After the huge rally we got yesterday, the market traded in somewhat of a narrow range. The Dow opened lower and was down triple-digits before turning positive right after lunch. However, by the end of the day the bulls seemed tired and packed it in early. As a result, the Dow ended near its lows for the day and dropped 115 points to close at 7,660.

It was a struggle but confidence looks to be growing in the bulls. My best guess is that we continue this way through Wednesday which will set the stage for Thursday. From there we either go above 8,000 for the Dow or we head back to 7,200.

There are a few postions I want to talk about before I get ready for tomorrow’s action. One of them is the Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO, $8.45, down $0.16) trade. I had mentioned on Monday to set stops at 75 cents (or 65 cents) for the June 10 calls (TUOFB, $0.75, down $0.05) and that was hit today.

Intel (INTC, $15.00, down $0.52) also traded lower which took us out of the April 15 calls (NQDC, $0.86, down $0.26). We were able to get into this position last Monday at 60 cents or better and our stop was $1.00. The calls opened at $1.02 so you should have been taken out of the trade shortly after the market opened.

Amgen (AMGN, $49.00, down $1.91) lost some steam and closed below $50 again. In the Weekly Wrap I said to put a stop of 45 cents on the April 55 calls (YAADK, $0.34, down $0.23). The calls opened at 55 cents but we were taken out of the trade as Amgen bled red all day.

As far as DryShips (DRYS, $5.52, up $0.62), I didn’t mean to confuse anyone by thinking I had jumped in early and was only mentioning it because I was showing a profit. That is not the case. Everyone knows I do my best to try and talk about trades before they happen but sometimes I will take a position on my own as I try to make money on a daily basis. Usually, I never even mention them but today I wanted to point out a few things that I found interesting. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’m still trying to make the blog exciting and more time friendly and I will try and do a better job of letting you know if I do a trade before I actually do one. Just realize that sometimes that may be impossible. The blog is free but for some reason I felt like I was in the doghouse with some of you for not mentioning DryShips sooner.

Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com

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