11/14/10 Weekend Update & Outlook - Goldman Sachs Allowed The Markets A Losing Week?!?! Whoda Thunk It!

Ok, Lloyd Blankfein from Goldman Sachs must have been on vacation this week.  He would not be very happy about a week in the red.  Although, worry not, I GUARANTEE GS made money this week from it.  Afterall, they are the firm that can pull off repeated quaters of no (or only a few) losing days.  Let's see how the markets ended for the week:

 

Dow          -2.20%

S&P          -2.17%

Nasdaq    -2.23%

Russell    -2.33%

VIX             +6.62%

 

  

China announced their Consumer Price Index jumped 4.4% year over year which allowed worries of monetary tightening to resurface.  Eurpoean GDP reflected slowing growth and the disparity between stonger and weaker economies grew even greater in the EuroZone.  Here in the good ole U.S. of A, the Fed announced delays in its treasury purchases (QE2) due to "techincal difficulties which led to some uneasy market action.  Things that make me go hmmm...........

 

Friday the markets experienced a heavy distribution day and the S&P broke a trendline and the all imprtant 1200 mark.  Cisco (CSCO) released good earnings but the much reviewed comments by its CEO, John Chambers, were not received very well by the markets.  The stock peeled off over 16% this week alone.  Personally, I think it is worth taking a look at.  BookingAlpha had a great CSCO play a copule months ago and it looks like it might be worth reloading.

 

Subscribers closed a SPY Iron Condor Spread for +26.58% in 7 days.  Yes, you read that right.  This was a home-run even by BookingAlpha standards!  This has been a great month for subscribers whom have booked over 40% on 4 trades already this monthI  Conversely, I had to close a SPY Put Debit Spread this week for a loss.  I HATE LOSSES.  But, it was time to put this ailing spread out of its misery. 

 

Currently, subscribers have 2 open credit spreads, expiring this coming week (it's Op Ex time again!).  I may leverage the existing margin requirements this week for said credit spreads, thereby establishing Iron Condor spreads and extracting a little more premium from the market for "free".  Subscribe to find out how!    

 

-1,125,000,300 = The Number Of Pages Needed To Be Read For Every CDO Squared Purchase