A WELCOME RALLY

A welcome rally for bulls and in some cases bears as it allows them to reload short positions. In any case I feel this rally may be very short lived considering the economic data releases on the horizon . Producer Price Index and retail sales tomorrow along with the New York manufacturing report. Consumer Price Index and and Industrial Production reports on Wednesday with Housing Starts and the Philly Fed survey on Thursday followed by Option Expiration on Friday. This will be one busy week and probably highly volatile. I am already excited !



Currently I am long QLD while betting against financials via SKF and housing via SRS though I lightened up on both these positions last week.I will look to add more SKF and SRS if we rally hard this week. Took some of the table on GLD today. I am looking for a pullback in Gold leading up to the Fed meeting. I have been long GLD from $58 with an average cost of under $65. Selling above $89 is prudent . Agriculture is having a phenomenal run as of late with my position in the agriculture ETF DBA soaring. I believe DBA will be one of the best plays for 2008.



Here is an interesting chart courtesy of Headline Charts showing a market sell signal via and S&P 10 week and 40 week moving average cross over. This signal appears to have accurately predicted the Bear market of 2001-02 and the bull market starting in 2003.



If one wants a accurate predictor of where the markets are headed, keeping an eye on what the institutions are doing is key. This chart via Stocktiming.com shows the Institutions are reducing expsoure to equities.



There are 71 technology stocks in the S&P 500. Not a single one is above its 50 day moving average. This chart below from Bespoke Investment is incredible to look at.







Yahoo is the only S&P tech stock up this year ( as of this morning). Amazing. This can be looked in 1 of 2 ways. Either tech is oversold and a great buy here or tech is weak and will continue to get weaker. I personally believe tech will continue its downtrend though the above tech names could all rally in the next week or 2 towards their 50 day MA. Hence I am long QLD which is a bull ETF modelled on the QQQ x 2 . Since the Qs are mainly tech stocks, I believe a tech rally can be played best by utilizing QLD though some would argue ROM is better since its a bull tech sector ETF. ROM however does not have enough volume for my liking. Too illiquid for me.

MARKET RECAP

The market surged to the upside after 2:15pm ET following the Fed decision to leave rates unchanged. The tone across the board was very bullish and strong volume accompanied the up swing. The Dollar dropped sharply against major currencies while commodities rallied including big moves in Gold and Oil.

I started the day biased to the bearish side via my numerous double inverse ETFs- QID, SDS, DXD, MZZ and TWM. Following the Fed announcement and gauging the bullish market reaction, in the space of 4 minutes I proceeded to sell all those inverse ETFs while adding to the double bull ETFs- QLD, DDM, SSO, MVV and UWM. My best performing longs included SNDK, MU and OXPS. My Euro and Gold positions did well too. The portfolio finished the day considerably higher with a large factor being the post 2:15 switch from the bearish to bullish ETFs. On a day like this, its best NOT to argue with the market. I can be bearish or bullish but ultimately, one needs to follow Mr. Markets direction to make money. How much upside we have is anybodys guess but, todays strong bullish action suggests, we may still have room to move up.

MARKET UPDATE

The bulls are running wild today. The home construction news was a boost to the market though I hardly believe that the bottom in housing is in.

In retrospect I feel foolish selling a good chunk of my ultra bull ETFs - QLD etc while adding to the ultra shorts QID etc. Miraculously despite my fund being biased to the bearish side I am actually in the green today with gains in GLD - gold ETF while some of my long positions have been running wild such as SNDK and COGT. I figure if the FED continues to pump liquidity into the system, gold will benefit and thus GLD is a good hedge to my ultra short positions.

On days like these I am Jacks smirking revenge .....

MARKET UPDATE

The bulls are going great guns. The indices are at a daily high. Can we go higher from here or will the bears crash the party ? On a personal note the portfolio is soaring. NTRI,TZOO, BLUD and GOOG are all up over 2%. QLD, DDM and SSO are adding to the green. Will add some SDS, DXD , MZZ and QID for insurance.