12/4-12/5 Day/Swingtrades

I was hoping to get in on some short positions on Thursday ahead of the jobs report but got stopped out of SKF a couple times for $1 loss each and couldn't find a comfortable entry on the late day spike. I ended up in cash going into Friday.

On Friday, the early morning dip lost steam and it just feels like the bears are exhausted at this point. As the market decline stalled out, there were a lot of decent setups for long entries. I caught a decent move in AAPL and picked up a couple bucks in BIDU.

Next week will probably be similar to the past month with a long-bias. In this environment, technicals and fundamentals don't carry too much weight. I'll stay nimble and take profits quickly. If we get a rebound in energy, it may be good for a couple days as the sector has been obliterated. Check out the metals (X, NUE, etc.), many are starting to cross above the moving averages. On the financial front, C held has held up very well since bottoming a couple weeks ago so I'll be looking to go long again above $8.20+. JPM and WFC also look like decent long candidates.

In the long run, I think this is still just a bear rally. The fundamentals of the economy are still horrible and I haven't heard any plans that may pose a decent solution to the economic mess. If/when we turn back down, the inverse ETFs are still the way to go.

C - Thursday, I used the morning strength to unload my remaining C Dec 7.5 Calls. I made some decent coin on the first run-up to $8.40 from $6.80 but C hasn't moved much since and I didn't want too much exposure ahead of the job numbers. I'm going to use $8.20 as the next re-entry level if this rally has more momentum to it. C actually held up pretty well the past 3 days.

AAPL - I mentioned in one of the chat rooms that SKF/SRS did not look very strong when the Dow was down 200+points on Friday morning. I didn't want to chase any shorts so decided to look for low-risk long set-ups. AAPL based pretty well at the 89-90 level so I picked up Dec 60 Calls as AAPL crossed above the moving averages. I sold out aorund $92.50 as it stalled and re-entered a short while later to pick up another point. All told, a bit over $3+ on the calls.

BIDU - this was the same set-up as with AAPL above. I did a quick scan for stocks setting up a base with an easy stop-level. I picked up BIDU shares as the market started to rebound and closed it out a bit later for $2.00 profit. This normally would have been more but BIDU has been clobbered lately so I guess buyers weren't too eager to jump back in on this one.