Well, That Was Exciting

7:40 am MT: The market is somewhat neutral out of the gate. I am nibbling in on some of the bullish buy list. I picked up partial positions on CAT, ANR, SLB, PH, and X. I would have loved to get CMI, which was a stock I really emphasized before I left on vacation. But I needed to get CMI last week, and I was gone. As it is, I'm playing for the market to move ahead of the Fed, and the big Economic Reports. It may not, so that's why I'm taking half-sizers for now. X is a little squishy, so I took a 1/3 size position. I also picked up a halfer (notice the term getting smaller and smaller) on SPY. I'm playing it for a breakout of a pseudo Ascending Triangle on the 60m charts. The index (and ETF) are right at resistance.

8:00 am MT: I picked up the other half of my CAT position, which makes it a full position. I also added a little to the X position on the morning pullback, which gets it up to a halfer now.

3:30 pm MT: I picked up some RIO calls earlier in the day to finish out what I want to hold over the next day or two.

There wasn't much to say about today. I find that it is better to just let some days go by without trying to waste brain capacity over-analyzing every tick of the chart. It was what it was, nothing more. It may be that traders are going to stick their hands in their pockets until the Fed and the Economic Reports. If it smells like that theme is going to continue tomorrow, I will lock small profits (if I have them) on about half the trades and scale back ahead of the Fed. The Fed should be no surprise at all. A lot of times traders will speculate ahead of the announcement on a bigger number from the Fed. I don't see it this time around. The Fed Funds Futures have been pretty clear for several weeks about a 25bp cut. Even David Lee Roth - I mean Ben Bernanke - probably won't surprise the market on this one, and I think most traders know that. There is too much inflation concern, and we have had too many 75bp and 50bp cuts already. So I am speculating that traders aren't speculating on a 50bp cut. Which means that Wednesday could shape up to be a non-event, and traders will be more focused on the ISM Thursday, and especially the Jobs Report on Friday.

5:00 pm MT: It's on days like this that I like to take some time to ponder the mysteries of the stock market. After all, if we can't analyze something until it breaks, what's the use of being analysis retentive?

Here is my Deep Market Thought of the Day: If Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Crawford adopted a son who turned out to have super trading powers, would he be Iron Condorman? Later on, if he is bitten by a radioactive bug and develops an acute sense for trading Index ETF's, would he be SPYderman? If he mutated and could only trade one stock for the rest of his life, which was U.S. Steel Corporation, would he be one of the X-men?

What if he had a girlfriend who had superpowers for trading puts on VIP since January. Would she be Buffy the Vimpel Slayer?

What if I wanted to play volleyball in the sand, fly F-14's because I felt "the need for speed", give my buddies high-fives all the time because I thought it was "cool", carry on a manly rivalry with Maverick and Goose, and day trade the Intercontinental Exchange. Would that make me ICEman?

If Indiana Jones already had his Last Crusade, why is he still looking for a Crystal Skull? Since Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, shouldn't he be called Illinois Jones? What if he was from Pennsylvania? Why do Indiana Jones and Hannah Montana get to have States in their names? Can I have a State in my name? Can I be Delaware Dwight?

Delaware Dwight and the Swing Traders. I could have a sidekick named Massachusetts Matt, or how about Pennsylvania Jones.....

ok.....that's a wrap.