Seeking Alpha

That’s right - youz guys didn’t see nothing this week.

If anyone asks you, nothin’ happened this week and you don’t know nothin’ about no crash. I mean, what crash, right? We got those markets higher than where they were last Friday (don’t ask how) and if anyone tells you anything different just tell ‘em to come see me and Lloyd and we’ll tell ‘em the way it’s gonna be. Goldman who? Euro what? Financial regulation where? You know what your problem is? You worry too much! It’s not like the world is gonna end until 2012 so why not live a little?

Sure the Banksters are using accounting tricks, including (according to the WSJ): Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup (C) that "have masked their risk levels in the past five quarters by temporarily lowering their debt just before reporting it to the public, understating the debt levels used to fund securities trades by lowering them an average of 42% at the end of each of the past five quarterly periods. "

Well, who cares as long as it makes things look good, right? That’s the lesson we are all meant to take out of the already forgotten-about financial crisis of 2008 - it’s only a crime if you get caught AND you are found guilty AND there is a penalty that exceeds a day’s worth of earnings. Other than that - Fuhgeddaboudit!

The Chinese are bailing out the Americans (who are bailing out their banks and the IMF) and the Germans (who are bailing out their banks and the IMF and the EU) and the Saudis (who are bailing out their banks and the IMF and Dubai) and the EU is bailing out Iceland and Ireland and the IMF is kicking in a little something to grease Greece along with Spain, Italy and Portugal and, once they are on their feet, I’m sure they will bail out the Baltic States and Eastern Europe before it’s time to bail out France and the UK and once those guys are all bailed out, bailing out California, Michigan, Illinois and our beloved New Jersey will be a snap and then we can all toss Japan a few dollars too - Fuhgeddaboudit!

Don’t you worry your head over this chart here. We made all that other stuff go away and we’ll make the chart go away too. The fix is in, I tell ya. What did I say on Wednesday? I said "THEY" (’cuz my lawyer says not to say "WE," in case someone is listening, if you know what I mean…) were flushing out the suckers to clear the decks so "THEY" could (and I quote): "buy the SPX overnight and pump us up for a big finish so they can get back to cash on Friday and book it." And that’s what happened. Are you surprised? I’m not surprised - how could I be surprised? I told you it was gonna happen! In fact, On Wednesday morning I even painted you this picture:

Under this picture I told you: "screw the fundamentals today, it’s all about retaking those blue lines (20 dmas) by the end of the week." End of the week is here and how do the charts look this morning?

See, the fix is in. Oops, I meant to say - See, it’s all fixed or at least fixed enough to bring in a fresh round of suckers, the kind who didn’t go to Church with us yesterday as we prayed during Member Chat into yesterday’s close: "Dear Lloyd, lead us not into temptation. We are weak and we fall for these low-volume pops every time. Keep us on the path of the well-hedged and light our way with solid floors we can use as stops when thy will be done - Amen….

In fact, yesterday’s fireworks inspired us to get back into the insurance game and we flipped a little bearish right into the close by buying back 1/2 of our short DIA June $103 puts as we got a buck from them already. That’s our overriding "Mattress Play," that helps us flip from bullish to bearish on the fly. We hit our goals of 5% runs, especially when we consider the S&P Futures bottomed out at 1,055 Wednesday night while our boy Jim was predicting Dow 9,500 and sending those lemmings of his off the cliff in after hours trading. That allowed our man, "THEM" to BUYBUYBUY those index contracts and 5% over that mark is 1,107 and, wouldn’t you know it - we hit 1,106.75 in the Futures this morning when "THEY" (coincidentally, I’m sure) bolted for the exits.

Nasdaq futures bottomed at 1,783 and this morning they bailed at 1,874 - two whole points over 5%. The Russell was also popped over the 666 5% line (from 634 Wednesday night) by 5 points before someone pulled the trigger but, as we know, the S&P is our button man. Someone (I don’t know who and, if you ask me, I got a guy who says I wasn’t there) bought the Dow futures at 9,828 while the sheeple were selling and they got out at 10,277, which is less than 10,319 (the 5% mark) but you know - the Dow - Fuhgeddaboudit…

I’d talk about fundamentals this morning if they mattered, but the game is over for the week. May is over, whoever wanted to pop 5% at the end of the month is long gone, and all the suckers are left holding the bag into a long weekend. Like any good mob fans, we’ve got our bags of cash on the sidelines and we’ll see which way the wind is blowing next week but this weekend, we’re going to have the family over and, as you know, nothing is more important than the family!

Our boys are working overtime and Personal Income is up 0.4% but we ain’t spending none of it and Personal Spending is up 0%, nada, zip! The Feds thought they could squeeze 0.3% out of us but we gave them the slip and held onto our money. We get the May PMI from our friend in Chicago at 9:45 and then our boys in Michigan check in with the word on Consumer Sentiment, also for May. PMI should be flat around 60 but if those consumers don’t cheer up with a 20% drop in the oil vig - then watch out below!

Have a great holiday weekend,

- Don Phil

This article is tagged with: Macro View, Market Outlook, United States
From Philip Davis:

USO, QQQ- Phil, thanks for these plays. Out of USO for about 65% gain today and just keeping 1/4 QQQ.

- Ksone88, July 14, 2011  


Phil, You were on the $ today with your calls almost exactly on the turns – Krap kuhn krup (Thai for thank you very much).

- Jomptien, July 14, 2011  


Thanks for the USO directions today. Made it 3 times (up/down/up) for a very nice win.

- Doro165, August 2, 2011  


Phil, I don’t know how I can thank you enough for your guidance this past week. I’m up significantly in my portfolio and I’ve never been so relaxed watching the market panic. Thanks once again for being here for us.

- thechaser, August 2, 2011  


Oil – thanks Phil, got in late at 0.53 on the 38p today, set a sell for 0.75 and took the dog for a walk – 70% gain and more than enough $$ to buy dog food. TZA Aug 35/40 BCS – closed out for a 100% gain in under a month – thanks again for introducing me to these trades.

- CanuckBob, August 2, 2011  


GOOG, NFLX and AAPL all bought last hour Friday. Sold into the excitement the first hour today for an average of 15% on the options. And lots of them. Thanks again Phil for teaching me so well.

- lflantheman, August 2, 2011  


Your board has been fantastic helping the less experienced (includes me) navigate through all the turmoil. The contributions from your members has been well rounded, objective, and extremely helpful. Sans the politics you have built a fantastic community and that is a tribute to you. I thank you and all fellow members for there contributions over the past few days. Fantastic group!

- dclark41, August 3, 2011  


Phil – Not that you dont usually, but you have DEFINITELY earned your money this week. THe recommendations have been PERFECT. Selling into the initial excitement (MULTIPLE TIMES), hedges, everything. Im reading this when I get home from work and want to cry b/c I cant trade at work! I might have to start getting up at 3 AM though to catch those trades bc youre killing it then too! May you and yours have a blessed weekend!

- Jromeha, August 5, 2011  


On Optrader’s section yesterday he was asked how he works with AAPL as an investment. He replied that he just ‘plays with the covers’. I’ve got a separate portfolio where I use primarily this technique over the past 6 months. Up 60% The principles involved are stock selection, patience, patience, using covers to protect profits, rolling covers to maximize premium return, and exiting when covers are gone and stock price is high. Sometimes it’s hard to remember where you learn to do this stuff, but much of it is from integrating principles I’ve learned here with thing I already knew. Thanks for the help on this, Phil and others.

- Iflantheman, August 8, 2011  


Thank God for Phil. A few months ago (April) I didn´t even know what hedging was, and someone recommended I should check out some of Phil´s plays, especially on the retirement portfolio. When I first started to read it, none of it made a blind bit of sense to me, but I stuck with it and gradually began to work through some of the trades to see how it worked. Now I am putting on 5:1 SPY backspreads combined with bear put spreads, entering and leaving positions after consulting the VIX, and engaging in other esoteric maneuvers that are keeping my portfolio above water.

- jmm1951, August 18, 2011  


I took $2 (up 133%) and ran on those USO puts, quite a bit more than the 20 you played in the $25KP. Thank you once again for turning a bad market week into a great personal week. You will be happy to know I am back to cashy and cautious with a few of your favorite longs into the weekend. Thanks to Phil, JRW and all the members who share their knowledge here.

- Dennis, August 18, 2011  


Phil, I just wanted to say thanks for being there. The world needs more of you. Your site continues to positively change my life daily.

- Chasw, October 18, 2011  


GIVE THANKS/PHIL Have not done my 10,000 hours, but a couple of years at PSW, and moved from fishing with a single line to owner of a commercial trawler (metaphorically speaking). Now I fish with many lines. It is amazing when you go over the same information time and time again, eventually it clicks. Like planting trees; being the house, 20% sale items, selling into the excitement. and patience. I just sold an AAPL Jan 12 340/390 BCS financed by the sales of Jan 12 275 Put. The trade was put on one year ago for a net credit and exited five minutes ago for a 49 dollar per contract profit. No point in waiting till opex to see what happens, and I will just sell 10 of those VLO puts to make myself net the round 50. I no longer worry about opex coming as I have adjusted well in time for most positions that go against me. I still make some howlers (RIMM, TBT, TRGT) but I play the percentages and my winners outdistance my losers by many miles. I would never be in this position if it were not for Phil. He is a treasure, pure and simple. The goose that lays the golden egg if we care to listen and practice. Phil, a mighty big thank you.

- Winston, January 5, 2012  


It is amazing how much confidence you engender, Phil………..I knew the 1% a day trades and repeated often were possible as I had done in stretches, and I knew kill zone trades were also possible and 5% to 10% returns per month were very possible with practice, experience and smart risk management all without having to take a lot of risk, but I guess I was talking to the disbelievers and since I have dropped them into my 'why bother to try to explain it' file and come over to the dark side at PSW I feel soooo much more content not only with the returns, but with the company and a comments and the obvious opportunity to learn and learn and learn some more. It all helps the mental and emotional discipline of the trading too. So thanks again.

- Roro, January 11, 2012  


Way to go Phil! Have I said how much I appreciate your site lately! Your ability to teach and your willingless to give others a forum to demonstrate their own skill sets makes your site remarkable. I got great help from you, jmm1951, and Iflantheman (special thanks!) today. Hell, if I have many more days like this I may even be able to sign up for a full year rather than doing it just quarterly. Tomorrow is another day but, fabulous job today!

- dclark41, January 25, 2012  


Phil- I would like to echo the sentiments of dclark41. Joining this site was the best thing I have ever done to aid my growth as a trader/investor. There are so many smart and experienced people here sharing their ideas that regardless what your investing style is you will learn something daily. Thank you and all the regular contributors for your generosity.

- Acd54, January 25, 2012  


Maya, After years of being pretty good at picking stocks I still managed to lose almost as much as I made.All the reading Phil asked us to do as a new member (And everything else I can get my hands on lately) has revealed my Achilles Heal.Good stock picks do not necessarily make money. My problem was swinging for the fences. Since becoming a member Jan 1 this year and getting into to scaling into small trades I am amazed at the steady profit growth I have experienced already while not worrying about getting killed. And having fun doing it.. Phil, Thanks for the education, the help you give and the chance to learn more and get better. Also thanks to all the members who have answered the few questions I had when your not around.

- Ricpar, February 2, 2012  


You are doing a fantastic job. I think most of us our very well balanced and consequently have learned how to manage through these ever so short declines in the market without panic.

- Dclark41, April 5, 2012  


- Ricpar, February 2, 2012  


Phil has some great insight into the market. He's given me a different perspective on the market and I know I'm a better trader/investor because of it. I've been trading options since the late 80's and Phil is right. Unless you know what is going to happen (how can you, unless you have insider information), then do what the smart money does - be the house. Remember guys, we're allowed to sell options. If you're afraid to be short, then do a spread to limit your liability. When I think about the money I've made and lost on options, a good approximation is that I win 30% of the time when I do a straight buy; I win about 70% of the time when I do a spread; I win nearly 90% of the time when I sell naked.

- Autolander, April 11, 2012  


I've been trading/investing since the early 80's (my dad started me out young). I've had seven figure accounts (in the past) and I've done lots of trading, so I can say that I'm a well seasoned investor. Phil is the real deal. His trades make sense and his strategy is sound. He sees things that others miss and he's one of the best at finding price anomalies. When he makes a mistake, he has an exit strategy already planned. He hedges very well and he has an instinct which tells him to go to cash or to be all in.

- Autolander, April 13, 2012