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-- Posted Sunday, 21 October 2007 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
Rick’s Picks “Phenomenally accurate forecasts” Inches from despair, battered and bruised by a stock market maniacally on the rise, we’d nearly given up hope of enjoying a “fun” expiration day any time soon. Boy, were we ever wrong! The Dow took an exhilarating 370-point plunge on Friday as October puts and calls breathed their last – and for a few glorious hours all seemed right with the world. Fortunately, we weren’t just idle spectators, having made a bearish bet late the previous day Thursday. It wasn’t a Hidden Pivot gambit, just a hunch that the QQQs lacked the cohones to take on some daunting peaks recorded in the last week or so, including the one just before October 11’s entertaining cliff-dive.
With the Cubes hovering just beneath those highs toward the end of Thursday’ session, we decided to take our chances, buying some November 52 puts @ 0.60. The trade was not an official “Tout,” just an idea tossed out amidst the usual shuck-and-jive of the Rick’s Picks chat room. Much to our surprise, on entering the room Friday morning we discovered that several subscribers had been right behind us buying the puts. Naturally, they were feeling pretty feisty, stocks having opened ugly that morning. Lo, by day’s end our puts had doubled in value. We decided to hold onto half of them in case Friday’s sell-off proves to be just the warm-up for a good-old-fashioned October avalanche.
Google, of course, was the turd in the punchbowl, gapping up nearly $20 on the opening and holding onto fully half of those gains until the final minutes of the session. However, we took some satisfaction in watching those who held positions in the stock at the close kick, claw, punch and bite each other as they struggled to manipulate GOOG’s settlement price ahead of the weekend. The last recorded sale, or overnight “mark,” was fluctuating by as much as $6 from one tick to the next, ping-ponging between $644 and $650. If the settlement price given in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal is at the higher end of that range, we would infer that bulls took desperate measures to artificially jack up the price. For all their effort, though, these thimble-riggers risked getting their asses handed to them on Monday morning.
And wouldn’t that be lovely…
*** Information and commentary contained herein comes from sources believed to be reliable, but this cannot be guaranteed. Past performance should not be construed as an indicator of future results, so let the buyer beware. Rick's Picks does not provide investment advice to individuals, nor act as an investment advisor, nor individually advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment. From time to time, its editor may hold positions in issues referred to in this service, and he may alter or augment them at any time. Investments recommended herein should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor, and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. Rick's Picks reserves the right to use e-mail endorsements and/or profit claims from its subscribers for marketing purposes. All names will be kept anonymous and only subscribers’ initials will be used unless express written permission has been granted to the contrary. All Contents © 2007, Rick Ackerman. All Rights Reserved. www.rickackerman.com
-- Posted Sunday, 21 October 2007 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
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