12:35pm (EST)
The bulls have gotten off to a good start today following yesterday’s 1% drubbing on semi-inspiring U.S. economic news. Jobless Claims came in under 400,000 at 386,000 but up from last week’s print of 366,000. Wall Street was expecting 379,000. Despite the slight miss, this is the fourth-straight week claims have held under 400K which is considered the break-even level for jobs creation.
Elsewhere, Pending Home Sales were up over 7% as the Index came in at 100.1 for November, its highest level in nearly 20 months. This number can fluctuate because not all sales lead to closings but nonetheless it was a good sign that home buyers are starting to poke around for good deals.
The Dow is up 103 points to 12,254 while the S&P 500 is higher by 10 points to 1,259. The Nasdaq is showing a 19 point pop and is at 2,609.
We would love to see these levels hold and then Dow 12,350; S&P 1,275; and Nasdaq 2,650 on Friday but we also have downside targets we are watching.
There seems to be a split on where the market is headed for January with half the “pros” saying we are in for a bear market while the other half is betting on a bullish breakout. We are more on the bullish side but our portfolio is getting light as we wind down the year and WAIT for the market’s next move. We said this morning to stay light because the trading range could continue if the bulls hold support.
If there isn’t a breakout over the next month or two, and support fails, we aren’t nervous about a market pullback or selloff. We can make just as much profit from buying put options, but the possible trading range we continue to ride doesn’t have to be played unless you are selling options which is a new strategy we may introduce in 2012.
We have been talking about this 2-month range for weeks as we said it could be ongoing. The charts we went over in our video on Monday and in our Weekly Wrap showed the current range we are in and we outlined these “boxes” to give you a clearer picture.
The charts are still bullish and maybe the bulls will need another Bernanke rescue to break through resistance. However, we are keeping our eye to the downside on specific breaking points but until they are triggered, we will sit tight.
Before we go we wanted to remind you of the special we have. Remember, there is also only 2 days left to hit us up on our special offer to get our trading manual and ongoing videos at no cost (an $899 value!). The options course and videos are ongoing and all you have to do is sign-up for a 1-year membership to our Daily newsletter.
We are also including a 1-year Weekly Wrap subscription with your purchase. (Current subscribers, if you recently renewed a 1-year Daily subscription and would like to get this added, please contact us). This newsletter went 16-0 for 2011 and we have a number of trades which could get “called-away” in January. This newsletter recommends solid stocks with high options premiums which act like dividends to produce MONTHLY double-digit gains.
A 1-year membership to the Daily is priced at $924 and the Weekly Wrap 1-year is priced at $599. The trading course, How to Trade Options on Momentum Stocks, is priced at $899. If you go to our subscription page you will see “Annual subscription to Daily and Weekly” for $995, a savings of over 55%! Click on that and we will do the rest.
There aren’t too any option newsletters who can say they have had a good 2011. We can and we have the results to prove it. Our winning percentage will be near 70% for ALL of our trades for 2011 and most fund managers would be happy to be at 52% which means they made money. An exceptional hedge fund manager might average 60% wins on their trades. Obviously, we deserve the right to rub it in but it has been a hard market to trade and a lot of “smart” people were made to look “stupid” and that is not our style.
We try not to gloat because the market can always humble you and the first 7 months were just as hard on us as we were flat coming into August. However, we had an incredible run where we hit on 44 out of 52 trades winning trades which allowed us to coast into year end.
To take advantage, please go to the subscription page. Your discount and trading manual will be applied and shipped with your order and we look forward to another profitable year in 2012!
Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates and we will be back in the morning with our next outlook.
