MON. AUG. 25 THOUGHTS

In real life, every day is important and worth living- good or bad. In the stock market, there are indeed opportunities on a daily basis, but there are certainly days that are more or less important than others. One of the means used to weigh the validity of a move is the trading volume on the day. Friday’s volume was the lightest of the summer. For perspective, the total volume in QQQQ (a device used to trade the NASDAQ 100 index) was 2/3 of the volume on the half-trading day of July 3. We won’t go into the topic of the direction of the market per se. Rather, the point to be made here fro ma day trading perspective is that it is the last week of August. Thus, you must be skeptical of any broader market move made on any given day because stocks can be padded up or down rather easily due to the dearth of participants these next few days. On Friday, oil prices retreated violently, takeover rumors were in abundance, and a myriad of other factors led to good gains, but it is also true that there was simply a paucity of sellers. Similar situations will be in vogue this week with little news flow so if there is a week of the year to be careful and watch that you do not overtrade, this is the week.


Reiterating-New code for the next few days if the whole story is not there -
If something is good, assume either a short thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 based on direction of the market unless specified. If something is bad, assume either a buy thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 based on direction of the market unless specified



Good-

CF- will be added to S&P 500 index

HSNI, IILG- spinoffs of Barry Diller’s IACI; both very strong last week

STP- continued strength on great earnings; stock up 11 plus points in three days

FEED- pre-announced better-than-expected earnings

LDK- raised guidance

Bad-

FNM/FRE- debt downgraded by Moody’s on Friday afternoon

LEH- rumors of a buyout from Friday seem to be false

LVS- weak compared to other casino stocks; looking for bounce here as more of a swing-type play actually

APWR- earnings just below expectations
Not a lot doing.

Light earnings calendar all week; only two before hours and nothing after-hours:

MON AUG 25 BEF

APWR .20/63M .32/104M 1.14/377M 1.75/743M

YZC ? ? 2.33/? 1.82/?

MON AUG 25 AFT


Good luck today.

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