Rick Ackerman

The few puts we held onto after cashing out of our original position for nearly tenfold gains are worthless, but we'll look to rebuild our position when the right opportunity beckons. A plunge to the 136.976 midpoint Hidden Pivot support (see inset) would be just such an enticement, but odds are slim that it will occur over the next day or two if at all. In the meantime, you can use the tiny, after-hours 'external' peak at 139.21 to craft a 'camouflage' entry from the long side if the pattern sets up properly.  I've sketched this hypothetically in the inset chart for your further guidance. (Please note that the green bars represent after-hours trading.) _______ UPDATE (May 23, 6:01 p.m. ET): The trade worked as sketched in the chart and would have left any subscriber who attempted it long at the close with a small profit. However, since no one in the chat room mentioned doing the trade, I don't plan to establish a tracking position. For now let's see if the Cubes can push past last Tuesday's 139.64 peak and break into uncharted territory.

It didn't take GOOG long to undo the damage from last week's Trump selloff .  Now the stock looks bound for the 956.75 target shown (see inset), although I wouldn't warrant this outcome as a done deal quite yet, since the stock struggled a little too hard getting past the 935.88  midpoint Hidden Pivot. Subscribers who trade this monster can use a 'mechanical' tripwire to get long if the stock pulls back to 925.44 (i.e., the green line), but the actual trade should be initiated with a 'camouflage' trigger in order to bring entry risk down to perhaps a tenth of the $950 theoretical implied otherwise. This would entail using an uptrending ABC pattern on perhaps the 5- or 10-minute chart to come up with a well-formed tradable pattern that meets our needs.  Please note that we still have an even higher target outstanding -- a potentially important one at 965.59 that comes from the monthly chart. ______ UPDATE (May 23, 6:10 p.m. ET): Today's swoon affected neither the viability nor potential usefulness of the 956.75 target flagged above. Use it as a minimum upside objective for now, and short there if you're so inclined with a stop-loss no wide than 40 cents. If you use put options, tie them to the stop. _______ UPDATE (May 24, 10:17 p.m.): If the stock pushes past the 956.75 target given above, assume it's on its way to at least 959.80. Click here for the chart.  _______ UPDATE (May 25, 3:13 p.m.): GOOG's rampage today has trashed my conservative rally target. Obviously, as AMZN has demonstrated, it has eyes for the obvious round number 1000. For the record, there is just one more upside target left before the MONTHLY chart's possibilities have been exhausted: 978.35.

We've had pretty good luck nailing very timely (and tradable!) lows in the little sonofabitch lately -- twice within hours of ferocious upturns, both times using call options purchased just pennies off their respective intraday lows. The trades were designed so that even subscribers new to options could jump in, using limit bids placed the night before. Here's another one: Bid 0.35 for four June 16th 13.50 calls, good through Wednesday. The trade is based on VXX falling to the 13.41 target shown. If it gets within 0.05 points of that Hidden Pivot and the options are just out of reach, you can pay up a nickel (i.e., 0.40) for them. Check back if the order goes unfilled, since I may need to modify it on Thursday. _______ UPDATE (May 23, 6:14 p.m. ET): The calls will likely remain out of reach unless VXX falls to the 13.41 target given above. Continue to bid for them as instructed. _______ UPDATE (May 24, 10:11 p.m.): We hold an additional four calls for 0.45 with a June 2 expiration, 13.50 strike, but I will track them only on The Scoreboard, where the recommendation appeared.

The bullish pattern shown may not win any beauty contests, but it'll do just fine for projecting a minimum rally target at 2406.50 with 95% confidence. Using the lower point 'A' shown would yield a somewhat higher target at 2417.75, but in either case the trend has already pushed past the midpoint pivot with such force that a run-up to the respective D target is not in doubt. The lower number would be a new all-time high, but we shouldn't expect it or the other pivot to contain this rampage merely because they are such clear Hidden Pivot resistance points. Night owls looking to get long could try a 'mechanical' bid at 2376.50, stop 2365.75, but I doubt we'll see such a generous pullback ahead of the next surge.

[Judging from the email I received, this commentary struck a chord with readers, so I am letting it run for a second day. RA] Betting on inflation has been a lousy gamble for most of the last four decades, even if the Fed has worked tirelessly to convince us otherwise. Talking about tightening has been the Fed's johnny-one-note theme since the early 1990s, when stimulus applied to extricate the economy from the savings and loan debacle supposedly was going to produce a return of 197s0s-style inflation. It didn't, in part because wages never took off in the way that financial assets did. Nor was there much tightening -- then or now.  At the moment, however, even the yo-yos who have been talking the Fed's book, most particularly the benighted hacks who gin up the news, are starting to wonder how a few more 25-basis-point hikes in the fed funds rate will even be possible with the housing and auto sectors starting to roll over. For sure, Yellen & Co. would like to push administered rates a percentage point or two higher so that they've got room to ease when the next recession hits. But their window of opportunity may be past, since it's going to be increasingly difficult to convince even the yo-yos that the economy is in danger of overheating when it is clearly weakening. A think-piece published on ZeroHedge fleshes out the Fed's dilemma persuasively.  Read it and check out the chart (inset) before you buy into the twaddle we'll be hearing in the coming weeks as the Fed makes a laughable, last-ditch attempt to convince us that significantly more tightening is planned. How stupid do they think we are?

We added to our call position Tuesday when VXX bottomed two ticks off a potentially important downside target at 13.57 that we'd been using for the last week or so to stay out of trouble. This allowed any subscriber who took the trade to buy four June 2nd 13.5 calls two cents above their intraday low of 0.48. We'll have the wind at our backs if stocks continue to fall overnight, so I'll suggest offering half (i.e., two calls, or a multiple thereof) of the position to close for 1.00 - twice what we paid -- good-till-canceled. If the order fills we'll hold a virtually riskless position that will have plenty of time to rack up additional gains. We also hold eight May 19th 15 calls in our position that were purchased for 0.50 with VXX falling to a less promising Hidden Pivot target two weeks ago. Continue to offer half of them to close for 1.00. _______ UPDATE (May 17, 6:23 p.m. ET): A stunning surge in S&P volatility more than quintupled the value of the calls subscribers had bought a day earlier, spiking them from 0.50 (our purchase price), to an intraday high of 2.63. Imputing the realized gain to the two calls (or 50% of the original position) that we still hold will allow us to carry them for a net CREDIT of 3.13 apiece. This implies we have a $626 overnight profit in the trade. Now, offer one of them (or a multiple thereof) at-the-market on the opening and play the remainder of your position as you please.  The rally also brought the calls expiring on Friday back from the dead, pushing them to a closing high of 1.22. Officially we blew them out at 0.15 on the opening, but many subscribers evidently held on and

Focusing on a 937.97 target for the last several weeks has kept us comfortably on the right side of the trend.  I'd suggested shorting at the number, a Hidden Pivot resistance, on Friday, but because the stock missed it by 2.04, there would have been no trade. It is still short-able, but you should attempt it only if you've caught a profitable piece of the ride north, and even then with put options tied to a tight stop-loss. Otherwise, we'll give the stock a little more running room, using the new target shown, at 965.59. It has greater clarity and appeal than the one at 937.97, so we'll be looking more aggressively to get short there if and when the time comes. _______ UPDATE (May 10, 7:58 p.m.): GOOG generated a bearish impulse leg on the intraday charts today, but it would only begin to become menacing, albeit slightly, with a plunge exceeding the minor Hidden Pivot target at 923.48 shown in the chart. (See my most recent update for AAPL, which is in a similar situation.) _______ UPDATE (May 14, 11:18 p.m.): GOOG has bounced $10 after making a low cents 43 from the 923.48 target identified above. Now, use the 935.28 midpoint pivot shown (click here) as a minimum upside projection and key resistance for Monday.  An easy push past it, and particularly a close above it, would make a run-up to the 947.53 target an odds-on bet. _______ UPDATE (May 17, 11:05 p.m.): We'll want to pay close attention to the way GOOG interacts with the 914.34 pivot shown in this chart. It is my minimum downside target at the moment, but if it's exceeded by more than a couple of bucks, that would hold bearish implications not only for the stock, but for the Nasdaq Index

Two Hidden Pivot rally targets loom on the immediate horizon: 974.24, a number that has served us well in recent weeks as a minimum price objective and which comes from a minor bull cycle begun in late March; and 1003.47, which derives from a pattern dating back to December 2011. Judging from price action at their respective midpoint pivots, AMZN should have little difficulty reaching the higher target, although I would expect a presumably tradeable pullback precisely from the lower. The upper number has the potential to mark the end of the bull market, but with the caveat that there could be one final burst to 1064.64, or even 1135.76. That last number would max out the weekly chart, and if the stock were to get there I'd bet aggressively against any further progress. Until then, we should trade the stock with a strongly bullish bias, using HP levels to initiate trades in the least risky way possible. _______ UPDATE (May 18, 12:04 a.m. ET): AMZN will need to fall to at least 942.07 (or 939.93 if any lower) before it can turn around (click here for chart). If the lower Hidden Pivot support is exceeded by more than a dollar or two, however, breaching the 940.78 'external' low as well, that would imply more weakness to come, possibly after an upward correction.  Since AMZN is the most important bellwether stock of them all, this would hold bearish implications not only for the stock market, but for the entire global universe of egregiously pumped financial assets. _______ UPDATE (May 18, 9:18 p.m.): AMZN out-bounced all of the other FAANG/lunatic stocks today, affirming its exalted position in the hierarchy of stocks coveted by portfolio managers.  It was in fact a 'counterintuitive' buy at 951.44 on the pattern shown, even if a

Much as I'd like to report that the rampaging Cubes got snuffed at 138.19, a Hidden Pivot where we staked out a small put position last week (i.e., eight May 26 137 puts for an average $61), they in fact closed above it, implying they'll be headed even higher over the near term. The 149.41 target shown (see inset) can serve as a minimum upside objective. Judging from the way the rally demolished the charts 133.24 'secondary' pivot (p2), the D target seems likely to be achieved, probably by early June. ________ UPDATE (May 16, 9:43 p.m. ET): QQQ is getting hit Tuesday night. Just in case this gets interesting, offer half of the puts to close for 1.22, good till canceled. _______ UPDATE (May 17, 7:11 p.m. ET): Wowee!! Today's stunning rout increased the value of our puts nearly tenfold to 1.84. Imputing gains realized on the four puts sold to the four we still hold gives them a CREDIT cost basis of 0.61 apiece. Sell two of them on the opening, holding two for a potential grand slam. My immediate downside target at 135.08 (15-min, A=139.64). _______ UPDATE (May 18, 9:03 p.m.): Today's ragged rally was mildly impulsive on the lesser charts -- although not quite on the 'hourly' -- leaving room for possible downside to as low as 133.80 if QQQ can't climb above 137.57. Sit tight with any puts you still hold, since there's still plenty of time for them to produce an even bigger winner for us._______ UPDATE (May 21, 6:04 p.m.): No change. Any puts still held cost us nothing, so we can simply sit back and see whether the week brings us new opportunities to grow our profits on the position.