Monthly Archives: September 2014

Daily Market Update – September 9, 2014 (8:15 AM)

In a week when there’s not much planned economic news and where it appears as if the geo-political news may be muted, today will stand out.

Instead of anything really important, the driver of news will be coming out of Apple’s product releases presentation that begins early in the afternoon.

There was a time, just a few years ago that the market’s daily performance was essentially determined by Apple’s performance. You could have done away with the other 499 companies and just tracked Apple’s share performance day in and day out and you would have had a great idea of how the market performed that day, at least in direction.

Those days are gone, so it’s not too likely that anything coming out of today’s meeting will have much of an impact on the rest of the market.

After a mildly negative day yesterday, but without any real sign of  building sentiment, the pre-open trading looks like it will be another day beginning with some degree of indecision.

After a reasonably busy week of trading last week, I  think that yesterday’s activity in adding new positions may mark the week’s high point, at a time when my cash reserves have gone to a recent low point. In the face of any continuing indecision I would prefer to keep some funds back for the ability to be an opportunist and wouldn’t bemoan missing any unforeseen sudden spike higher in the broader market, as long as it also takes me along for the ride and also brings some of this week’s expiring positions in better shape to either get rolled over or be assigned, preferably the latter.

Additionally, going along for that kind of a ride would also hopefully offer an opportunity to be opportunistic with other members of the portfolio that have been waiting for their chance to contribute to the generation of income.

So while expecting a slow day today, like many others I’ll still be keeping an eye on potential opportunities that may stay pop up, but will probably also fall into the trap of getting sucked in by the Apple event and will watch the countdown clock that is being featured on CNBC.

Of course that event then brings derivative events, as people smash open the products to determine what’s inside and try to figure out who the derivative winners and losers are, which can include hardware and software makers and this time around, possibly even a service provider, such as PayPal, eBay’s very profitable division.

While I’m not a very active consumer, I do hope that Apple introduces some kind of new product that gets people excited and digging into their pockets, although it’s not really clear that if they do it would be with anything other than money that may have otherwise been earmarked elsewhere, as opposed to introducing additional spending into the system.

Just as with the stock market and all of the talk about money on the sidelines that may drive shares higher, the retail market needs the same thing as a spur and that could be the sort of thing that would drive sideline investment back to work.

It’s now be
en a while since I’ve been fully invested and would love to be so, once again. Who knows, maybe today begins that day when the retail sector expands as all of those people getting back to work start getting back on track for the discretionary spending that really drives everything and can be just the fuel to get this market even higher.

If that’s the case, thank you Apple.

Daily Market Update – September 8, 2014 (Close)

After another week of setting records this week is one that doesn’t really have much in the way of scheduled news events.

In fact, if you didn’t realize it to be otherwise, you would have thought that this was the last week of summer, with no one staying around to do their jobs. In addition to a very, very light week of planned economic reports and releases, there’s only a single Federal Reserve Governor giving prepared remarks for the week, whereas most weeks it’ss about 5 or so.

Lately, however, the market has liked these vacuums and insulation from the world of real economics and data. It has just moved higher and higher, especially when there’s been nothing acting as resistance.

During these periods of quiet there hasn’t been a need to decide whether good news is bad or bad news is good. Instead, no news has been the best news. No thought is necessary when there are no inputs coming and even autopilot looks like a genius.

What it hasn’t liked has been external events, but lately it has turned a deaf ear to what has been going on around the world, not really letting much get in the way of its continued climb higher after a very brief and shallow downturn in July.

After a bit of a buying spree last week and the spending down of cash reserves that saw only 3 positions get assigned, I may be in a more cash preserving mode as this week begins. Unlike last week when the week started with only a single position set to expire that week, this week is much more broadly populated with expiring positions.

The same is true, and even more so, for next week’s monthly expiration.

With volatility continuing at such low levels that means that the likelihood is that for any new positions opened this week the focus will be on weekly expirations, as much as I would like to expand the holdings on the basis of expiration date, but we all know how those plans go, sometimes.

As has been the case for a while I would gladly trade off some new positions for the opportunity to find cover for existing positions and the ability to put those back to work. Not only could that preserve cash it could share in any potential market climb while not adding to the risk that might be associated with any market decline.

Unfortunately, that’s been more of a dream than a reality, but you can’t blame someone for continuing to dream. Today, though, wasn’t the kind of day that was meant to see dreams come true.

With no real direction noted in the pre-open, as has been the case for a while, I was very likely wait to see if there was any prevailing tone being established before committing much in the way of reserves, but some early weakness dictated otherwise and in hindsight, I wish I had not waited at all.

Although I’d especially like to add some technology, healthcare or finance in order to better re-establish some diversification, I wasn’t likely to just wait for one of those specific opportunities to come along, instead using
the “best athlete” model and going for that opportunity, if it appears. So instead, it turned out to be more energy and more consumer sector positions added today.

Hopefully the week will be one of calmness inside and outside of markets, allowing some of the week’s positions to be assigned and replenishing cash, with an eye toward getting ready for the cycle’s end and beyond.

Today was nothing more than a step to get us one day closer to this Friday and the next and with nothing else very memorable or consequential. However, I’m not certain that I will be very inclined to add too much more in the way of new positions unless feeling significant certainty that a fair portion of this week’s expiring positions are likely to be assigned or rolled over.

Unfortunately, today’s market didn’t do much to encourage that feeling of confidence.

Daily Market Update – September 8, 2014 (9:00 AM)

After another week of setting records this week is one that doesn’t really have much in the way of scheduled news events.

In fact, if you didn’t realize it to be otherwise, you would have thought that this was the last week of summer, with no one staying around to do their jobs. In addition to a very, very light week of planned economic reports and releases, there’s only a single Federal Reserve Governor giving prepared remarks for the week, whereas most weeks is about 5 or so.

Lately, however, the market has liked these vacuums and insulation from the world of real economics and data. It has just moved higher and higher, especially when there’s been nothing acting as resistance.

During these periods of quiet there hasn’t been a need to decide whether good news is bad or bad news is good. Instead, no news has been the best news. No thought is necessary when there are no inputs coming and even autopilot looks like a genius.

What it hasn’t liked has been external events, but lately it has turned a deaf ear to what has been going on around the world, not really letting much get in the way of its continued climb higher after a very brief and shallow downturn in July.

After a bit of a buying spree last week and the spending down of cash reserves that saw only 3 positions get assigned, I may be in a more cash preserving mode as this week begins. Unlike last week when the week started with only a single position set to expire that week, this week is much more broadly populated with expiring positions.

The same is true, and even more so, for next week’s monthly expiration.

With volatility continuing at such low levels that means that the likelihood is that if any new positions are opened this week the focus will be on weekly expirations, as much as I would like to expand the holdings on the basis of expiration date.

As has been the case for a while I would gladly trade off some new positions for the opportunity to find cover for existing positions and the ability to put those back to work. Not only could that preserve cash it could share in any potential market climb while not adding to the risk that might be associated with any market decline.

Unfortunately, that’s been more of a dream than a reality, but you can’t blame someone for continuing to dream.

With no real direction noted in the pre-open, as has been the case for a while, I will very likely wait to see if there is any prevailing tone being established before committing much in the way of reserves. Although I’d especially like to add some technology, healthcare or finance in order to better re-establish some diversification, I probably won’t just wait for one of those specific opportunities to come along, instead using the “best athlete” model and going for that opportunity, if it appears.

Hopefully the week will be one of calmness inside and outside of markets, allowing some of the week’s positions to be assigned and replenishing cash, with an eye toward getting ready for the cycle’s end and beyond.