THERE’S PANIC IN MY PANTS

I bought my second installment of the heavily hated $LULU today at $53.60, as yoga pants went 20% off today.

Back on Gray Monday, I bought my first chunk at $59.

Still one more lot to burn.

OA

Hey listen,

Last week we talked about the idea that the market may gift us with a move away from this range. We tried yesterday, and got Deebo’d.

In our talks of a SHEMITAH STRADDLE™ The worst case scenario in buying options in a trade like this is that you have to buy TWO of them. We talked early on about how pricing was a mess, and it would require a significant move away from this range in order to profit.

Well, if you aimed for the 9/23 expiry, not all hope is lost. The meteor is much closer to earth now, and the premiums are probably only down 20-25% on either side.

Keep praying. Not to be saved, but for an opportunity to win on that trade.

I bought some USD/JPY and am hoping we roll over a little here for a long. I am looking to buy my second piece of $LULU here after it shit its yoga pants this morning. Other than that, I got very little.

OA

What is this? I do not understand this open.

If you are a bull, this market should have gapped the hell higher this morning, forcing you to pay top shelf prices for equities, since you lacked the appropriate sized balls to purchase yesterday.

If you are a bear, you are an asshole. But we should have gapped up to stop you out before crashing lower later today.

Anyway, no gaps?! Sitting at the 50 yard line of this diseased tape. There is some defending that needs to be done here, but even I am skiddish as to why we had no pain this morning. The market just sorta opened? Nobody knows what to do with such nonsense here yet this morning.

Where are we headed today? Got an opinion?

As discussed yesterday, the pain trade coming into today was definitely higher. Great showing on behalf of the bears though, as the open was sold non stop back down to fill the gap.

What can we make of the day here thus far?

For starters, we’re still holding gains on the session, and the old range here on its first attempt is holding as support. This is where you, the calculated being that you are, purposefully avoided buying the gap up, to wait for lower prices here this afternoon. Now you have them. Want a feel good signal here today? Take Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google. None of them are following the trajectory of the market here this morning. The longer they hold up, the better the opportunity is here. Also, I took 500 points out of the /NKD last night, which still has a lot of room to go, and the USD/YEN is on fucking fire (read: boolish).

What do I not like about the market here? When had a positive divergent current this morning until we saw an extreme reading in the $TICK about an hour ago. That usually makes me pause on trying to locate a spot to buy on an intraday level.

If the NASDAQ takes out its low here on the day, and the Russell does not, I’m a buyer here today.

Top stocks? SINA, CTRP, SOHU…DATA, TSLA.

One can only think that the silence is frustration sweeping over the crowd. Why is it that longs are constantly forced to participate from higher prices? That’s what feels most comfortable right? Well, longs are now thinking “fuck you, I won’t pay.” They all learned their lessons buying the gaps higher over the last two weeks. My best guess is that most are thinking “well, this is that same gap I’ve bought so eagerly recently, and then in turn been fed spoonfuls of losses. I’ll insert my better judgement and pass on this action and wait for a move lower to buy.”

This gap is different.

Due to the collective silence I am enamored with here, I did the following today…

Added second blocks to the LT positions I picked up on Grey Monday (8/24 – $ZG, $FEYE, $SPLK). All except $LULU. I will add to that after earnings.

I bought more $IL and also picked up shares of $BTE and $ADXS.

I bought Sep 113 calls in $AAPL, and am currently looking at 3 month calls in $SINA, $DDD, $GOGO and $ZG. In each of these, I plan to sell short dated premium against them, looking to get my basis down to zero over the next several weeks.

More later,

OA

Maybe its just me, but this was the most despondent 300 point gap up I may have ever seen.

On Friday we broke the lower end of the trading range we’ve been in for the last few weeks, and traded right back up into it at the close. You know what they say…from failed moves come fast moves.

I’m building my shopping list today. Seems we may be getting ready to leave this range for a bit. I’m long the TF here this morning, and my oil stop hit right before the bitch went Ol’ Faithful. Let’s trade some stocks this week…what are you buying?

OA