Please check out the link: "If I Were The Devil" here and permanently off to the right.

First off I apologize to those of you who could not here the audio on the two video casts I did last night.  After making a fool out of my self talking to a still camera for two minutes and thirty four seconds, I recorded that first video.  My play back was low on volume, but that was a good thing because Jack was in bed.

What I did not know was that the high end fancy shmancy microphone was about four feet away from where I was recording the video.  This is not a good omen for a guy who is thinking about opening a recording studio.  Mmmmmm.

Except for that, I got a few nice comments about the two videos.  Yes I did have notes posted on each side of the camera so I could keep as much eye contact on the camera as possible.  For the person who said I could have dressed nicer, send me a photo of what you are wearing while you listen or read and I'll see what I can do.

Today was day three of Jack's new adventure at Halstrom High School.  He had geometry and Spanish.  It was the first time in 3 years he said he really liked Spanish.  Good news, though I am intrigued to see what his teacher looked like.  I loved American Lit in High School.  Ben what was her name, Mrs. Dimaggio?  But I Digress.

Thursday is jack's early day as his first class starts at 8:00.  We were there by 7:30.  I made it to Bruegger's, by 8:00 and read IBD cover to cover.  Oh yeah baby!  That took about 25 minutes, then I was off to Target to buy cleaning supplies for the lovely ladies who keep our house clean.

I was excited about them coming because I got the office to a point where they could actually dust and vacuum.  Of course I had to move a lot of devins stuff to the workout room, so it's a mess now.  C'est la vie.

I did start out the day by putting my foot in a puddle of doggy diddle.  Our big golden boy Max is on steroids, (Don't worry we have stripped him of all of his Olympic medals) for some disorder that makes him drool (looks better as druel) and rots his teeth.  Anyway the roids make him really thirsty and despite my best effort, he drank a bunch and could not make to 5:51 AM.  GREEN MACHINE to the rescue. 

I had a quick lunch at Hanna's (a bowl of sirloin chili) and Dave presented me with two really cool David Newman original art pieces for the studio.  Thanks Dave.  Plus he came by a walked the place with me and he gave it a thumbs up.

Then I picked up Jack and we headed to Verizon to power up my brand new Apple Mini iPad.  Unfortunately the serial number was not in Verizon's files so it will be 48 hours before was can get it on their network.  I like what I see so far.  I like the size, just about the size of the Amazon Fire, but thinner and lighter.  Can't wait to play with it tomorrow.

I got jack home in time to have Mr. Napoli remediate some of Jack's Geo homework.  I got to review some of my trades for the day and watch some tutorial videos from a new stock trading website called, SpikerTrade.  It is strictly for day traders, which I did a bit of today, so let's get to the real boring stuff. 

(Actually, I just read that and it was pretty boring all by itself.)

It went down, down ,down, in that ring of fire.

The market has been down 6 of the last nine sessions.  The S&P slipped another couple of points so that is not a good sign.  The real scary things is the big cap to big to fall stocks are all giving back my gains.  The big core equities like MSFT, CVX, XOM, ABT, INTC, and the like are all selling off.  Friday is an option expiration day, so I am hoping that is contributing to the sell off.  If not, it means that we have some of the big casino players generating some cash.

Perhaps they have been reading my blog.  I have been suggesting to take profits since October 10, 2012.  With all the pin action, I have been forced into day trading.  Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad thing, it just takes a little more focus and attention, which I currently don't have much of.

Here were my plays today.  We told you we shorted ANF, Abercrombie and Fitch yesterday at 39 looking for 36.  Still lookin.

Today we went longer on a trade which is really an addition to a current core position.  AGU, the agriculture pick that does herbicides and pesticides and some fertilizers.  Inflation is ticking up and we feel it's a good long term bet.  My day trading skills says that 97.19 was a good entry point.

We also took a day trade on NTAP as NetAp historically shows a nice upswing after a beat like last night with 51 cent earnings.  We will see if we can most of the 10% upside swing.  I am looking for 32.50 in two weeks with a stop at $28.00. 

My bragging rights for the day was PETM Petsmart.  Whisper.com suggests that a beat like they had yesterday after close of 75 cents, that we can see an upside of almost 10%.  Looks like we got most of that in a couple of hours.  I am learning the charts, but use the 2 year weekly with Average Volume, MACD (12, 26, 9), Momentum (14) and RSI (20).  Those indicators did not support a 10% rise, but they did not suggest it could not happen.  Same Store sales looked good, up 6.5% and the higher margin service sector (grooming, training, pet hotels etc) showed healthy growth (+8.7%).  We are not along term holder of PETM because we see WMT and COST taking some of their kibble away and there are attempts by AMZN and EBAY to get under their collar.  Molloy the CFO will be stepping down soon and that is always a red flag in my book, though this looks like a seamless passing of the guard.  (Some institution investors automatically rebalance after a C suite change.)  On the earnings call, Molloy got asked a few questions about the 53rd week this year that could have made the numbers squishy, but he handled then well and the team gave decent guidance for 2013 which is why we saw the pop up.

I got in at  66.99 and sold out two hours later at $69.30.  My target was $70.00.  I'd like to say I was a genus, but I have to give a lot of the credit to SpikeTrade.com.  I say that because they paces they put you through before you execute a trade make it difficult to make a stupid trade.

I went through 11 equities before I found one that made sense and this trade paid for about 4 months membership in spiketrade.com.  Don't misunderstand me, you still have to all the work, but you have to fill in the blanks as you do it.

You have to choose a stock, the direction (long or short) explain your reasoning, (using fundamental analysis and technical analysis), choosing and explaining your entry point, choosing and explaining your exit point, and announcing your stop or stop loss.  This all get published in their member community, if you say I bought McDonalds because their new eggamuffin is great, you will catch a lot of flack.  These are serious successful traders.  In other words I am way out of my league.  Starting off with a 3.45% gain in two hours is not a bad thing.

Since I am so well read today, let see what went on and what might move the market tomorrow.

Italy, Spain and The Netherlands are all in recession and Spain and Germany on the edge.  A lot of folk are watching that real close.

The news today that BP will have to pay 4.5 Billion as part of their settlement opens the door for the civil lawsuits.  Look for the number to be in the 10-14 billion range and that will hold oil stocks down a few days once announced.  I mention it because the energy sector will drap the S&P and DOW even lower.

A clever analyst from Barclay's brought up the 53rd week issue on the PETM call.  That could bring into question quite a few of the marginally positive retail numbers we have seen in the last couple of weeks.

The Philly and Empire Mfg reports will define the loss of factory production from Sandy.  It will not be pretty.  Neither will the employement number as there are still a bunch of folk out of work.

Late today, it was announced that the FHA is almost 14 billion more in debt.  I am sure we will come to rescue again.  The administration has already set in motion a write off program. 

The temporary lull in oil prices will probably end now with tension getting higher and higher in the Gaza strip.  Hamas and Israel are lobbing bombs at each other almost everyday now.  The White House is playing a very low key role in this loose loose situation.

All of that does not bode well for nice options expiration day tomorrow.  This could be a very black Friday? 

Salve Lucrum

Since 10/10/2012

I am not a professional investment advisor. Anybody reading my blog and investing accordingly must be out of their minds. I have made more money than I have lost. There are many more qualified people than I to actually tell you how to invest your money.

BAGAKOAA=Boys And Girls And Kids Of All Ages

Salve Lucrum=Latin for Hurrah for Profit.

2012 Year Ending

Dow 13,073

S&P 500 1,358

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