Our $25K-$100K Portfolio – Week 6 – $31,813
by Phil - March 12th, 2011 8:23 am
Wow, what a ride!
We had a super-busy day on Friday and it’s a great example of exactly why we play this hyper-aggressive virtual portfolio the way we do – with balanced positions on both sides, taking advantages of moves in either direction – not just to cash out winners, but to press our losing bets on the theory that our ranges will continue to hold. They will, of course, break one day – and that’s why we keep such a close eye on our watch levels but, as long as they remain range-bound – it’s just a little gold mine that we can tap over and over and over again.
We caught the downturn on the dime on Wednesday and yesterday it was crazy from the first minute – so much so that I had to send a 7:15 am Alert to Members regarding the earthquake in Japan, an update on the "Day of Rage" (as we expected, a big nothing) and how the Wall Street Journal was once again ripping off my headlines.
On the whole, we got the spike low and then the ridiculous run-up we had expected for Friday – the Japanese quake was just the "reason" de jure for the bots. Although I sincerely hope I do not have to remind our Members of Rule #1 (as we only have two rules) – I did send out another Alert at 9:34 saying: "$25KP Moves. I do not have time to check prices – take money and run on FAZ short calls, USO long puts and EDZ of course. More to follow." - as there was not a second to waste if we were going to sell into this particular excitement.
At 9:40 I was already flipping bullish and we added the DIA March $120 calls at $1.03 in the $25KP and then, by 9:59, we had a slew of adjustments to make, which I will detail below. I did not have time to mention it in the morning, so I will mention it now – one of the only times it is acceptable to put in market orders is when you are selling into the excitement. If you have 3 positions to dump out of before the market turns and 7 other positions to look over to decide what to do with them – you’d better execute those sells but that…
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Sabrient Risers – 3/12/2011
by Sabrient - March 12th, 2011 12:00 am
Top 5 Risers |
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| Stock | Rating | Analysis | ||
| VLO | STRONGBUY | An increasingly positive growth rate of past earnings, along with improving expectations for long term growth, make Valero a good prospect for high returns. | ||
| KRO | STRONGBUY | Kronos Worldwide has been gaining recognition from analysts as a good canditate for achieving higher than expected earnings along with higher overall projected valuation. | ||
| SFI | BUY | iStar is one of the top candidates projected to achieve both higher than previously projected earnings in the short run and a higher earnings growth rate in the long run. | ||
| AMAT | STRONGBUY | Applied Materials has been gaining recognition from analysts as a good canditate for achieving higher than expected earnings along with higher overall projected valuation. | ||
| TRW | STRONGBUY | TRW has been gaining recognition from analysts as a good canditate for achieving higher than expected earnings along with higher overall projected valuation. | ||
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Crashiversary Week – Friday Shakedown – Earthquake Edition
by Phil - March 11th, 2011 7:24 am
What’s shaking?
That was a special message for our friends in Japan, who are very shaken today with an 8.9 quake which is, of course, devastating. Here’s a picture and notice how stuff is just pulverized (before being washed away by the 30-foot Tsunami that followed (on the right of the picture):
![[1jquake0311]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-MZ267_1jquak_F_20110311051517.jpg)
Somehow they are saying only 29 dead but I can’t see that. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated and 4.1M people lost power so far. Poor New Zealand was recently hit and now they have Tsunami warnings too (as does Hawaii).
![[JQUAKE]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AI-BJ019_JQUAKE_NS_20110311020306.jpg)
At 3:24 p.m., a large aftershock struck, which could be felt standing on the ground outside of buildings in central Tokyo. People gasped while looking up at skyscrapers swaying gently and construction cranes shaking violently atop half-completed buildings. Glass panels on the ground floor of many newer buildings shimmied but few appeared to break.
Let’s hear it for the World’s strongest building code! I very much doubt US buildings would fare so well.
This will make a Japanese rate hike out of the question, probably for the rest of this year and so will be a dollar booster and EDZ will, of course, be flying. This is not the way we like to win on our bets, unfortunately but it is a very good object lesson about why it is very foolish not to always have some kind of disaster protection in your portfolio – because you never do know when a disaster is going to strike.
Over time, it’s complacency that kills you…
Meanwhile, my kids are home today because their school is flooded – we are screwing up this planet in all kinds of crazy ways aren’t we? I’m sure if we ignore all this stuff or call for "further research" (funded of course by the very same businesses that cause the pollution) for another few decades it will all be fine.

Oil is way down at $99.90 – so much for the "Day of Rage," which is kind of a fizzle in Saudi Arabia - If there is such a thing as a "long-squeeze" then you may be seeing it today as speculators need to
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Sabrient Divers – 03/11/2011
by Sabrient - March 11th, 2011 12:00 am
Top 5 Divers |
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| Stock | Rating | Analysis | ||
| CPB | SELL | Expectations for Campbell Soup are decreasing along with projected valuation. | ||
| AEE | SELL | Recent earnings changes for Ameren are troublesome, as is a sinking projected valuation. | ||
| ATPG | SELL | With projected value going down even more quickly than their recent historical earnings, ATP Oil and Gas is not looking good. | ||
| CVG | SELL | With projected value going down even more quickly than their recent historical earnings, Convergys is not looking good. | ||
| AFAM | STRONGSELL | Expectations for Almost Family are decreasing along with projected valuation. | ||
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Bulls Scoop Up Sprint Nextel Corp. Calls
by Andrew Wilkinson - March 10th, 2011 4:33 pm
Today’s tickers: S, FTR, JTX & SBUX
S - Sprint Nextel Corp. – Medium-term bullish positioning is building up in Sprint Nextel Corp. options today with shares in the name trading 3.00% higher on the session at $4.84 as of 12:20pm in New York. Investors expecting shares in the provider of various communications products and services to extend gains through May expiration engaged in plain-vanilla call buying, purchasing the options out-right to position for shares to potentially reach a new 52-week high in the next couple of months. Volume is heaviest at the May $6.0 strike where 20,750 calls have changed hands versus previously existing open interest of 7,482 contracts. It looks like roughly 18,000 of the calls were picked up at a premium of $0.08 each. Call buyers make money if Sprint’s shares jump 25.6% over the current price of $4.84 to surpass the effective breakeven price of $6.08 by expiration day in May. Sprint Nextel Corp. is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings before the market opens for trading on April 28, 2011.
FTR - Frontier Communications Corp. – Put volume on the communications company jumped today after sizable trades were initiated in the May contract. It looks like investors responsible for the put activity may be purchasing the contracts to brace for bearish movement in the price of the underlying stock. Shares in Frontier Communications Corp. are currently down 0.90% to stand at $8.00 as of 12:30pm. The selection of the May contract put options could be coincident with the firm’s first-quarter earnings report, which is scheduled for release before the opening bell on May 5, 2011. One trader appears to have purchased some 3,000 puts at the May $8.0 strike for a premium of $0.40 each. The investor starts to make money on the put-acquisition if shares in FTR decline 5.0% from the current price of $8.00 to breach the effective breakeven point at $7.60 by May expiration day. Volume is greatest, however, at the lower May $7.0 strike where 15,000 put options…

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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(