I’ve got your hockey sticks for ya, right here!
From a well designed infographic published last week by the finest/free financial aggregator out there (Mint.com), here are 3 very impressive hockey sticks:
Now, obviously most people have been saving their money throughout most of the year, so they were ready to blow their ‘wads’ as the holiday shopping season got underway. However, the fact that the 3 sectors have all exceeded their 2008 peaks is an excellent sign of economic recovery.
(Granted, Mint.com’s user base may not constitute a wholly representative sample of the general cash-spending US population…but these outliers would’ve had to spend significantly less to alter the overall shape of the graphs.)
And check out that impressive year-on-year spending increase that Best Buy had garnered! I know that today’s earnings reaction was not exactly representative of that…but BBY remains nearly 300% off its lows from last November and should be just as strong going forward. No doubt that the lack of competition from other chains such as Circuit City helped (Wal-Mart, Target, et al. aren’t able to compete at a similar level). Options players tend to mostly agree, especially at the Mar’10 strikes, where calls out-traded puts roughly 2:1.
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Personally, another good day on the heels of an excellent Monday led by the timely calls FLR. See, it’s worth paying attention sometimes as amidst all the flotsam, I _can_ come up with a treasure chest or two. Also closed out HPQ long calls while losing a couple other bearish positions to stops.
Got filled on a few new positions, mostly calls. Did however double down on the WMT puts, so the account remains skewed to the bearish side:
And while futures are looking decent at the moment, I have only put trades lined up for Wednesday:
- CF (@87.75), EEM (@41.), GES (@43.), PCLN (@217.), PNRA (add/double down @63.36), QQQQ (add/double down @43.95)), SPLS (@24.)
Hail the King! And Schlumberger, of course…
How are you playing December then, short or long?
Seeing as how we’re still stuck in a neutral/sideways range, I expect about an equal amount of puts/calls for the rest of this month.
Maybe a bit biased to the long side, since quite a few stocks, such as AAPL, got “oversold” quite stealthily and are now on the climb back up.
SLB indeed looking good today; luckily it gapped up enough to not hit the “protective stop”.
Combine that with MUR and USO and we’re looking at another good day, ovah heah.
I’m disappointed I’m still holding SLB, actually. When it topped $70 I actually considered writing calls on somewhere between half to my entire position. It’s a great company, but the dividend is scanty and long term I’m not convinced the profits will outweight the opportunity cost of the moment. Plus, right now I’d have a bunch of extra cash and my entire position, uninhibited. I’ll probably regret that decision in a month or two.
The successful week continues, despite the weaker afternoon action in oil. Booked SLB & USO calls – I’ll take any decent profit in this sideways/boring grind. Yesterday’s double-down on WMT paid off as well.
Good stuff, DPZ. Nice to see order restored around here. I’ve had a position in BDK for the past few months and have been enjoying the rebound in retail.