Lately, I’ve been referring to equities in the U.S. as a stock picker’s market, but what does that really mean? I think this morning provides a great example.
As you know, with everyone expecting World War III and a huge crash, all the equity futures have gone GREEN. Here is the /NQ starting from midnight, showing a rise of over 500 points based on hope, I guess.
By all rights, my entire short portfolio should be getting killed, and yet – – of my 31 remaining positions (I took fat profits on the closed ones) 22 of them are DOWN, some of them handsomely so, and I’ve got a very profitable day on my hands.
The point I’m making is the many hours I enjoyable spend going through thousands of charts per week is supposed to yield this kind of defiant result. If the Dow was down 2,000 right now, a profitable short portfolio would also be down across the board, irrespective of the picks. When most of my shorts can still be down in the face of a huge intraday reversal, I’m a happy guy!
As a side note, I entered the day at 170% commitment and have hacked it back to a whisper-thin 73%. My best profits were from my EWJ short and my DIA puts, both of which I closed the moment the market opened.
