Daily Market Newsletter

October 12, 2016
Non-Directional Strategies
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Semi-Directional Strategies
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Directional Strategies
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Market Commentary

A very.low-volume day today as many in the financial world follow the Yom Kippur religious holiday. The rest of this week should speed up, however, as we move into busy earnings season, with this week highlighted by WFC, JPM, and C. Let’s get the financials out of the way early to set a tone for the rest of the season. The earnings season peaks over the next few weeks and the majority of the S&P will have reported earnings by roughly the end of October.

I still find today’s environment a low-opportunity one with the risk outweighing the reward at these low levels of IV. This will change soon enough.

 

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Offensive Actions

Offensive Actions for the next trading day:

  • No trades for tomorrow. We’ll look again tomorrow.

Defensive Actions

Defensive actions for the next trading day:

  • Very little to “defend” or manage at this point. Any vertical debit spreads that we set up are risk-managed from day one.

Strategy Summary Graphs

Each graph below represents a summary of the current performance of a strategy category. For an explanation of what the graphs mean, watch this video.

Non-Directional Strategies

Semi-Directional Strategies

Directional Strategies

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Technical Analysis Section

Market Internals:  Volume was somewhat higher today, but still not over average. Breadth was mixed with +128 advancers minus decliners.

SPX Market Timer : The Intermediate line flattened below the Upper Reversal Zone, still showing a neutral bias. No leading signals at this time.

DOW Theory: The SPX is in a long term uptrend, an intermediate uptrend, and a short-term downtrend. The RUT is in a long-term downtrend, an intermediate uptrend, and a short-term downtrend. The Dow is in an intermediate uptrend and short-term downtrend.

VIX: The VIX rose 3.58% to 15.91, inside the bollinger bands. The RVX gained 1.84% to 20.53 and is inside the bollinger bands.

Fibonacci Retracements: No retracements in play at this time..

Support/Resistance: For the SPX, support is at 2100 … with overhead resistance near 2200. The RUT has support at RUT 1090 with overhead resistance at about 1300. All three major index charts that we follow are now showing a Golden Cross with the 50 day moving average crossing above the 200 day average.

Fractal Energies: The major timeframe (Monthly) is still highly-charged with a reading of 55. The Weekly chart is now fully-charged showing an energy reading of 69, due to the recent chop. The Daily chart is showing a level of 67 which is fully-recharged after the recent drop. We are showing the rare condition of Full Energy again!

Other Technicals: The SPX Stochastics indicator fell to 50, mid-scale. The RUT Stochastics indicator fell to 47, mid-scale. The SPX MACD histogram fell below the signal line, showing a loss of upside momentum. The SPX is inside the Bollinger Bands with Bollinger Band support at 2131 and resistance at the upper band at 2178 and is above the lower band. The RUT is inside the Bollinger Bands with its boundaries at 1220 to 1263 and price is above the lower band. The bands are starting to squeeze again.

If Central Banks go “all-in” to save each sovereign economy, this will not be sustainable in the long run. We will continue to monitor price action that will show us if the character of the market is moving towards a change in character to a Quiet/Trending Bull again. For now, we’re seeing necessary corrective action come in to “shock-start” markets and volatility again. Markets have become complacent to all of the central bank monetary policy and that’s not a good thing.. 

SPX chart

 

 

Position Management – NonDirectional Trades

I have no positions in play; I will wait on the first significant pullback to allow me to secure put spreads below support.

Offense: If this dip in price hits the 2050-2100 level on the S&P, we are game on for NOV put spreads.

I have no positions in play: We’ll look for the next range to take advantage of. I might have to look beyond the usual index candidates for these in today’s market, since I don’t see any index candidates right now, however the RUT is close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no time spreads at the current time. My preference is to take these on DAILY exhaustion and not WEEKLY exhaustion signals, since the weekly exhaustion creates unwanted price volatility. Similar to the LP Condors above, I will likely have to expand my view to include equity candidates that are showing a likely short-term consolidation. This is never my first choice due to the additional variables that we encounter.

I have the following positions in play:

  • SDS Stock – I still own 100 shares of this stock from 2011 and will continue to write calls against this position with every correction/pullback.
  • VXX Stock – I own 12 shares of this stock and will hold until Armageddon occurs.
  • SLV Stock – I have 1000 shares of the SLV that was assigned at the $15 level, and will continue to write time against these shares on every rally. I wrote 21OCT 20.5 calls (9/7) against half of my position for a $.21 credit.
  • SSO – Waiting for the next pullback to sell puts against the SSO, preferably at the 50 level or lower. .

Nothing to do at this time with current positions. 

Position Management – Directional Trades

Thoughts on current swing strategies:

 

 

  • 8/21 EMA Crossover -I entered the 8/21 ema long setup (10/5) with an ATM SPY vertical spread, using the 26OCT 216/218 call spread, paying $1.12 debit. I will look for about a 50% return from this trade.
  • RSI(2) CounterTrend – Looking for the next signal.
  • Daily S&P Advancers – if I see the number of daily S&P500 advancers drop into single digits near the close of any trading day, I will go long shares of the SSO.

 

 

 

 

Looking for the next edge. Price has been so choppy that it’s been difficult to identify the next edge. .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have the following positions in play:

 

  • QQQ 11NOV 118/120 debit put spread (10/10) – I entered this trade by buying the 120 put and simultaneously selling the 119 put, for a .79 debit. I had to change my order from this weekend’s edition due to the gap up this morning. I will look for a 50% return from this position which is roughly a $1.20 exit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no positions at this time. Nothing showed up in my scans this weekend, other than mostly Energy stocks which have been dead money for the past several months.

I see many stocks showing a nice pattern, like MRK and UPS, however no concrete signals just yet. Markets are coiling up into the next range and are about to show their next hand. I’ll look for more opportunities this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Hindenburg Strategy” is meant to capture “value” from successive corrections that lead up to the final “death spiral” with a Bear Market. The basic principle is to buy 3-month out long puts on the SPY, and to finance those puts by the sale of credit spreads.

 

To remove the current series of puts, I will look for a move down to and below the SPX 2100 level.

I never got the upside “burst” to allow me to sell call spreads above SPY 230 that I wanted; now I can concentrate on selling put spreads at some level below SPY 200.

We currently have the following positions in play with this strategy:

  • SPY OCT 194 Long Puts – I entered this position (7/18) for a $1.52 debit.
  • SPY NOV 197 Long Puts – I entered this position (8/22) for a $1.56 debit.