Stock Market Today - Intraday discussion - Page 5593  

Hmm those 3x track the Russel 2000 index which is pretty similar in movement to the DJIA itself. For example, TNA was at 36 yesterday morning premarket and is now trading at 41.8. That's just to illustrate their movements though, and in no way am I suggesting that they are a safe investment, rather quite the opposite as they are very risky. You have to also take into consideration that ETFs decay. An example - TNA was at 80 in mid July, dropped to 40s now. Even if the Russel 2000 reaches its prior mid July level, TNA will not touch 80 again because of decay. Simply put, if a stock falls 50% in value, it needs to gain back 100%, same idea applies. This won't be a problem if you hold an ETF few days.

 

Your tight stop loss might be too "tight" in the sense that if all depends on how your stock behaves such as if it is prone to swings - you have to adjust it for your respective stock. Since you said you have school from 7:30 to 1:03 pm, there aren't really conservative trading strategies (besides pre-set stop loss limits) that last a day because things can change in a day very fast. You could try trading in the opening bell or just 15 minutes after market open. That way you can take advantage of large volume and fast price swings. For a conservative buy and hold strategy, you can always buy the stock outright and buy the put option with the same strike price you bought the stock (rounded) and then in the event the stock moves to $1 you can sell your stock at whatever the put contract strike price was. Thats about as safe as you can get.

 

About buying a call to take advantage of earnings reports, someone else will know more than I do. But what I can say is that the price of the option will have already priced in an expected movement because everyone else is thinking like you. Also, you don't need to exercise the option and get the shares, you can just sell the option itself. I put some good threads that I used to learn about options from, and they have questions that only someone who's actually traded them can answer, better than I can:

 

http://www.hotstockmarket.com/t/54158/options-questions-and-answers

http://www.hotstockmarket.com/t/25932/educational-q-a-for-options-and-option-trading

 

I thought that was old school, and the IRS put a stop to that $1 salary stuff?....

 

 

1 Dollar, yea since exec's salaries now have to be disclosed, but when you have an accounting firm like one of the Big 4 E&Y, Price Waterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Deloitte, advising you, they can walk all over any IRS guideline and find that loophole.

 

Probably not a dollar anymore though.
 

 

Some CEO take no salary, all compensation in stock and options. IRS loves the juicy tax on those.

yeah, but isn't that more of a capitol gains tax instead of income tax?....which is lower than income tax...so, they are getting away with paying lower taxes by doing this...maybe I'm not seeing it right.

European banks are in bigger trouble than they're letting on. UBS reporting today that collapse of the euro could end in civil war. I always had a gut feeling, for 20 years; that the euro was a bad idea. I hope the euro does fail. I'm completely sick of getting raped every time I step into that ridiculous euro zone. 

 

 

Any time a major bank releases a report saying a given course of action is too costly, too prohibitive, too blonde, or simply too impossible, it is nearly guaranteed that that is precisely the course of action about to be undertaken. Which is why all non-euro skeptics are advised to shield their eyes and look away from the just released report by UBS (of surging 3 Month USD Libor rate fame) titled "Euro Break Up - The Consequences." UBS conveniently sets up the straw man as follows: "Under the current structure and with the current membership, the Euro does not work. Either the current structure will have to change, or the current membership will have to change." So far so good. Yet where it gets scary is when UBS quantifies the actual opportunity cost to one or more countries leaving the Euro. Notably Germany. "Were a stronger country such as Germany to leave the Euro, the consequences would include corporate default, recapitalisation of the banking system and collapse of international trade. If Germany were to leave, we believe the cost to be around EUR6,000 to EUR8,000 for every German adult and child in the first year, and a range of EUR3,500 to EUR4,500 per person per year thereafter. That is the equivalent of 20% to 25% of GDP in the first year. " It also would mean the end of UBS, but we digress. Where it gets even more scary is when UBS, like many other banks to come, succumbs to the Mutual Assured Destruction trope made so popular by ole' Hank Paulson : "The economic cost is, in many ways, the least of the concerns investors should have about a break-up. Fragmentation of the Euro would incur political costs. Europe’s “soft power” influence internationally would cease (as the concept of “Europe” as an integrated polity becomes meaningless). It is also worth observing that almost no modern fiat currency monetary unions have broken up without some form of authoritarian or military government, or civil war." So you see: save the euro for the children, so we can avoid all out war (and UBS can continue to exist). The scariest thing, however, by far, is that for this report to have been issued, it means that Germany is now actively considering dumping the euro.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bring-out-your-dead-ubs-quantifies-costs-euro-break-warns-collapse-banking-system-and-civil-war

We are knocking on the 1180 door with futures. Any predictions on today?  Asia finished strong and Europe is 2%+. When does Obama speak?

You mean Zerohedge is reporting that it could end in civil war, not UBS.
 

 

I think the bears are going to attack the 1182 area like a bat out of hell.
 

 

Grab your muskets!

 

 

 

No I mean UBS is reporting consequences of euro break up. Read the report. Written by UBS not zerohedge.

GLD in the crapper this morn.  

The VIX lookin like consolidation

 

Meh, it's basically ZH cherrypicking quotes (from a "report" hosted on scribbed?).. I'm yet to find any official statement or document from UBS on this, all I see are a bunch of blogs reposting ZH. Not something I would base investment decisions on.

 

 

New Fib watch for me this morning is the ES 1236-1229.75 retracement, the 50% is right here at 1182.88 and the 61.8% is 1193.94. The 38.2% of the big move down to 1077 is at 1190, that's been on the chart and the radar for a while now. Also the 4 hr 200 MA smacked ES down last time it was tested, it is of course still declining and now sits at 1206, IMO there won't be much confidence in continued upside without a convincing break of the 4hr 200MA. It will be interesting to see what volume is like, want to see if we're over 20 MM before 10:40, 50 MM before 10 AM, 85 MM by 10:30, if it is much lower than those levels I'll be quite a bit more restrained about any possible shorts.

Gold is falling like a titanic now ... courtesy SNB....

Cue the "Double top on the daily?" discussion.

SPY opens flush on daily 8EMA, my touchstone for short term daily momo.

sold my LVS calls on a 100% over night, left some on table but whatever, done for the day already

Picked up SPY Puts cheap on open. GLTA!