those prices, call your broker up and say they effed up and that the time stamp on your order is wrong and that you bought it earlier today. Threaten to sue if you need to.

    Let me know if that works.

    (The biggest winner of them all was SIFY...jeez)

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  78. Yeah, pretty good market timing 2nd for a buy and holder!

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  79. On Thursday EOD, I figured I'll hedge my port a little better and purchased one January $50 put on DB at $6.20. The asking price for such a put closed today at $10.50. So I figured I'll place a sell limit order for it at $12.50, so as to get a nice double on it, while I can. I think Europe will be able to kick the can down the road for a while longer...

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  80. Any buyers for TBT after hours at $20.60?

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  81. AUMN closed at $7.01 today -- my buy limit order at $7.00 is working! :) It is scaring those short sellers away! :)

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  82. BB - Yeah, it's only been two years since the world was made aware of this back and forth subject, and still no progress.

    It's almost as if southern Europe has just left their phone off the hook and are pretending to be out when their debtors come calling. Obviously they don't intend on paying up.

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  83. AUMN - Looks like a possible double bottom forming?

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  84. "I just wish it was MUCH larger."

    Actually, I'm pretty happy with mine. ;)

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  85. David- Still in cash, if for no other reason than the 3-day settlement period.

    Very funny. God has a sense of humor and is probably ROFLHAO about having nine lives.

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  86. 2nd - great call yesterday, though we should have both sold CSTR the day before. So now the pressure is on! You need to outperform these damn indices or else you lose your market timer status.

    so jeff saut seems bullish on the markets on the back of a Dow Theory Buy signal.
    http://www.raymondjames.com/inv_strat.htm

    He was looking for some short term sideways action before resumption of the upward trend. I think as long as we hold in this 1,220-1,270 area then we're good to go for more upside.

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  87. Interesting after market activity.
    Bonds getting bid, TBT down more, SPY below 125, SH bid, gold down and FXE lost 80 cents in 15 mins. This market needs some decaf.

    Somebody didn't like that Greek loan referendum.

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  88. Nice work if you can get it:

    Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer, On "Monday October 31, 2011, 4:00 pm
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department is seeking to borrow $305 billion in the current quarter through December and announced plans to borrow $541 billion in the first three months of next year. The first quarter amount would be the second highest borrowing on record."

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Treasury-projects-borrowing-apf-3553074714.html?x=0

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  89. All right, placed a buy limit order for 200 more TBT at $20.52 (when the bid/ask was 20.51/20.55) and got a fill for 100 shares. The bid moved to 20.53 after that...

    Looking at the 6-month chart of TBT, it definitely looks like TBT has bottomed out and it will now start slowly drifting up. Thus, one can probably make more money on buying every dip and selling $1 higher than buy just holding TBT (which is decaying over time as every ultrashort ETF).

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  90. sold the JAN12 138 strike FXE puts I bought on 10/26 for a .15 loss. With the move today, I didn't want to hang on to both my puts and the trader alert puts from MHFT (from here on out I will refer to the Mad Hedge Fund Trader as Mad so it doesn't look like a ticker symbol)

    Not doing much besides that. I get the FEELING that most are looking for a buying opportunity so if we get another down day tomorrow I'll sell out my DEC SPY puts that were part of a straddle I did on 10/21/2011. With today's drop this position is back in the money but not by much.

    FCX - I have enough cash sitting in the IRA to sell some more cash secured puts on FCX so I may look for an opportunity. I'll get bitten if China goes down though.

    We have plenty of news to whip the market around this week so I'm sure there will be good volatility.

    Mark, I still have more reports to email. I'm having trouble with the big ones though. I'll be taking out a crayon and a tudy preteen pirate tonight.

    Happy Halloween.

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  91. The buy limit order for 200 shares of TBT at $20.52 got filled completely. Placing a sell limit order at $21.50 for these shares.

    Last Tuesday, buying TBT at $20.50 after hours worked out well for me -- let's see if I'll be able to pull it off again. :)

    Incidentally, using small positions sizes on TBT saved my ass today, as I was able to keep buying it throughout the day and gradually built up my total position to 1400 shares already.

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  92. I just realized why ONP didn't drop that much today -- I had a buy limit order at $2.43 for 5000 shares open since Friday! 900 shares were filled on Friday and only 300 shares got filled today. Given my crazy purchases of TBT today, I now cancelled that buy limit order, so as to use preserve my buying power...

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  93. In order to use up my buying power more sparingly, I decided to cancel my buy limit for 500 shares of AUMN at $7 and instead increased my buy limit for 10 AUMN April $5 calls to $2.55, just above the current bid at $2.50. If AUMN goes down tomorrow, then hopefully my $2.55 limit for AUMN calls gets hit.

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  94. I just looked at the continuous S&P futures chart since 10/17 (using 30-min samples at http://www.forexpros.com/indices/us-spx-500-futures-advanced-chart), and I see a nice sequence of higher lows relative to 10/18: 10/20 and 10/26. Today's steep drop in S&P futures stopped EXACTLY on the line connecting 10/20 and 10/26 lows. So today AH might be a great buying opportunity in this multi-month relief rally after the summer's gloom.

    This futures chart gives me a feeling that a 20 pt gain in S&P futures is due over the next day or two, even if the futures are set to break the nice pattern of higher lows.

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  95. Today's drop in S&P is most likely due to $USD longs giving up last week and abruptly dropping $USD below its support at 76. The 6-month chart of $USD at

    http://quotes.ino.com/chart/index.html?s=NYBOT_DX&t=l&a=50&w=1&v=d6

    Shows that the decline in $USD in October was extreme. When $USD broke below 76 last week, no more sellers remained, the boat capsized and shorts were sent to cover this weekend, using the BOJ intervention as an excuse. Black box algos, in turn, used the strength in $USD as a cue to sell equities. Today, however, the Forex situation became much more balanced -- $USD can continue its decline and equities can start creeping up again. That's my take.

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