Wang’s Happy Trading

The market started out weak today, pressured by earnings from AAPL, TXN, and AXP. But, after the gap-down open, the market climbed all day and accelerated upwards into the close. AAPL traded down nearly $20 in the morning, and ended down only $4.27 at $162.02. One of our brilliant members, Makemoney, jumped into AAPL calls early in the morning:
Makemoney
Posted July 22, 2008 at 6:42 am | Permalink (Edit)
Bought AAPL calls.
and rode it higher $13-$15 on the stock! Great trade, Makemoney!!

This morning, CME reported good earnings and saw its shares rise all day to close up nearly $41, or $12.51%! Yesterday, I said on the member board:
HappyTrading
Posted July 21, 2008 at 8:09 am | Permalink (Edit)
CME
trading lightly before earnings tomorrow. Daily chart shows that if the reaction is good, this can easily go to $400.

I got into August 360 calls at $8.9 and sold them at $15. Could have held on to these a little longer for quick double, but, I’m happy with a +68.5% gain:

These options traded as high as $22.2 and closed at $21.5. It does look like CME wants to go to $400 from here. So, I’ll be waiting to make more plays on this. Given that I was in CME, I published a trade on ICE today and cashed it out for an intraday gain of +31%:
7/22/08
sell to close
ICE ($96.5)
ICEHS, Aug 95 calls, at $8, +31.1%

buy to open
ICE ($92.69)
ICEHS, Aug 95 calls, at $6.1 (closed)

These options closed at $8.6. We’ll see if more opportunities present themselves tomorrow, as I think ICE could have a lot more room to recover also.

The financials got stronger throughout the day and helped pushing the market higher. GS added +4.02%. BAC jumped +13.27% (We started a new trade on this and it’s nearly a bagger.). PRU was also strong, gaining +8.22%. PNC hopped more than +10% again, almost completely reversing the 2-month fall in just 5 sessions!! Here are some of the intraday comments made on our member board:
optiondragon
Posted July 22, 2008 at 8:11 am | Permalink (Edit)
Short AMZN hawk and long GS, looking for longs

optiondragon
Posted July 22, 2008 at 8:31 am | Permalink (Edit)
Focusing on financials..GS, XLF, PNC, STT, CMA, NTRS, BBT, MTB

HappyTrading
Posted July 22, 2008 at 8:31 am | Permalink (Edit)
BAC ($30.45)
BACHF, Aug 30 calls, bought at $2.1

HappyTrading
Posted July 22, 2008 at 10:22 am | Permalink (Edit)
PRU
looking strong.

Ktbbq
Posted July 22, 2008 at 1:05 pm | Permalink (Edit)
Thanks for the BAC calls this morning. Got in at $1.93. Closed $3.65. 89% today, almost a bagger!

You can see these comments throughout the day as they are made!

After the market, ISRG destroyed the estimates with its earnings! Its stock was up $32.77, or +11.69%, in AH trading! ILMN reported great earnings, boosted guidance, and announced a 2-for-1 stock split! ILMN traded higher by $3.5 after the report.

The Dow closed up +135.16 points; SPX added +17 points; and Nasdaq gained +24.43 points:

VIX was not able to get much higher than 24 today and ended down 8.11% to close at 21.18. The commodities and related sectors were weak: GLD (gold) -2.17%; SLV (silver) -2.57%; USO (oil) -3.14%; XME (metals and mining) -3.79%; OIH (oil services) -2.67%. XLE (energy) slipped another 3.32%. XLF (financials) rose +8.39% while HGX (housing) added +4.6%. BTK (biotechs) advanced +2.69%. FXI (Chinese ADRs) was higher by +1.67%.

SPX

SPX added +17 points to close at 1277. It closed above its 20-day MA and just beneath the 1280 level. The MACD continued higher.

Nasdaq

Nasdaq gained +24.43 points to close at 2303.96. It also closed above its 20-day MA and above 2300! Its MACD glided up, as well.

This weekend, in my Market Forecast, I said, “For the new week, as long as the financial sector continues to recover to the upside, the overall market should do the same.” The market was very impressive today with the financials brushing aside the disappointing earnings report from AXP and pushed higher. The market is now solidly above the 20-day MA. It does look the market could test the 30-day MA soon.

Good night and HappyTrading! ™