Feb

11

Daily Market Wrap 11FEB08

February 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Key economic data: none

Key market moves: major indices up 0.5%; oil up $1.80 to just below $94 on Chavez rhetoric threatening to cut off supplies to the US; gold up $4 to $926; natgas jumps 3% to $8.53; financials suffer, AIG sheds 11% after auditor questions valuation of assets

Commentary: Today was a pretty quiet day outside of the energy complex, but overall, I thought the market showed pretty good strength by closing more or less at the highs and sloughing […]

Continue Reading Daily Market Wrap 11FEB08

Feb

4

Daily Market Wrap 04FEB08

February 4, 2008 | 2 Comments

Key economic data: job cut report shows announced layoff jump to 75k in January from 45k in Dec; factory orders up 2.3% for Dec, in line with expectations

Key market moves: Dow, S&P drop 1%, Nasdaq down 1.2%; treasury yields rise across the entire spectrum, 10 year jumps 5 basis points to 3.65%; oil up $1 to $90; gold down $4 to $909; soybeans up 3% to 1326, corn up 2% to 510.50; coffee up 2.6% to 142.75, lumber up […]

Continue Reading Daily Market Wrap 04FEB08

Feb

1

A few portfolio shifts

February 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I made a number of trades today, so I’m gonna quickly go down the line and explain.

Sells

POT at $142.08. The sharp reversal in gold spurred me to take profits in a few inflation plays, and this was one of them. These names didn’t get hit as bad as the market, so they could still be volatile.

MOS at $91.58. Same reason as for Potash.

SGR–I sold half the position at $58.28. The stock is up 11 straight points. […]

Continue Reading A few portfolio shifts

Jan

24

Adding more long positions

January 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Today I decided to increase my long positions substantially, adding a number of new holdings to the portfolio. With regards to particular sectors, I decided to inch into the steel sector, as well as get moderately long of a few natural gas producers. Additionally, I increased the size of my positions in junior gold producers. The other stocks I added were pretty much all specific to the company, with no real sector theme. Finally, I decided […]

Continue Reading Adding more long positions

Jan

23

Playing the market flip

January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

What a change in the winds today brings. The market felt like it was searching for a bottom this morning, and after we failed to decisively break yesterday’s lows, I decided to cover the bulk of my put positions and begin inching in on the long side. After a stampede into the close, it appears that we have found the bottom in the short term, although I doubt that we are headed in a straight line upward. […]

Continue Reading Playing the market flip

Jan

22

Covered LEH, sold half of my S&P puts, and bought NVT

January 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment

A quick summary of my moves for the day…

LEH–covered at $51.69. It managed to hold previous lows at $49, so I don’t see the need to push it further. Good gain.

SPY Feb 130 puts–I sold half the position at $6.50. Huge gain, gotta take some profits.

NVT–I bought a decent sized position at $71.67. This is just a great low risk arbitrage opportunity. The $78 per share all cash buyout is supposed to close in the […]

Continue Reading Covered LEH, sold half of my S&P puts, and bought NVT

Jan

18

Covered GLD, USO, bought S&P puts

January 18, 2008 | 3 Comments

This morning I decided to cover my GLD and USO positions at $87.73 and $71.65 respectively. They’ve continued to hold up pretty well despite the selling in equities, and that has me wondering whether they might not have another run higher next week.

Additionally, I used the strong open this morning to by a sizable position in Feb SPY 130 puts at a premium of $2.35. So far my entry point appears to have been pretty good, and I […]

Continue Reading Covered GLD, USO, bought S&P puts

Jan

17

Day trading Jan SPY puts

January 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment

This afternoon I decided to make a quick day trade in SPY puts. I am normally not much for day trading, but it seemed somewhat predictable that the market would tank in the last hour, so I purchased a decent sized position in the SPY 136 puts at a premium of 2.07. I unloaded this position at 2.63, netting myself a sizable gain that has me feeling a bit better about today’s trade.

Jan

17

Revamping the portfolio to play defense

January 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment

In yesterday’s daily market wrap, I spoke of how I planned to revamp the portfolio today to reflect what I thought was a significant deterioration in both the technicals and some of the fundamentals surrounding the bond insurers. I’ve made a number of moves to shift the portfolio further to the short side, and I will continue to judge the exposure of the portfolio and may become less long and/or more short in the coming few hours and days. […]

Continue Reading Revamping the portfolio to play defense

Jan

15

Today’s trades

January 15, 2008 | 1 Comment

I made a number of mostly small moves today, so I’m going to go down the line and quickly go over the changes to the portfolio.

GLD–I shorted a moderate amount of the GLD today at $90.00. I was looking for gold to open up again to play the fade that I talked about yesterday. It opened pretty much as I scripted it, and so I entered a short that at the moment appears to be very well executed. […]

Continue Reading Today’s trades

keep looking »