The market went on another wild ride Monday with the Dow posting a triple-digit loss to start the session. The financials were once again an area of concern as many of them traded lower for the day. The market staged an afternoon comeback when oil suddenly dropped $4 a barrel and briefly traded below $120. News that tropical storm Edouard would not mount a serious threat to the oil and natural gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico was seen as a relief and the fact that Obama was talking about a plan for the U.S. to lessen our reliance on imported oil within 10 years served as two key components to the decline in oil.

The gyration of the market took us out of a couple of trades and both were profitable. Research In Motion (RIMM, $116.43, down $3.72) opened the morning slightly higher but it was all downhill after that, literally. The stock fell below $118 in the last hour of trading and like Apollo Creed, the only thing that saved it was the closing bell. We got into the September 140 calls (RULIH, $1.50, down $0.50) at $1.85 and they immediately jumped up to $2.70. We then set a $2.00 stop which was actually hit on Friday. The trade was good for 8% but let’s see what the Fed does before going long again.

Qualcomm (QCOM, $52.87, down $2.60) lost its chief operating officer, Sanjay Jha, who is leaving the company to become the head of Motorola’s handset division. The 5% drop in the stock tells you what this dude meant to Qualcomm and was a big score for Motorola. The October 50 calls (AAOJJ, $5.25, down $1.30) closed at $6.55 on Friday and opened at $6.25. We got into the position at $2.05 and set a stop at $6.15 which was hit on Qualcomm’s way down. The trade netted us a 200% return.

We are setting up for an exciting week with the Fed announcment on Tuesday and corporate earnings still coming in. Cisco Systems ($21.99, unchanged), News Corp. (NWS, $14.57, up $0.17) and Procter & Gamble (PG, $65.82, up $0.87) report earnings on Tuesday.

Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com

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