Kicking off 2009

Hope the holidays were terrific for everyone! I traded lightly and caught a few good moves here and there but also executed horribly on a few good setups. We've moved upward quite a bit over the past week and are probably due for a slight breather. I'm near-term bullish given all the bullish technical charts and cash that has been sitting on the sidelines the past couple months. Poor earnings will probably be the next catalyst that takes us back down. I'll be managing my trades as swing positions as the work/travel schedule beckons for the next couple of weeks.



OIH - I scanned a bunch of charts last week and they all looked like OIH below....bouncing off support, narrowing moving averages, rising MACD/RSI/OBV. I picked up Jan 75 Calls to give myself some cushion in case the low-volume moves were sold off in January. At least that was the plan. Instead, I woke up on Dec 30th, switched to the 15-min charts to manage my stop and was stopped out at the low of the day. I profitted on the trade but that was 12+ points ago.

BTU - After the OIH debacle, I didn't want to chase the moves so I pulled up some beaten down names that could participate in the second leg of a rally. I picked up BTU Jan 22.5 Calls around $24.50.

BUCY - I picked up Jan 20 Calls around $20.00.

LVS - I picked up Jan 7.50 Calls around $6.90.

SRS - I also picked up SRS around 52.50. It is forming a potential double-bottom around $50.00 and I like the strength it exhibited during last Friday's rally.