Recap

Today was a pretty horrible day to be long. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P were down 1.37%, 1.07% & 1.29% respectively. Volume was extremely heavy with banking, housing and utilities taking it on the chin. Advancers were outnumbered by decliners 3-1 on the NYSE. Small caps didn't do too badly today with the Russell 2000 down only 0.6% which is comparative outperformance to the overall markets.

Some winning stocks today included BX JBL M SMSI SOHU. The stocks getting beaten up included QTWW INPC ALTH VRNM ZN NUAN.

Today was a good day to have plenty of QID SDS MZZ DXD SKF stuffed away. You never know when these hedges are going to come in handy.

Gold did really well today with my GLD position closing up . Its about time gold seperated itself from the overall market.

Blackstone Group's IPO was the main story today with the stock jumping over 20% at its open before settling down at the close. Forbes 400 members Schwarzman and Peterson are now both billions richer and laughing all the way to the bank.

With the volatility in the markets in recent weeks, cash is king . Wait till the market regains direction and then deploy the cash towards profitable use. I am glad I decided to liquidate some long positions a few days back. The extra cash can either be deployed towards inverse ETFs, puts or shorting stocks in general if a bear phase commences. On the other hand if the market regains its upward tilt than I can load up on some strong trending stocks like SNDK HANS MU NTRI PRAI OVTI BIDU and bull ETFs like DDM SSO QLD MVV UWM.

Right now I feel worn out. Exhausted like I've run a marathon wearing a 500 lb body suit. Its really hot here in Arizona. You step outside for a second and feel drained out. The sun zaps every ounce of energy from your body.

Recap

An ugly day across the board as decliners led advancing stocks 4-1 on the NYSE. Utilities and oil got murdered thanks to rising interest rates and increased oil inventory. The Dow, NASDAQ and S&P were all down over 1% with volume on the heavy side. The failure of the Dow and S&P to break out to new highs is very disturbing. Its been 4 sessions in a row where an all time high was at hand only for a sell off to occur. The Dow and S&P both look like double tops not to mention Shanghai and Bombay. Cash and inverse ETFs are king until we witness a decisive beakout on the Dow and S&P.

Is this a joke ? The founder of MySpace trying to buy a 25% stake in Dow Jones & Co. WTF !

Bear Stearns Hedge Fund collapse is going to have far reaching consequences. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

I cut down on several of my long postions and raised cash. I believe we may be entering a bearish period. The increased volatility is usually present during tops and bottoms and this hardly looks like a bottom. If 1490 breaks on the S&P I will be loading up on SDS.

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 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.