Thursday, September 24, 2009

I want to reiterate the _____ target, which looks as promising as ever (see chart), notwithstanding the fright-wig plunge into the close. We took a close look during yesterday's tutorial session and saw a ripening short, presumably using out-of-the-money puts in the October series.   

Bid ____ for two November 95 puts (DAVWQ), day order.  That's about what they should sell for if the Diamonds trade as high as yesterday's opening price, 98.36. Stocks seemed too spooked at the close to suggest that that much of a recovery is likely, but DaBoyz will be doing their best to unload at at least somewhat higher levels, since they too were caught by surprise.

The futures dove hard yesterday afternoon after rallying moderately. The Wall Street Journal was hard-pressed to explain it, but we know better, since  a purely technical target at 1074.50 that was proffered here very nearly marked the top. The decline may have jolted some traders, but in Hidden Pivot terms it achieved nothing of interest on the hourly chart. A print down at 1047.50 was needed to turn the hourly chart bearish, but panicky sellers could muster only 1055.25.  As of early Wednesday evening, there were no compelling spots to try bottom-fishing. A midpoint support at 1055.75 was too close to the intraday low,  although its 'd' sibling at _____ might be serviceable if you're bored enough to force the trade.

With a glower of contempt toward the bankers, gold remains easily aloft above $1000, developing thrust for the next big move. We wrote here a while back that blast-off from $1000 would follow the realization that G-20 can do nothing to restore stability to the world’s tottering financial system. Now, the question is whether anything at all will be “realized” in the wake of the Pittsburgh meeting. We hesitate to call it a summit because the event seems to have slipped off the news media’s radar.  Unable to recall the actual dates of the session, we searched Google’s news pages in vain for this information. Tellingly, there was only a sidebar from the New York Times about how the meeting would probably be a net positive for Pittsburgh’s economy.   Fortunately for Pittsburgh, G-20 scouts have been in the city for weeks, wallowing in expense-account lunches and dinners well ahead of the actual event. “Since early August, journalists, dignitaries and safety officials have been visiting our city, eating at our restaurants, shopping in our stores and staying in our hotels,” said the town’s young mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, 29. “That’s just the short-term gain. In the long-term, you really can’t put a dollar value on the amount of free marketing we’ve received worldwide.”  We have family ties to Pittsburgh ourselves and harbor a hope that some South Korean or Japanese mogul takes a shine to the Pirates baseball team, since Mark Cuban seems unwilling to come to their rescue. The Bucs could use a benefactor with deep pockets and a desire to strengthen the team’s sorry excuse for a bullpen.   Chinese Blockbuster However, we somehow doubt that that will be the news that emerges from the G-20 Septemberfest. More likely is that we will get a statement from the U.S. that America