What an interesting session today. Came in short a healthy amount for what I usually take home overnight. The economic data this am at 8:30 made it a little uncomfortable to hold but I had my plan. Lifting and holding above 1100 on eminis I had to be flat, that was my line on the sand. Luckily there was a strong rejection to the level off the number and then I had my clue that we could trend down for the day. All I needed was confirmation of market getting below 1084 with some speed and then the real party/reversal was on.
The open was chopalicious. Partied in TNA, SPY, GE, FAS, LVS, JPM and F. The usual crack stocks I trade every day. My mentality was that we would close at lows. The tricky part was the mid day consolidation as it is the case these days with the silly hfts. Shorts certainly were feeling pain if they didn’t lighten up around 1pm when that 30 min initial flag just failed to retest lows. And looking at the 5 min of the eminis I can see how longs felt comfortable coming into 3pm. It looked like the highs was just where we were heading. And then there was a change of character. And boy was I ready to pound into the shorts….
But as it turns out just when the longs looked awful and the shorts got their best risk reward for the play for the close the magic news came out about GS, BP and AAPL all within seconds of each other. I hate conspiracy theories but man that one is up there. Way to screw all the longs and the shorts.
The one thing I will point out though is that the IWM didn’t participate in that rally and that is sketchy. Seemed that rally was just short covering/screw job action and over reaction to GS news. The beef is in the price action overnight. If we somehow open below 1084 look out below. Currently (11pmish) the price action is not strong for futures but it is too early to tell. Weekly and daily charts point for retest of year lows. A gap above 1100 would certainly not be bueno for the shorts. But there is the possibility for an ultimate screw job doing the gap and crush just to really get the shorts out. Tomorrow should be interesting for sure. Not giving up on the shorts just yet but I am close to waving the white flag.
Happy trading
3 Comments on “Trading Thoughts & Afternoon Shenanigans”
Thanks for sharing GMAN,
All the way half way back retracement (50%) on the Daily for the SPX is still 1109 – so there is room to get some longs into the game before the ultimate dump…we’ll see.
Just curious, when you say you are short, are you carrying overnight short? If so, with what instruments (etfs, stocks, options) and what is your target/time frame on the SPX?
Philipp, thanks for pointing that out. I did like the psychological setup off the change of character for the longs on the hourly chart so I was not really looking to give it that much room to my shorts. And was hoping it enver got up there. It made it better for the shorts.
KevinH – yes carrying shorts overnight. Mostly take SPYs, TNA, and other market stocks (LVS, F, GE, etc). Didn’t take GE home because of earnings but put risk back on it early in premkt after all the reaction was out. Target intraday (today) for SPX was just reached (1065). But for my swing shorts holding for yearly lows.
gman