Tuesday, March 13, 2007

It's 3 P.M. Did You Get a Call From the Margin Clerk?

Amazing how 3 pm rolls around and the market takes another leg down.

Fear levels have also come back with a vengeance... not as high as the extremes seen a little more than a week ago, but still in rarefied territory today at above 3.


7 comments:

nate said...

Jim-

Did you see Mr. CFC on CNBC just now? Said "It's going to get uglier" and that he sees a "hard landing" but that they will be the winners long term. Wondering your thoughts on CFC...

Nathan

P.S. - does he have a tanning both in his office?

jim r said...

jim,

what are the key technical levels to watch from here?on the sp, nas and rus 2000 pls. thanks

Unknown said...

Nate... nice tan indeed.. the good life from exercising all those options. 32 is major support and i think CFC will break it. seems like no name goes unscathed.

Jimr.. 1374 on SPX.. last week's low for starters. same for rut at 760 and 2340 for comp

pythagoruz said...

Hey Jim,
What is this TRIN index? Could you provide a little more color on the posted chart. Nice job on the VIX calls, I almost bought some yesterday. My CME puts made me very happy today. Thanks!

Unknown said...

pythagoruz, be careful on the vix calls. best to buy those when vix is low, they don't move like regular options.

TRIN is also know as the ARMS index, named for creator Dick Arms. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/arms.asp

pythagoruz said...

Yes, I have had trouble with VIX options before so I am fully aware of the difficulty in trading them. As far as I know the VIX isn't even a measure of volatility but rather a measure of bearish sentiment. It is a put/call ratio index on the S&P right from what I have read.

Also, those options are more like futures, a bet on the index being at a certain level on the strike date. Obviously you can't exercise the option (ie take delivery of "VIX").

Let me know if my understanding is off here, thanks.

brettmm said...

Where can a get a real time TRIN feed? I can not get it on my trading platform? thanks brett