It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season
of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we
had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in
short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

I think this sums up the current state of affairs. On one hand, the economic news is terrible, people are losing their jobs and their homes, and the cost of living is exploding higher. On the other hand, you've got hedge fund managers with annual take-home pay in the billions of dollars, gigantic 300 foot personal yachts, mile-high skyscrapers, and all the other madness of showy wealth. One wonders when the increasing wealth gap is going to plunge the world back into socialism. What's happening now is not good.

The indexes today shot higher, ignited by Google's earnings the Citicorp's not-so-awful report. Commodities – and oil in particular – were simply nuts today. Here's a snapshot of key indexes and what I view as some important lines:

I mentioned oil – – the OIH is stark, raving mad. I don't tend to use "rubber trendlines", but I've had to with this one. That upper bound keeps getting pushed higher. And it's at the tippy-top of its Bollinger Band.

I'm pressed for time now, so no time for commentary. I'm just going to throw charts your way. Here are some stocks from my current holdings on which I own puts and feel pretty good about (tip of the hat to ISRG today; you took away all the pain and more from my GOOG put).

That's it from me. In contrast to last Friday (when GE got torpedoed), this week was suck-o-roony. I truly hope next week is better. Until then, I bid you farewell!

If you're thinking, as I am, that BIDU is the happy recipient of the GOOG upsurge today, you might want to look at this graph. The price is precisely at the Fib retracement and is sporting a spiffy little doji. I'm buying puts.

Although as of this writing OIH is a little off its intraday high (208.52 was the high, and it is at 207.24 now), the rise has been astonishing. Ever since 9/11 (which, weirdly, seems to be just about the low of this market – – – whoever thought war would create cheap oil???) OIH is up about 340%.

I am not sure how much stock to put into Fibonacci extensions, but just for the hell of it, I decided to see where the extension would take OIH. The answer is 233.55, which frankly at 12% away is only a couple of strong days away (the OIH is up about 8% today alone). Gawd.

I am awestruck by OIH. It seems to have no upper limit. Ugh.

The one bright spot today as been ISRG. This stock had a huge run-up over the years.

As of today, it's taking a wallop. This could be the start of a fundamentally major downturn for this stock, but for me, I'm happy taking my profits, since this stock has, in a single day, been pushed all the way back to this medium-term trendline.

As for OIH, I'm going to embrace my inner idiot and simply hold on tight. 

Well, this doesn't look to be shaping up like any kind of momentous day in bear history. For bull history, however, it should be a doozy. Especially for the lucky ducks with GOOG calls.

JakeGint pointed out, just for laughs, some of the ungodly percentage gains some people are going to enjoy with April GOOG calls. One example has a particular call going from 50 cents to probably around $34 or so. In other words, $1,000 becomes $78,000 overnight. Yeesh. Of course, there's some other poor s.o.b. on the other side of that transaction. In any case, fortunes will be made and lost today! GOOG is trading pre-market where the red circle is drawn:

My, errr, single put on GOOG (May 480 puts) will not enjoy a 78-fold increase in value. You probably figured that much out already. But, as always, my commitment on any one position is small. To help compensate, I at least have two puts on ISRG (May 350 puts) which will ease the pain quite a bit. ISRG is trading where the red circle shows. I imagine I'll sell one straightaway and just keep the other one to see what happens.

Another bright spot – and God knows these days I need 'em – is that gold and oil seem to be headed for a weak opening. Most of my positions are short gold or oil in some way. Here's where GLD is trading, for instance, prior to the open (red circle):

The overarching concern I have is whether our hopes for a bear market have been a fantasy this whole time. A deluge of bad economic news seems to have been shaken off. So we had first quarter earnings as a possible catalyst. Well, with the exception of GE, that hasn't worked out at all. Earnings seem to be perfectly fine to investors. So with the IWM trading at the upper reaches of its 2008 range (see red circle below, pre-market indication) we are at a high-risk level. A breakout above 2008's range would be a wreck for the ursine types.