Kudrna's Stock Market Talk

Another frustrating week for the bears.  Bears continue to pound their heads against the wall as nothing seems strong enough to take the markets down.  Weaker-than-expected GDP did not even phase the markets much on Friday.  With the FOMC keeping interest rates low until 2014 and reducing growth expectations in 2012, we not only have have a fragile economic recovery, but we are continuing to pressure the savers/retirees for at least a few more years. (more…)

For the first week of 2012, it was not a bad week at all.  The action wasn’t overly impressive for the bulls, but considering most were expecting a pullback, the bulls held strong. The question everyone is pondering is whether we will have some sort of pullback or are we going to continue to rise.  Friday may have hinted at more upside in the short-term, but we may need bonds to sell-off faster for this to happen. (more…)

A new year begins and 2011 is old news, regardless if it was good or bad.  You must forget about it either way. If you had a bad year, learn from it and make 2012 better.  If you had a good year, figure out why it wasn’t better and don’t be overly confident/reckless going into 2012.  This will help ensure you have better odds of repeat success. This is the time to wipe the slate clean and focus on the upcoming 2012 performance.  This is not about what you did in the past, this is what you can do for me now. Short-term memory, forget the past outside the lessons learned.  (more…)

Unusual Options Activity Report below: (more…)

Unusual Options Activity Report below: (more…)

Profitable – I make money on this trade if JAG closes above $7.35 by March 16, 2012. (more…)

Referencing my weekly stock radar from Sunday night, I am highlighting a few of the charts below. Last week was very profitable and hopefully we will see if we can get a few more runs in the stocks below. The concern is the EU situation. We have the ECB meeting on Thursday and the EU Summit on Friday. Both may mean bulls lighten up as soon as Wednesday until after the news. Unfortunately, this puts us at risk to not only holding overnight, but that we may not run higher unless the outcomes are bullish. Keep that in mind as you navigate your trades this week. (more…)

Building upon last week’s aggressive and profitable action, we will look to see if the positive sentiment can continue for another week. It has been a long time since the bulls have had consistent positive action to work with. The EU situation is still a large burden. No real solution has even been discussed. Currently the only plan is tossing more money at the problem to delay more pain in the short-term. With that being said, we must stay aware and ready to pull our trades off the table if the sentiment starts to turn negative once again, and it will. The only question is when. (more…)

A reminder of the good ol’ days as this week was arguably the most fun and profitable week many bulls have had for many months, if not the entire year.   For this week alone, the market acted sane and healthy once again. This was a great treat for the upcoming Holidays, many more smiles on faces and much more optimism in a fearful and negative world. If you had followed my trades for free on SeekingAlpha, alongside the 36,000 other market players (shameless promotion), you’d have enjoyed a great week as well. (more…)