Trade Candidates for 6/1/2007

A few for Friday. I won't be surprised if it's a slow trading day, but...with the employment situation report coming out that may not be the case, particularly if there is a surprise. I would generally expect people to do some selling tomorrow to lock in profits and take risk off before the weekend; however, it seems that with all the M&A news it could actually play out differently (people anticipating gains Monday due to deal announcements Monday morning). Who knows? I'll be watching the charts and acting accordingly.

Next post some time on the weekend.

Trade Candidates for 5/31/2007

Here are a few for Thursday. I'm already long CMGI but will probably add to my position above the entry price noted - it looks great to me. If you really want a short idea, watch RMBS - it looks terrible and didn't rally with everything else today. Speaking of today, that sure caught me by surprise. It will be interesting to see if it holds up given that tomorrow is month end and pending what happens in Asia overnight.

As always, good luck!

Trade Candidates for 5/30/2007

A few ideas for Wednesday. SUPG might be a good buy on a breakout above today's high without a pullback - your call of course. On the short side, RMBS just looks ready to croak to me...but that doesn't mean it will; I get surprised a lot (you know: what looks obvious probably isn't...).

I see quite a few other good trade setups, but I'll be watching to see if the markets can find a solid direction over the coming days before I get too excited about any of them; the gap up Friday in combination with the low volume since then does make me a bit more skeptical. But what do I know? Just watch and see what happens.

Good luck Wednesday.

Pre-Holiday Friday

Since tomorrow is a Friday before a holiday weekend, and in addition, one that follows a sell-off like we had today, I doubt that the usual rules will apply as well and thus I don't plan to provide any trade ideas for tomorrow.

I'm not totally surprised at the negative action of the past couple of days; I also doubt that it will be a repeat of late February: there is too much positive momentum to turn around that fast and go down that far. I'm not saying we saw the bottom today (though we may have), however, I am saying that I doubt that we'll see that kind of panic in the short run. Markets that go straight up do have to have some down days, and when they come it seems like the fun is over. Maybe it is, but my money is on looking for a tradable bottom as long as it occurs within the greater uptrend. I'll be watching the reaction to the existing home sales data tomorrow morning - whether good or bad - and developing my trading plan from there. I'll be focused on the broad indexes and related options only unless I happen to find an excellent single stock setup in the next 30 minutes.

Also, I won't be trading Tuesday due to a personal commitment, so I probably won't post trade ideas until late my time on Tuesday for Wednesday trading.

Until then, good luck.

Trade Candidates for 5/24/2007

Here are a few for Thursday. The stop on SHLD is real tight for a stock of this price and volatility - be careful if you go for that one. PESI is still extended and thin, FYI.

Later Gator.

Trade Candidates for 5/23/2007

Here are some setups for Wednesday. Not surprisingly, it was a pretty tepid day today. I think these setups represent good opportunities; note that SUPG is on here again. You may have traded it today as I did but I still think it's a decent setup if it can get some momentum going.

Good luck Wednesday.

Trade Candidates for 5/22/2007

There were some real nice moves in the setups I provided for today - hopefully you guys got some of that action. I didn't trade every one of them, but had a good day overall.

Here are some ideas for Tuesday. I don't trust HANS at all - I've lost money on that homesick POS, but it does potentially look ready to move...potentially. In any event, protect yourself if you trade it. LJPC is in a downtrend on the daily chart, but the weekly looks really nice so that's why I included it. Finally, we might be early here on SUPG but I do like it on strength above $6.50 as noted.

Good luck Tuesday.

Trade Candidates for 5/21/2007

Okay, I'm back at it with a vengence. Here are some ideas for trading on Monday. GIGM reports earnings before the open on Tuesday, so this is a day trade idea only. The market is strong, so I didn't include any short ideas. In addition to these ideas, the Q's look like a potentially nice setup to me - particularly if there is an orderly pullback to the area near the 10-day moving average. That pullback and then strength could be a good setup.

Good luck Monday.

Feeling lazy...

Well, I'm feeling a bit lazy and didn't do much to prepare for Thursday trading. I made a couple bucks a share on some long SPX calls today, and I'm short a pile of SPX puts that should expire worthless Friday morning, so I have some profits and just haven't hit my groove on stocks after returning from vacation the other day. And with expiration on Friday, I won't post any ideas until this weekend for Monday trading. Be sure to check back around Sunday afternoon as I'm sure I'll have posted some ideas by then.

Until Sunday, happy trading and happy expiration (one of my favorite days of the month, by the way!).

I'm Baaccckkk!

Hello everyone, I'm back from the amazing island of Maui after a week of hanging with the coolest wife and two little boys a guy could have and drinking more $10 Mai Tai's than I'll admit to! If you haven't been to the West Maui area (Ka'anapali Beach) I highly recommend it. Maybe you should treat yourself after your next home run trade...

I've reviewed some charts this afternoon but haven't hit it full speed yet. With options expiration on Friday and my time away, I'm going to take it slow until I get a feel for how things are trading. There's definitely been some volume on the sell side, but expiration weeks during bull phases tend to show strength late in the week, so I'll be keeping that in mind.

Here are a few ideas for tomorrow:

BCSI above 38.20
BIOS above 4.28
GLUU above 13.80

On the short side I missed EQIX today but I like it on weakness after a rally back up to around 80.00 or so.

Beyond that, I'm watching these on the long side also: ARGN, MOLX, NAFC, and TALX. Each of these four have nice chart patterns if they can get going to the upside.

As always, good luck!

On Vacation

I'll be hanging out on Maui until May 15th (he! he!), so there won't be any new posts until the evening if the 15th. I considered taking my laptop and doing some trading, but that's what I do every day, so decided to take a break and a fresh look when I get back.

Until then, Good Luck!

Some Ideas for Friday 5/4/2007

It's late so I haven't done a formal setup sheet. Instead, here are a few ideas and the price above which I would consider buying them for a short-term trade:

DYAX above 4.71
IOTN above 5.95
QTWW above 1.44
SPEC above 14.00

Good luck Friday and have a great weekend!

Will Post Late This Evening

I'll post a few ideas later this evening west coast time, as I have a full afternoon.

No Post Tonight

I'm taking the day off of trading tomorrow, so I won't be posting ideas tonight.

Trade Candidates for 5/2/2007

Here are some ideas for Wednesday. Please note that AVNC is a very thin stock (and I'm long a small position already) so be careful about the lack of liquidity if you trade it. CRIS reports earnings before the open tomorrow, so I don't know what impact that will have, so be very careful there as well.

Good luck as always.