Well, I guess the big news after hours is that Warren Buffett is buying up $5 billion of Goldman Sachs stock. After-hours on the GLOBEX, equities markets are being pushed higher (not "crazy" higher, but the equivalent of "someone had good earnings" higher).
It was a really good day, and my oil/energy/gold bearishness worked out decently. My day trades on index puts were where the real gravy was, though. I ended the day with only one index position – – a relatively modest block of $NDX puts. I also trimmed quite a few positions including, importantly, my SKF holdings.
What's amazing to me is how much the battered "near-death" stocks have been doing. I haven't traded them at all, but those who have been doing so nimbly DWARF any gains I've got going. These stocks have gained hundreds of percent in a matter of days!
What's interesting to me is how uncertain so many folks are, including those who are usually drenched with certitude. Even Elliott Wave International (at last reading) was essentially saying "it could go up or down at this point!" I agree with Gary Savage that the potential gains to be had from a crash are outweighed by the potential losses from a steady surge higher, which is why I'm doing something I normally don't do – – – confine most index trades to intraday.
Looking closer at the S&P 500, we can see that about 2/3rds of the Thursday/Friday surge has been eliminated, but the risk here is that Congress works something out with Paulson. Isn't it funny how trading has stopped being about earnings flow from corporations and now has almost everything to do with politics? As the old saying goes, don't confuse a stock with a company.
I had a short, wild ride on QLD today. I'm out, obviously. What's mildly interesting about the QQQQs right now is that they are beneath a pretty important Fibonacci level. Indeed, with all the tumult it's easy to forget this, but the NASDAQ 100 closed at the lowest levels of the year, with the exception of last Wednesday.
Regular readers probably have gathered I'm a bit of a movie nut. Let's relax a few minutes and enjoy some of the hilarity from the start of Annie Hall. Good night!
