Counting with Doug: Financing a trip to Lake Tahoe solely with blackjack winnings?

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Informative commentaries on VIX trading

There has been some good articles put up lately concerning trading VIX options and related instruments, which has been my focus for much of 2011. Take, for instance, the insights of trader Steven Place, who thinks the failure of the VIX to pop last week on a brief down day (Tuesday) is a bullish sign […]

All eyes on a double top

In the upcoming stock market week, all eyes will be on whether the bulls can power prices through the year’s previous top at S&P 500 1343: Failure to do this might result in the dreaded double top, one of technical analysis’ most ominous signs. Of course reading charts to predict the course of the entire […]

Leaving on a jet plane — with limit orders!

It’s vacation time for Cape Cod Doug — once again to the Tampa – St. Petersburg area for a week until March 2nd. This is going to be an unplugged vacation, which begs the question, what to do about open market positions? Well, since my primary wish is to see a rise in the VIX, […]

Market rally getting long in the tooth?

Signs are brewing that the market rally, seemingly unstoppable, may actually be in its tired stage. One of my favorite charts is Thompson’s insider buy/sales ratio: The idea is when insiders aren’t buying anymore (and the red line shoots up) its getting to be a good sign to sell (or short, or panic, or whatever […]

Missed my opportunity — VIX, BIDU

I have been on a bit of a roll here trading options in January (go ahead and say it– I’ve been lucky), and late last week I had a horrible, wonderful, awful idea — I was going to short the VIX by buying puts on it. I certainly didn’t go to bed Thursday thinking about […]

Market gaps lower, reverse imminent? (SPX)

Everybody and their cousin has been watching the summer-long head and shoulders forming on the S&P and other major indexes, but remember the market often frustrates those who try to use conventional technical indicators on broad indexes: I prefer to bet on the contrarian view, and look to see that juicy gap at 1067 fill […]

Update on the downtrend

It’s been a while since I’ve posted my all-clear signal for the April downtrend; as of today we would need to clear 1100, and perhaps make a run for the 200 day moving average at 1111 to throw the bearishness aside. After that, we would need to see “higher highs” go in — in other […]

Downtrend intact on Monday morning — will we agree in the PM?

The seven week long downtrend in the S&P 500 remains intact even after the Thursday-Friday rallies last week. Futures are higher prior to the open and there is a possibility that we could take out the trend at the close. Front and center targets are the 200 day moving average at 1107 and that mid-May […]

Test of the 1040 coming today?

Might we see another test of S&P 1040 as early as this morning? That was about the intra-day lows on May 25th and Feb. 6th; yesterday represented the lowest actual close (at 1050) in quite a while. Odds of another test are looking good.

Starting off June — update on the downtrend — (SPX)

Back to the markets after the holiday weekend, and it’s not too pretty out there already! Assuming you are the glass-half-full type that is. As I am relentlessly neutral, here is how I see the downtrend: We are more than a month into the downside now, so this is not really a short, short term […]

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