Market Updates

The market did not behave as it suppose for the past one week or so. With bad news, the stocks went up. With good news the stocks went down. For example, BBBY provide lower guidance and yet the stock had been relatively up since the announcement. On hindsight, I should have just closed my BBBY position earlier.

Anyway, I had mixed results from my credit spreads play expiring last week.

• Closed LEN credit spreads on 14 April for a profit of 36.1% (over 5 days)
• Closed FDX credit spreads on 17 April for a profit of 22.1% (over 8 days)
• Closed MER credit spreads on 18 April for a loss of 8.0% (over 8 days)
• Closed BBBY credit spreads on 18 April for a loss of 160.2% (over 8 days)

PersianCat (Millionaire-in-progress)

Market updates

The market finally caved in last Friday after a dismal outlook by GE. The major index continued to bounce off their resistance levels.

Out of my 4 credit spreads plays, 3 are out of the money and looking positive. The 4th credit spread was playing BBBY into earnings deep-in-the-money. BBBY guidance was bad. However, the market somehow push BBBY upwards even last Friday. My BBBY play is now negative. I shall see what happens next before making a decision on BBBY.

This week we will see a number of financial stocks releasing their earnings results. These stocks include WM, JPM, WFC, MER and SLM. The outcome could greatly impact on the market this week. I am still bearish in the sector.

PersianCat (Millionaire-in-progress)

Latest Credit Spreads Plays

The three major indices had been drifting lower rather slowly for the past 6 market days. It had been hovering around its resistance. The Bulls were trying very hard to hold on since one bad news after another (Non-farm payroll, AA earnings, etc) failed to push down the market convincingly. However, today's market performance seemed to show that the Bears were back to play.

We have less than 2 weeks before the next Expiry Friday. I love to play Credit Spreads during the last 2 weeks before Expiry Friday. At the last handholding session on last Tuesday, I entered a "live" trade.

• Sell to open, Bear Call Spread, FDX April 95/100 Call for $1.62 (when the stock was around $94.89)

Subsequently, I also played the following trades:

• Sell to open, Bear Call Spread, LEN April 20/22.50 Call for $0.70 (when the stock was around $19.91) - played on Tuesday.
• Sell to open Bear Call Spread, MER April 45/50 Call for $2.25 (when the stock was around $46.07) - played today. This is in-the-money play.
• Sell to open Bear Call Spread, BBBY April 27.50/30 Call for $1.55 (when the stock was around $29.62) - played today. This is deep in-the-money play. I am testing out playing deep in-the-money credit spreads for earnings play. BBBY was due to release its earnings after the market close today. It later reported that it beat earnings expectations but it also issued downside guidance. We shall see how the stock and my options perform tommorrow.

All my trades were short plays as I expect the market and the underlying stocks that I played to continue its downslide.

PersianCat04 (Millionaire-in-progress)

Interesting Set-up

The market was extremely upbeat last Tuesday. It was somewhat subdued yesterday. The major indices were still showing a downtrend though they had been ranging for the past 3 months. The indices were or near its resistance level. The Tuesday strong rally followed by yesterday indecision provided a good setup for shorting.

The Non-Farm Payroll figures will be released tommorrow followed by the earnings results starting next week. I expect earnings results to be bad.

Among the stocks under my radar for possible shorting (need confirmation candle though):

• FDX
• LEH
• C
• BBY
• RYL
• LEN

Do your due diligence though.

PersianCat (Millionaire-in-progress)