As is often the case during the bounces: (a) I was right about its coming (b) I didn't profit from it. Seeing the bounce come was relatively a piece of cake. I've repeatedly shown over the past few days how the indexes have gotten beaten down to very clean support levels. It was high time for a rally.
My failure to profit from it comes from two places. One is a distaste for trading against the primary trend. And two is losses on both Friday and Monday to "play the bounce" (these losses were small, but losses nonetheless). Indeed, moments before the close on Monday, I placed a trade for a substantial position in Russell 2000 April calls, but I set a limit price that wasn't met, and it was never filled. So it goes.
The key difference between, say, a year ago and now is this – – – I love rallies! I love 'em to pieces! Because, just as bulls like to "buy on the dips" during a bull market, bears love to sell into strength in a bear market. I'd much rather be being puts after a day like today (with the Dow up an incredible 416.66 points) than the day prior.
Observe the tinted area below. This is what I call, to coin a phrase, the Rectangle of Resistance. It is our ally.
A similar situation is found in broader indexes.
I held on to virtually all my positions today (and I got smacked around good, to be sure, but it only meant my obscene profits got less so). I intend to reload in the land of gold and oil.
The only really "green spot" among my portfolios today was in my IRA account, whose contents you'll see here on the blog under Long Positions. With the latest Fed attempt to rev things up, battered stocks had a fine day.
I'm pooped from my business trip, so I'll close here. I'm sure the comments section is probably stark raving mad (particularly since Beanie finally had the opportunity to spout off about how bullish things were), but I haven't had time to meander in there. In a day or two, blocking should be in place, and we can get rid of some of the other riff-raff polluting our corner of the world here.
