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Hand to Hand Combat in the Options Pits

RobotTrader's picture




 

Things are really starting to get wild.  CNBC should just eliminate the NYSE trading floor shots and replace them with battle scenes from "Hamburger Hill" or some of the medieval battles in "Lord of the Rings".  Basically, everyone is out for blood today as panicked put and call holders are getting barbecued with Goldman's flamethrowers or getting bludgeoned to death by spiked clubs.

The games started on the open with moonshot moves in RF, ZION, STI, etc. as panicked short sellers ran for the hills. 

Then the "Oil Glut" report came out, and once USO spiked up, everyone started dryhumping OIH, XLE, GDX, etc.  But then came a sudden collapse in gold and oil, and immediately any and all commodity, emerging market, infrastructure stocks were sold with the utmost urgency.

That sent stocks down and the robots immediately started playing the "failed double top" play by shorting aggressively for the "net big leg down".

But unfortunately, the massive bout of selling intraday left most REITs, retailers and banks completely unfazed.

And as the QQQQ's blew out to new highs led by the BRCM meatball, everyone looked around and started second guessing the idea of shorting.

Just the same old battlefield tactics for Options Expiration.

Any stock that was heavily shorted was skying non-stop.  Examples like SWN, FSLR.

Of course, banks, mortgage insurers, retailers, etc. were unfazed through it all.  Check out the non-stop meltup in Wells Fargo:

 

And any stock with upside momentum that looked like it was going to break out was shanked.  Pick any gold stock today.  Completely smoked.

 

"Hard Asset" plays got bombed, despite the repeated, tiring, clarion calls of:

"This Is It!!"

"It is Now!!"

"OTC Derivatives are going to kill us all!!"

"Gotta be in it to win it!"

"It's up to $1,650, and then to Alf's numbers!"

Who the heck is Alf anyway?  The one from Sesame Street?

LOL...

 

Anyway, just more of the same with all sorts of junk being bought today.  Like Furniture Brands hitting new, 52-week highs..

Who is going to stop the consumer?

Funny how Goldman's efforts to squeeze out shorts in consumer and finance stocks and blow away call buyers on "Gloom and Doom" sectors creates a self-perpetuating, self-fufilling momentum on its own.

How else can the retail sector be performing so well with consumer confidence waffling around world record lows?

Today's intraday chart on the OIH pretty much sums up the absurd stop-running action today....

Watching these intraday charts during Options Expiration, I feel like I'm watching The Outer Limits....

 

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Wed, 03/10/2010 - 16:54 | 260958 BlackBeard
BlackBeard's picture

you like to see red on your blotter before you see green eh? pension pimp?

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:04 | 260973 Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

BlackBeard,

I'm no pension pimp, more like a pensions PRICK. You must be one of those hedge fund whores who kept pestering me for allocations, telling me you "freed up some more capacity" in your wonderful hedge fund. Only thing I see in solars over the long-term is green. Here is a pic of the future, douche:

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:07 | 260984 BlackBeard
BlackBeard's picture

yes. Roar oh mighty destroyer of wealth.  roar loud.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:11 | 260995 Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

And what have you created lately, except for written diarrhea?

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:14 | 261002 BlackBeard
BlackBeard's picture

A big stiffy.  But what's really important is that I don't destroy retirees.....

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:11 | 261017 Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

I don't destroy retirees because I only answer to myself. No risk manager breathing down my neck asking me to cut my positions, no pension arsehole calling me asking me what my gross and net exposures are, no clients asking me why their portfolio is volatile...none of that shit...just me and that BIG BITCH we call the stock market. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:47 | 261047 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

You're such a tough guy Leo. How tall are you, about 5' 4"?

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 23:59 | 261406 Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

Why do you ask? Trust me, I'm not your type...lol.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:30 | 261026 Orly
Orly's picture

Way to go, Leo!

I say to hell with decorum.  If these idiots want to keep calling you names, then fight fire with fire.

The man is entitled to his opinion, douchebag pricks and whores!  Now, leave him alone.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:30 | 261223 whacked
whacked's picture

+10

 

everyone can form their own judgment

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 08:03 | 261573 35Pete
35Pete's picture

+10

Leo's opinions are sometimes a little too "mainstream", but he does lay out his arguments and provides a countervoice to a lot of stuff. His arguments aren't the same old cliched banalities that justifiably frost people. So I too don't understand the abuse. Like George Patton said, "If everyone's thinkin' the same, then no one's thinkin'". 

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 04:56 | 261543 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

It's blue not green, lol. Nevertheless, blue solar panels means the panels are not absorbing the blue wavelength. So, it's not efficient enough.

The future should be black!--a field of black solar panels.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:02 | 260970 assumptionblindness
assumptionblindness's picture

I need to find a blind and deaf schizophrenic retard to pick stocks for me.  No offense to Mr. Cramer, of course.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:07 | 260980 BlackBeard
BlackBeard's picture

You have one, he just gave you a couple of his favourite solar picks and then followed up with a mighty "THIS IS SPARTA!!!!".  Goodluck. lol

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:09 | 260988 Reductio ad Absurdum
Reductio ad Absurdum's picture

I can only imagine that jobless claims will be "lower than expected" tomorrow and the market will go up accordingly. Same thing for retail sales and consumer sentiment on Friday, although the effect may be lesser.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:12 | 260997 Ragnarok
Ragnarok's picture

Massively off topic, was anybody as suprised at the natural gas inventory over the last couple of months?  If you would have told me we were going to burn off all that record storage in the Fall I would have called you a liar. Yet, here we are.  Good thing I kept my powder dry.  Rig count is up too.

 

http://ir.eia.doe.gov/ngs/ngs.html

http://investor.shareholder.com/bhi/rig_counts/rc_index.cfm

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:38 | 261116 Rainman
Rainman's picture

El Nino conditions has kept a lingering cold spell and moisture in the normally warmer Southwest US this winter. Snowmaggedon elsewhere must have burned it up too. Might be an explanation.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:15 | 261006 Commander Cody
Commander Cody's picture

Whoa!  Rally on dudes!

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:22 | 261014 Fritz
Fritz's picture

Risk on!

...no wait...

Risk off!

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:22 | 261016 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

robottrader options expiration is the 3rd Friday of each month.....your thesis, although warranted, is a week early.....kind of like bizarroworld all over again

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:32 | 261031 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Leo has been right on, on his liquidity tsunami. Not so much on the solars. You can't buy that story till oil gets thru 85-90. But he just might get the last laugh. Rave on Leo- it makes my day.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:35 | 261114 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Govnts worldwide are flush with cash for subsidies. What credit crisis?

Germany has nothing better to worry about than keeping expensive and lagging alternatives affordable for the over-employed around the world. With wage inflation and rising home prices around the globe PV is the next coming of the Zip Drive.

Go long Iomega!

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 09:14 | 261599 blindfaith
blindfaith's picture

Oil 85-90...you might as well kiss off any hope of recovery at 80 let alone 85-90 oil.

AS for the un-necessary tit for tat rout and gutter comments that some writers find entertaining, most if not all of us find adolescent and out of place here. And, it make anything you write suspect and or worthless to bother reading. I find myself just skipping right over your name not trusting that you have something worthwhile to say.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:49 | 261048 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Same pattern as Nov. rally which started up before earnings and continued with analyst upgrades . With $220 billion/month deficit spending, zero interest rates, mark to fantancy accounting, 4 to 1 upside volume and complete lack of transpancy, there is no reason this market will not move higher. When there is apparently no risk, its a time to be careful.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:00 | 261059 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Boy, am I glad when they provide those math problems I can do. The acronyms here fly faster than an SOP, IPR, or OR flies out of the mouth of a retired Academy graduate running a down-on-it's-luck military prep school for wayward boys.

Speaking of boys: you know who you are. Clean up your language.

Carry on.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:26 | 261099 RobotTrader
RobotTrader's picture

If only General Jim would have screamed "This Is It!!!" at the March lows and told his CIGA's to load up on tech and consumer stocks......

I guarantee that today, his fax machine and e-mail would not be overflowing with hate mail....

Instead, it would be overflowing with congratulations and thanks...

And by the way, when will Eric King start interviewing some CEO's and chieftains from the top leading sectors?

How about the CEO of Bon-Ton Stores??

LOL.....

 

 

 

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 19:07 | 261159 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

WTF is Bon - Ton?

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:08 | 261207 deadhead
deadhead's picture

retailer in the department store vain.

 

just waiting to die i might add

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 08:26 | 261577 35Pete
35Pete's picture

In it's death rattles it's apparently hellbent on whipsawing the shit out of anything and anyone betting against it, while mostly climbing all the way. Where the #$%$ did that gap-up come from? 

I agree. There is no sound reason why Bon-Ton hasn't been pronounced by the medical staff. But just look at that chart. 

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:28 | 261101 Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper's picture

INTC approaching that magic 21.50  if it trades above for a while then it's on the way to 25

PSYS had an interesting day

GOOG on a mission today

hand to hand combat   jon. jones. style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYP7MZZGYIs

 

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:28 | 261103 MikeNYC
MikeNYC's picture

A $20 drop in the POG is a "sudden collapse?"

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:30 | 261105 RobotTrader
RobotTrader's picture

This one is for Leo.....

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:54 | 261139 Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

Thanks Robo, I am long both...lol!

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 19:09 | 261162 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Leo, now thats funny. Keep it "up".

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 08:23 | 261578 35Pete
35Pete's picture

Finally a hottie. 

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:49 | 261133 Instant Karma
Instant Karma's picture

The Russell 2000 and Nasdaq 100 are really overbought, having sling shot straight up to new intermediate term highs from the recent 7% correction. Really can't see much upside in the next week. But if you sold puts you're cleaning up. However, it's time for the people who bought calls to be punished. Back down to S&P 1100.

In a hyper-liquid enviroment where the market is rigged and being walked higher by the invisible hand, I like big cap tech and energy (although energy is not an officially sanctioned sector as it leads to the production of CO2).

From a risk-reward perspective agriculture has been left for dead (commodity prices). Maybe Jim Rogers will be right this year. I saw him on CNBC in 1995 telling us to buy farmland in Iowa. Should have bought some gold coins. Or AAPL.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:57 | 261143 RobotTrader
RobotTrader's picture

"QE to Infinity or the Fed is History"

Translation:

"Gold to $1,250 and beyond or General Jim is History.."

LOL.....

 

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:19 | 261216 covered
covered's picture

Robo's commentaries are always the most fun to read on this blog even if those "anonymous" people wanna snipe about "language." "Panicked," "spiked," "bludgeoned," "flamethrowers" and "shanked" are some of my favorite words. Robo's photos are pretty artsy, also.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 21:17 | 261252 Bear
Bear's picture

Robot encouraged at your own risk

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 01:52 | 261485 Mr Lennon Hendrix
Mr Lennon Hendrix's picture

Highnoon, IMF gold sold.  I think Japan....maybe China.  There are wildcards, being 1) House of Saud 2) Germany....but I think it was Japan...maybe China.

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 02:33 | 261505 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

What did Jim ever do to you to piss you off so much?

Or does it make you fell better to rip on people'strades that have gone the wrong way?

Well if you bought yesterday, maybe, but from 250 to 1220
isn't a bad move. IF you were smart enough to go long then or at 500 or at 750, that $20 move today didn't hurt tht much. dr

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 19:12 | 261169 zenon
zenon's picture

My reading of the price action is that we are at most a few days before a big top-out.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:01 | 261202 Bear
Bear's picture

What makes you think so?

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:14 | 261213 zenon
zenon's picture

Market is freakingly overbought & about to make negative divergence. It's trying to close the intraday gap in the SPX (1148) and is unable. It's had 2 intra-day selloffs (yesterday and today) on higher volume and is getting to the third time unlucky. Metals are not going along with the bullish pulse; nor is China. Technically many indices (Dow, Nasdaq) are kissing long-term uptrend lines (which since have been broken) from underneath and should meet resistance. Finally, fundamentals have gotten worse in many respects and frankly stink. Punters may be buying AIG and the like but banks are hoarding excess reserves.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 21:13 | 261248 Bear
Bear's picture

Thanks for your well thought out reply. I see the major move in metals today as a repudiation of bull sentiment but China (FXI) had same move as (SPY) today and duplicates move over the last 18 days and SPY volumes near average for last six months (ES a little higher). Fundamentals have been stinkingly bad for last six months ... nothing new here.

I certainly hope you are right with your assessment. at 5:10 PST metals and ES are starting their nightly pump up. If this fails tonight, you may be right.

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 00:42 | 261438 abalone
abalone's picture

Gold has been tracking gains in the SPX500 up until a couple days ago. If gold can be used as a leading indicator than SPX500 will back down towards the 1120 area by weeks end

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 02:01 | 261489 Bear
Bear's picture

Almost 5% divergence of SPY / GLD starting at 10:30 am 03/05/2010. Tonight (03/10/10) is the night ... if ESH0 fails to advance to 1145, slid is away.

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 01:56 | 261487 Mr Lennon Hendrix
Mr Lennon Hendrix's picture

Totally agreed.  Sell is the game for another few weeks, with buying on absolute weakness only....and bras, who doesn't need one of those?  Velobabe?  ;)

Why bring the market down an inch (only an inch, as inflation has seen it's mojo risen)?  Because once 'Merica can "invest" in movies on the Hollywood Futures index, it's going skyhigh!  Skyhigh!  (Is that what he said, skyhigh?)

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:33 | 261226 mynhair
mynhair's picture

Because all the trash has been dashed to.

Only scored SNDK today cuz I was slow on AIG yesterday.

So there.

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 20:23 | 261220 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

This is the new normal, where stocks like Maidenform (MDF) go up EVERY SINGLE DAY for a month and the Russell 2000 gains 17% a month forever.

6 more month of this and I can buy my own island!

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 21:15 | 261250 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Get ready for chinese tightening these next 2 days or the weekend, the vamp squid has sounded out most of its prop desk traders since last week, and a few "clients" received notice yesterday afternoon. That why the end of day action yesterday folks. Tread careful if you are long.

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 05:36 | 261469 Get_to_the_choppa
Get_to_the_choppa's picture

edit: wrong thread.

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 09:08 | 261598 Anonymous
Anonymous's picture

Europe and Asia look to be breaking down or already
broken, while we've been on a tear for a month. Far
as I can tell, global correlation is still 1:1.
So without global QE and global stimulus, well, you
get the picture.

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