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Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
9:00am
The bulls battled back on Tuesday and were able to recover much of Monday’s losses as Wall Street and the rest of the world awaited Apple’s (AAPL, $560.28, down $11.42) earnings announcement after the close.
The Dow added nearly 75 points, or 0.6%, to settle at 13,001. The index traded up to 13,050 and reclaimed support as 80% of the Dow’s blue-chips ended the session in positive territory. Out of the losers, Wal-Mart (WMT, $57.77, down $1.77) continued its move lower following the weekend headlines of bribery and cost the index 13 points.
The S&P 500 gained 5 points, or 0.4%, to end at 1,371. The index traded down to 1,366 at the open and made a high of 1,375 which was right at resistance.
The Nasdaq slipped 9 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 2,961. Tech started the session in the red and made a brief trip into positive territory before lunch but spent the second half trying to get back to even.
As far as Apple…
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We are one of the fastest growing stock options trading advisors on the internet and we are off to a powerful start for 2012. We offer 2-3 call or put option trades each week (depending on market conditions) aimed at triple-digit returns for our Daily newsletter and MONTHLY double-digit gains for our Weekly Wrap. Our 2012 Track Record is now an incredible 72-18 (an 80% win rate!).
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Our Weekly Wrap Covered Call Portfolio is 19-0 for 2012. We were 16-0 in 2011. Some of our sweet returns include +55% on SZYM, +27% on CLNE, +38% on VVUS, +19% on MGM, 18% on DNDN, and 20% on DAR. Remember, if you can make 20% on just 5 trades, you will double your money. Sign up now and get access instantly!
Tags: MONTHLY double-digit gains, option trading recommendations, stock options trading advisors
Posted in Apple, Earnings, Market Analysis | Comments Off
Monday, April 16th, 2012
1:30pm (EST)
The market is mixed as we head into the second half of trading as the blue-chips are up while both the S&P 500 and Tech are trending lower. Futures were pointing towards a nice pop at the open but the Nasdaq has been weak for much of the session after a positive open. Apple (AAPL, $587.49, down $17.74) and Google (GOOG, $606.29, down $18.31) were leading the Tech sector lower, as both try to hold down the $600 level.
As far as economic news, Retail Sales rose 0.8% in the month of March. Excluding autos and gasoline, the core reading was up 0.7%, versus forecasts for an increase of 0.5%. The Empire Manufacturing Index came in at 6.56, which was well below expectations for a print of 18 while the Housing Market Index for April came in at 25, versus expectations for a reading of 29. And finally, Business inventories were up 0.6% in February, matching expectations.
Citigroup (C, $34.07, up $0.66) is up 2% after reporting better-than-expected earnings but missing on sales. The company reported a profit of $1.11 a share on revenue of $19.4 billion. Wall Street was expecting $1 a share on revenue of $19.8 billion.
As we head to press, the Dow is up 90 points to 12,939 while the S&P is up less than a point to 1,370. The Nasdaq is down 21 points to 2,990.
One of our current trades was stopped out today. Lululemon Athletica (LULU, $73.02, down $0.49) traded higher at the open and our Hard Stop was triggered. We made a nice 25% return in under 2 weeks and we may be back to play this name again, soon. Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates.
Tags: AAPL, C earnings, GOOG
Posted in Apple, Economic News, Google | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
9:00am (EST)
The bears had a slight edge going into Monday’s session as negative news from overseas weighed on Wall Street. The bulls were roaming on Sunday night as futures were up which lead us to believe Monday would be an up day despite the fact the indexes opened lower. We said in our Weekly Wrap and Monday Morning Outlook that we expect one last push towards our “fluff” targets and yesterday pop past resistance puts us halfway there.
The Dow gained 52 points, or 0.4%, to end at 13,264. The blue-chips made a triple-digit bounce off the low of 13,153 and traded to a high of 13,297. Our near-term target from January has been 13,500 which is only a 2% move from current levels. Support remains 13,200-13,000. Dow component, Alcoa (AA, $10.17, up $0.15) was up nearly 2% and will kick-off 1Q earnings season next Tuesday.
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If you are not a subscriber but would like to read more please click here. We have some super cool charts to show you today on the S&P 500 and Lululemon Athletica (LULU, $74.74, up $0.01). This week and next could offer big clues on if the rally continues or if the bulls are in for a big surprise.
Tags: AA, Alcoa Earnings, Apple, LULU options, LULU stock price, stock options trading advisors
Posted in Apple, Earnings | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
9:00am (EST)
The bulls got off to a good start for the week following Friday’s flat action and put up some good numbers yesterday. Much of the advance was thanks in part to Apple’s (AAPL, $601.10, up $15.53) dividend announcement but the Financial stocks did well again and continue to set new 52-week highs.
The Dow gained 6 points to end at 13,239 after trading to a high of 13,269 and testing a low of 13,208. The S&P 500 also added a half-dozen points to close at 1,410 after kissing a high of 1,414. The index traded down to 1,402 at the open but held 1,400. The Nasdaq was strong from start to finish as Tech jumped 23 points, or 0.75%, to settle at 3,078. Side Note: The Russell 2000 added over 7 points to finish at 837.77 but more importantly, the index finally broke above resistance which we talked about in our Weekly Wrap and yesterday morning.
American Express (AXP, $57.27, up $0.72) added another 1% and reached a fresh 52-week high of $57.50 on Monday. We said last week shares were headed to $60 when we recommended a call option trade to our subscribers. It is now up 438% in under a week.
Capital One (COF, $55.10, up $0.60) came within spitting distance of breaking its 52-week high of $56.26 set last May after closing at double-nickels and peaking at $56.19. We also have a near-term target of $60 for shares and subscribers are now up over 300% on our Capital One call option trade since last Tuesday.
Bank of America (BAC, $9.53, down $0.27) broke double-digits but didn’t set a new 52-week high. Shares did, however, trade to a high of $10.10 before the talking heads ruined it as they finished the session down 3%. The 52-week high is at $14.05 for BAC but we have been recommending the stock since it was at $5 back in December for our Weekly Wrap.
We were watching Apple’s WEEKLY options yesterday and we wanted to pull the trigger on the March 600 calls (AAPL120323C00600000, $10.75, up $2.60) but they opened at $12.20 and we were looking to send out a Trade Alert to buy them for under $10. The calls traded to a high of $14.40 but the premiums at the open were already built-in after the dividend announcement.
The calls did trade down to $6.95 but we didn’t want to get whipsawed because shares are in uncharted blue-sky territory. It is still an expensive trade and one we don’t often do but we are looking at ways to play Apple because they aren’t splitting the stock anytime soon. However, we won’t be trading 10 or 20 contracts because we would be risking a half or third of the profits we have already banked for the year. A 10 contract trade on an option priced at $10 will set you back $10,000 and 1 contract would cost $1,000.
This is another reason why we don’t typically trade options on stocks over $100 because it is so much easier to take smaller risks than to try and day trade Apple. We would rather buy 30 or 40 contracts on a 40 or 60 cent option or 10 or 20 contracts on options under $2.
Sure, if Apple goes to $650 by Friday, those March 600 Weekly call options will be worth $50 for nearly a 400% gain but if shares retreat and fall back below $600 and you aren’t out of the position, you will lose 100% of your investment. It is also easier to make 400% on a 40 cent option on a stock that moves from $53 to $57 which is what we have done with our American Express (AXP, $57.27, up $0.72) call option trade in just under a week.
This should help answer any questions on why we don’t trade Apple but we have been giving you powerful hints for those of you that want to play at the high-limit tables.
As we head to press, futures are showing a lower open and look like this: Dow (-63); S&P 500 (-8), Nasdaq 100 (-12).
Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates as we have moved up the Hard Stops to lock-in gains on these two massive trades.
Tags: AAPL, Apple Weekly options, AXP, call options, COF
Posted in Apple, Financial Stocks, Market Analysis, Market Commentary | Comments Off
Monday, March 19th, 2012
12:35pm (EST)
After 17 years of waiting, Apple (AAPL, $598.36, up $12.79) has finally decided to pay a dividend to its shareholders again. The company announced plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share which should be payable sometime in the fourth quarter. Additionally, Apple said it will buy back some of its shares after announcing a $10 billion share repurchase program, also commencing later this year.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook said, “We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future”.
As far as a stock-split, no dice. We have talked about why companies SHOULD do stock-splits but Apple said it has no plans to do one any time soon. As a covered call investment, Apple would cost about $60,000 just to buy 100 shares which is the minimum needed to write options on. So, when we hear the arguments that stock-splits don’t matter, they do in some ways if you are trying to invest in a stock and write options on your investment.
The news has helped lift the Tech sector and the market in general.
The Dow is up 19 points to 13,251 while the S&P is higher by 6 points to 1,410. The Nasdaq is showing a 23 point pop and is at 3,078.
We still have a dozen or so trades that are open and they are adding to last week’s gains, so, we have to cut things short as we go check on our trades. One of our current trades from Friday is up 33% so we are going to lock-in HALF profits now. Subscribers, hit the Members Area for the updates.
Tags: AAPL dividend, Apple dividend, Covered Calls, iPad sales, new iPad
Posted in Apple, Covered Calls | Comments Off
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Tech Shines as Nasdaq Advances
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
9:00am (EST)
The bulls got off to a good start for the week following Friday’s flat action and put up some good numbers yesterday. Much of the advance was thanks in part to Apple’s (AAPL, $601.10, up $15.53) dividend announcement but the Financial stocks did well again and continue to set new 52-week highs.
The Dow gained 6 points to end at 13,239 after trading to a high of 13,269 and testing a low of 13,208. The S&P 500 also added a half-dozen points to close at 1,410 after kissing a high of 1,414. The index traded down to 1,402 at the open but held 1,400. The Nasdaq was strong from start to finish as Tech jumped 23 points, or 0.75%, to settle at 3,078. Side Note: The Russell 2000 added over 7 points to finish at 837.77 but more importantly, the index finally broke above resistance which we talked about in our Weekly Wrap and yesterday morning.
American Express (AXP, $57.27, up $0.72) added another 1% and reached a fresh 52-week high of $57.50 on Monday. We said last week shares were headed to $60 when we recommended a call option trade to our subscribers. It is now up 438% in under a week.
Capital One (COF, $55.10, up $0.60) came within spitting distance of breaking its 52-week high of $56.26 set last May after closing at double-nickels and peaking at $56.19. We also have a near-term target of $60 for shares and subscribers are now up over 300% on our Capital One call option trade since last Tuesday.
Bank of America (BAC, $9.53, down $0.27) broke double-digits but didn’t set a new 52-week high. Shares did, however, trade to a high of $10.10 before the talking heads ruined it as they finished the session down 3%. The 52-week high is at $14.05 for BAC but we have been recommending the stock since it was at $5 back in December for our Weekly Wrap.
We were watching Apple’s WEEKLY options yesterday and we wanted to pull the trigger on the March 600 calls (AAPL120323C00600000, $10.75, up $2.60) but they opened at $12.20 and we were looking to send out a Trade Alert to buy them for under $10. The calls traded to a high of $14.40 but the premiums at the open were already built-in after the dividend announcement.
The calls did trade down to $6.95 but we didn’t want to get whipsawed because shares are in uncharted blue-sky territory. It is still an expensive trade and one we don’t often do but we are looking at ways to play Apple because they aren’t splitting the stock anytime soon. However, we won’t be trading 10 or 20 contracts because we would be risking a half or third of the profits we have already banked for the year. A 10 contract trade on an option priced at $10 will set you back $10,000 and 1 contract would cost $1,000.
This is another reason why we don’t typically trade options on stocks over $100 because it is so much easier to take smaller risks than to try and day trade Apple. We would rather buy 30 or 40 contracts on a 40 or 60 cent option or 10 or 20 contracts on options under $2.
Sure, if Apple goes to $650 by Friday, those March 600 Weekly call options will be worth $50 for nearly a 400% gain but if shares retreat and fall back below $600 and you aren’t out of the position, you will lose 100% of your investment. It is also easier to make 400% on a 40 cent option on a stock that moves from $53 to $57 which is what we have done with our American Express (AXP, $57.27, up $0.72) call option trade in just under a week.
This should help answer any questions on why we don’t trade Apple but we have been giving you powerful hints for those of you that want to play at the high-limit tables.
As we head to press, futures are showing a lower open and look like this: Dow (-63); S&P 500 (-8), Nasdaq 100 (-12).
Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates as we have moved up the Hard Stops to lock-in gains on these two massive trades.
Tags: AAPL, Apple Weekly options, AXP, call options, COF
Posted in Apple, Financial Stocks, Market Analysis, Market Commentary | Comments Off