Bad, Bad Market

This market is bad. And I don't see any improvement soon.

I decided to do most of my blogging on Seeking Alpha (here).

One trade I didn't mention in the blog yet: I sold a small part of Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) position on Monday. This stock is mostly growing, but might have big swings. So I'm trading around the position, now is time to sell some.

Short Natural Gas

Natural gas shot a little bit high lately. Usually it was trading between $3.5 and $4.5 in the last couple of years, now it's just shy of $5.
Shorting is a risky game, so I chose safer strategy: bought some $12 July puts on UNG. We'll see how it plays.

Buying Downturn

Week started down, as I expected. I think it's time to buy a little bit, for a trade. Using 4x2 system, two best candidates were: Waste Management (WM) and Intuit (INTU). I bought both. I'm trying to play volatility, hence yesterday's and today's buys. The best case if I can sell all three (including DECK) by the end of the week at a profit. Of course, trading is never about the best case, but I still hope for a profit. We'll see.

Buying back DECK

Well, it's down to the price I like. Would I hold it for a while? Don't know. I don't really like current market. To put it honestly, I hate it. We'll see.

Apology is in order: I forgot to write here that I sold Waste Management (WM) position last Friday. I mentioned about this trade in my page on Seeking Alpha (http://seekingalpha.com/author/alex-filonov).

Buyin Waste Management

Bought some Waste Management (WM) today. I'm trying to get a feeling of this market, and passive observation doesn't work so far. WM was one of the stocks in 4x2 signal today. This system isn't working anymore, but together with other signs can help. I wanted to buy something, because current pattern is down on Monday and Tuesday, turnaround on Wednesday, up on Thursday and maybe on Friday.
Of course it might not work. It's trading, not winning.

Remembering Mark Haines

This is a sad day. We will never hear again "From the financial capital of univers, this is Squawk on the Street". We won't hear how mighty CEOs and fund managers are cut down to size (sometimes small size) in several words.
Mark made CNBC alive. It was real reality show, not just a dry informational stream. I enjoyed his jokes, his mild attitude, nicknames he gave to people working with him. I will miss him.
Thing I remember the most? March 10, 2009, half joking, Mark said, that S&P 666 intraday on previous day looks like a bottom. And it was. Mark was one of only two people who called that huge, generational bottom.
Rest in peace.

Closed EAD

Tornado season began in Minnesota. Touchdown 3 miles from home, scary.

I closed my Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities Fund (EAD) position. This is a closed end fund, and it currently trades at almost 5% premium to net assets value (NAV). This is too much. Discipline says that I can't hold CEF with more than 4% premium.
This is a good fund, it made me money and it pays good dividend. I will buy it back when it trades at discount to NAV.
I still think that corporate debt is a good place to be right now. I'm looking for some alternative to EAD right now.