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Watchlist for August 19, 2005

By Michael on Aug 19, 2005 in Watchlists

Today is options expiration so no trading for me unless I see a really “unusual suspect”. As long-time readers know I don’t like to do much on the Thursday and Friday of expiration weeks — which answers this question which was emailed to me this morning:

I was curious to know if you traded CCBL yesterday? Very good dummy play, but it might not have been unusual enough to be even looked at. Did your scanner pick this up?

I did see it on my scanner yesterday. If it wasn’t expiration time I certainly would have tried it when it dropped below the 11:15 candle.

On another note, all traders should read the article about trading journals that I linked to yesterday. For a great example of a trader who keeps a very detailed journal take a look at these posts by TXTrader (it sure would be nice if one could easily search that blog and/or if it had categories!): Trading Journals: Heat Map and The Trading Day: Breaking It Down and Time Segmented P&L / Updated

Potential swing trades:

Longs - None

Shorts - None

Potential day trades:

(From Briefing.com)

Gapping Down

Gapping down on disappointing earnings/guidance: BEBE -5%, GPS -4.2%, SHRP -1.5%…. Other News: NWAC -5.3% (mechanic strike deadline looms), UTEK -14% (co says it is uncomfortable in confirming previous guidance; Merrill downgrade), DSCO -9% (provides Surfaxin update), EWEB -6%, CPN -5%, GROW -4.4%, ALY -3.6% (prices stock offering), SHPGY -3%, EFJI -2.7% (prices stock offering).

Gapping Up

Gapping up on strong earnings/guidance: CHINA +13%, ADSK +6.4%, MRVL +2%, BRCDE +3.6%… Other News: KO +2.3% (UBS upgrade), ENG +16%, VEXP +15%, NYER +8.2%, DPH +8% (Lehman upgrade), BLDP +6% (announces supply agreement), VRTX +5% (JP Morgan upgrade), MYOG +5% (extends yesterday’s 60% move), BCON +5%, TIVO +4% (speculation that Google’s stock offering may be used to buy TIVO), GEPT +3.5%…Stem cell stocks are higher on a positive Reuters report: STEM +8%, ASTM +6%, GERN +3.5%….  Under $3: CIEN +4.4%.

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  1. 7 Comment(s)

  2. By txtrader on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    Mike,
    I agree,my trading will be very light today due to options expirations.Swings are to wild and it’s difficult to really know where your exits are.NEW hmmmm.I love to short that stock.Thanks for the links,ahem,I also agree I could use categories on my blog.My web skills could use a little schooling for sure,I’m working on that.I’m always open to suggestions, my new email is txtrader91@yahoo.com :-)

  3. By Michael on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    Oh yeah, I knew I saw NEW somewhere recently!

    As for the blog, I think there are ways to add categories to Blogspot sites but they’re probably pretty involved. For searching you could get Google’s tool which will allow people to just search your site. The better option would be to go with a different blog platform that has all that stuff built in! :-)

  4. By txtrader on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    Thanks Mike,

    Yes, NEW is my baby,at least for now.It’s holding 42.00 for now,but if it cracks I see a move down to about $34-$33.00 .Otherwise we have some short squeeze plays in it.

    Blog:I’m leaning in the direction of going with another platform, then I can have pages of just Trade Journals,Trades,Market Commentary, etc…

    Thanks for the advice,much appreciated.

  5. By Michael on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    You may want to consider going with DreamHost & WordPress. DreamHost is really cheap (ridiculously so if you use the coupon code) and they have a one-click install for WordPress. I wrote a little something about them last month when I moved my site to their servers.

  6. By q8trader on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    Hi
    how are you ?
    I’m new to options , so can you kindly advise why it is not good to trade on options expiration dates ? and how to track a stock and use the option info. for this stock either as a buying or selling signal ?
    I’d appreciate if you have any related links, articles or posts >
    good day

    Adel

  7. By Michael on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    Adel,

    When I started trading I quickly learned that strange things can and often do happen during expiration weeks. I’d also read advice in books to not trade on the last 2 days of an expiration week. Much of what goes on is people pinning stocks to strike prices.

    I know absolutlely nothing about options so I can’t answer your other question…

  8. By brich on Aug 19, 2005 | Reply

    Adel, check Nasd’s site for an overview on options: http://www.nasdaq.com/options/education_area.stm

    Mike, great insight regarding the options expiration week. I will avoid trading now, or at least not risk as much when it gets close to the end of the expiration week. I was unable to get into any real profitable trades these past few days, and now it has occured to me why that might be :)

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