Amazon to Splat!

• Amazon ran up so far yesterday that it ran too far and went down today along with all of technology stocks. Google, Apple, Intel, Netflix,... everything went down after open. There was very little upwards movement, but the downward movement was not dramatic. Everything ran up with positive earnings this week made Friday a day to breathe. Even through earnings I have noticed that Google has shown resistance on Friday of each week where it has a nice move upwards. 
• In political news, Trump appeared to be mending fences with Germany. He basically said that Iran needs to put up money to fight Isis and they are not allowed to be nuclear armed. The investigation of Russian involvement with Trump's presidential campaign ended with no proof of collusion as Trump stated before. Korea appears to be uniting. So all appears to be getting better in the world today. Surprisingly the stock market didn't appear to notice.
• Everything went down before recovering to finish the day flat including Home Depot and Verizon. Good money could have been made buying calls at the early drop and selling about 30 minutes later.
• After the market closed it was announced that the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile will be completed. Given the 2 worst reception cell phone companies are merging, their new name should be Splat. I thing that is a better name than Worst Mobil, Hopeful Mobil or Almost Good Enough Mobile. WTF (WiFi Telephone is Fine).

Great Earnings and not AT&T

• I hope I don't leave one out: Boeing (BA) before the bell, after the bell from Facebook (FB), Chipotle (CMG), Ford (F), AMD, Visa (V), and Amazon (AMZN) all beat earnings estimates for their 1st Quarter 2018 report. AT&T (T) did not.
• AT&T is a fail in my books. They bought DirecTV and not are trying to buy Time Warner. People are cutting the cord and I am sure DirecTV is losing more customers than it gains because they cost so much. I prefer Playstation Vue over YouTube TV, Hulu TV and poor quality Sling TV. The reason is YouTube TV and Hulu TV don't have my mother's favorite channel Hallmark, wife's Food and I like Discover. These channels are available on Playstation Vue and the channels are owned by Time Warner. Therefore I can see why AT&T could be seen as a monopoly if they buy Time Warner. I think it is funny that they want to go more towards cable despite the rise in cord cutting and not focus on making their wireless business better. Fail in my books. I almost don't like them being considered a cell phone company.
• Ford beat their estimates slightly and they went up. Ford is looking to eliminate the Fusion and Fiesta after already laying to rest the Taurus. They are bringing back the Bronco and Ranger. In the long run, Ford is a great buy. If you own Ford shares, sell Call Options every chance you get because they rarely have movement. 
• Long live FAANG. Facebook had an impressive quarter despite the headwinds of privacy concerns and congressional scrutiny. We knew Amazon was going to report an awesome quarter. When it was down 45 in the first hour after the market opened, it was a screaming buy even of options. You would have made great money today and more tomorrow. Apple was seen in the good light for the first time in the past week with CEO Tim Cook met with President Donald Trump. Netflix rides on the coattails of Amazon and Google today and tomorrow.
• Chipotle looks like one of the biggest winners. I wouldn't be surprised to see a retraction of 40% of the gain in the short term. They are going to be on my radar for option trading. Boeing did me well today as I followed the Stochastic indicator lines. I could have made more with my options if I held on to them a little longer. 
• Thursday will start off up, will probably have a pull back around 11am before going back up by the end of the day. The banks are due for a sharp rise. I would expect to see Google run up for the whole day.

Amazon, Chipotle Crazy Good!!!

• Chipotle's big earnings report was rewarded by doubling last night's gain today. They were the biggest winner until Amazon reported earnings after the market close on today. Not only did they beat their numbers, they announced that Prime Membership cost is increasing from $99 to $119 a year. Amazon's stock price jumped $100 in after hours.
• Microsoft and Intel had great earning reports after market close today also. I enjoyed trading Google options today as they started off lower from 1035 down to 1020 which is where I bought my 2 Call Options with a Strike Price of 1030 and sold them when Google hit 1040. I was done for the day, but Google wasn't done running up as it hit 1052 before closing at 1043. I expect similar movement on Friday on the heels of Amazon's huge day.
• Home Depot was up huge. HD has been in the cross hairs of professional investors for over a month looking for a break out. I didn't see anything new about them today so I hope to see they maintain the gain on Friday. 
• JP Morgan had a hard time getting out of the red today, but did end higher. Now that the tech companies are blowing away their earning reports, the banks look less exciting even with a rising interest rate environment. Apple was up and then down today. Boeing fell early, came up quickly, didn't come down to the morning low and by the late afternoon past the day's high above 345.
• Verizon was hampered by AT&T's weak earnings, but still finished the day close to even.

3% 10 Year Treasury Note + Cat Forecast

• Caterpillar (CAT) earnings report beat forecast and was up but started to fade after the market opened today. The CEO projected their first quarter earnings being the high water mark for the year. From there the market as a whole took off to the downside. From CNBC Fast Money show they said that this was expected as their business is a cyclical business. Around the same time the 10 Year Treasury Note broke through 3% for the first time in a long time. Buying Put Options on almost anything were a great buy at this point.
• Verizon (VZ) peaked within the first few minutes of the market open and dropped quickly, but did not go negative. It ran up further, but didn't break that early morning high before falling with the rest of the market. I believe this will continue higher over the next couple of days along with the rest of the market as interest rates ease. Due to the low volatility of Verizon, I would not recommend buying options on them until their next earnings report.
• FAANG pain began. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google dropped hard for the whole day. There were a couple of times it appeared they were going up, but they were just retracing their downward movement as they came down so quickly. Netflix bond offering was not discussed by most analyst as it was expected due to their high cost of producing content. Alphabet (GOOGL) numbers were huge and growing tremendously, but due to their increasing cost it was sold off today along with the rest of FAANG.
• There was news about Facebook (FB) user information being stolen and this may be the next shoe to drop that pushed Facebook back to its lows for the year. They release earnings Wednesday after the market close. I would be a momentum buyer of options on Thursday if it makes sense. Apple (AAPL) reports earnings next week but more weak iPhone sales are expected and the stock price continued lower. I am a buyer if the price drops to the low for the year around $152. I feel weakness in either of these means positive for Google as advertisers may leave Facebook and Google is the only other game worth dealing with.
• JP Morgan (JPM)  and other bank stocks moved sharply up within the first half hour of the market open before tumbling down below yesterday's low. They moved up to end the day and I would expect them to continue to move the same way over the next few days.

Monday Market News

• The big news for the day as Netflix raising $1.5 billion in unsecured junk bonds to fund their projects (shows). This is a negative equity move and surprisingly it went up before dropping 15 at the low of the day. I made money on the short move up and could have made more on the way down, but I got out way too early. Being part of FANG, Netflix could have positive movement after Google earnings release after the bell, but I believe it has further to fall over the next couple of days.
• Apple started higher along with most of the Dow Industrials, but finished lower unlike Verizon which still ended up prior to their earnings report Tuesday morning. I feel the report will be good but something in it will cause a change in direction in share price. 
• JP Mortgan started up and came down sharply before moving sharply up to end down. Interest rates were up again today which I believe JP Morgan and the banks will exhibit the same trading pattern over the rest of the week and end on a high note. I received a text message today when Citigroup (C) fell below their 15 day moving average which I have seen as a buy sign for JPM.
• Interest rates being up 2 days in a row indicates to me that they won't be as big of a deal as long as they don't go higher and the market will be up for most of the rest of the week. Alphabet (GOOGL) positive earnings report will help drag the market higher and push the Bull Rally forward especially with Boeing and Amazon adding fuel to the fire for the rest of the week.

More Apple Pain and Higher Rates

• If you are day trading with options, I always recommend closing out your positions by the end of the day because when the market is closed you are stuck with what ever news or sentiment is rolling into the next day. Apple opened slightly down and fell like a rock within a few minutes. Trailing stops are important to lock in your gains and reduce your losses. When you are down by .50, get out and don't buy more.
• Yesterday the banks were up for most of the day while most things were not. Today they opened higher and fell without upward movement. Yesterday interest were up and was believed to be fueling the bank rally, but today the 10 Year Treasury Note hit 2.95% for the first time in a long time and the banks did not raise up. (JPM reference)
• Google experienced more positive ratings and it opened down, but came up sharply to 1094 before falling 20 points, coming up 10 and going back down for the afternoon. I would have expected it to rise more throughout the day along with Amazon since they report earnings next week and everything that we have heard so far is positive. I mention this because Google options may be expensive, but they move and when utilizing Scholastic indicator you should be able to time when to buy/sell a call or put option. There is good movement but not over priced options with ridiculous movement of Amazon. 
• Political news rattled the markets this morning with the Democratic Party looking to sue Trump's party along with Russia intelligence over the last presidential election. I would call this a sneeze when something political happens and the market as a whole moves down sharply. 
• Given that today was the third day in a row where the market was down, I would expect the stock market to open higher at open on Monday. Look for a pull back by 10:30am as an entry point. I am sure we will hear something about Apple demand being good and they are diversifying away from past suppliers to avoid tariff issues moving forward. Apple has bounced off this level a few times over the past couple of months.

Rotten Apple

• If someone gave you an apple with a piece missing out of it, would you take it. People either love or hate Apple products. I happen to be the later, but from a fundamental view, Apple looks undervalued so I believe it is a good investment. I am changing my mind due to the dramatic downward action when ever there is a hint of possible lower sales. Apple TV might be a thing, but it is not something that is installed as the primary operating system of any manufacturers smart TV. Not going to say much more about it other than I am going to reduce it out of my sight and investments once it hits my limit order at 178.
• Interest rates were up and the market was mixed. The banks were up big today on the heels of American Express earnings beat Wednesday afternoon. I was certain they would drop off after a certain point this morning, but they didn't. That didn't hurt my pocket as I did not buy Puts based on there recent tendencies. I wouldn't be surprised if the banks continue moving up for the next couple of days.
• Since interest rates were up, costumer staples were down. Home Depot gave back most of its great gain from Wednesday. Best Buy gave some of its gain back too.
• Amazon rose up sharply and leveled off for the day, but Google started off 4 and then was off to the races all the way until the last half hour when it gave 7 back. This was due to news that expects their earnings to be better than expected. In the past couple of Friday's, Google has opened up and then came down from the rest of the day. I believe the news so far this week is good and expect to see Google continue upwards on Friday especially with Google earnings report coming next week.
• Boeing dropped, came up, down into 137, up and then back to 137 and change as I expected yesterday. It then went up to mid 141 before coming back down, but never revisited the 137 range for the day. You could have bought a Call option with 340 strike price for 2 and sold it for 3.70. You could have bought that Call option again for 2.3 and sold it again for 3.70. Not bad money to make on predictable movement.
• GE reports Friday morning before the market opens. Based on my theory, since GE ran up on Thursday near 14, it will provide another disappointing earnings report Friday morning. People love GE so much that it will have movement in both direction like it did on GE's last report. After restating earnings for the past couple of years, who knows when GE will have something good to say. It will be when they sell off a non-profitable business. lol

Thursday Pre-Market Doings

• I am a little disappointed not to see anything about Spotify earnings from yesterday afternoon. Amazon produced an amazing report in a letter to shareholders that says they have 100 million Prime subscribers worldwide. Their price is poised to continue to climb and it will probably pass it's all time high within a week that was just established before Trump started his Tweets about them.
• Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are back in trading ranges they bounced from a few times in February. They all look poised to go higher. Every time I saw Boeing hit 337 it would shoot up 8 dollars. Yesterday it was close to 342 and today it will open just under 440. If it hits 437 I will buy a call option with a strike price of 440 today.
• In my longer term stock portfolio I have decided last weekend that I wanted to mix it up a little. This portfolio primarily contains larger name brand companies with solid track records like Apple, Microsoft, Haliburton, Merk, Best Buy, Ford, Verizon and Home Depot. I trimmed from it to free up cash to buy weed... stocks. CNBC Fast Money Wednesday afternoon had a great segment on cannabis companies. I was disappointed that it did not appear that any were currently profitable. Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) appeared to have great stuff growing on with it and the stock price is low enough that a hundred shares it a drop in the pipe.
• The cannabis story reminds me of when I was getting solar panels. There are many companies in the solar panel industry including over priced Tesla. Most companies like Tesla do not make a profit. The company that we went with does and am surprised that Sunrun (RUN) stock price is still as low as it is. It was pushed down in the 4th quarter of 2017 but has risen sharply before their last earnings report. Due to Sunrun low PE ratio, I believe it is a buy for quite some time.
• Since we are discussing buying for long term, ROKU is trading near where they came public 6 months ago and is a screaming buy right now. Fast Money mentioned someone buying up June Call Options with a strike price of 37.50. That is a great buy for someone looking to sit and wait for their next earnings report.
• I don't expect to write something twice a day. But I was excited about this information that I was moving on and wanted to share it with you.

IBM Pain, Market News

• IBM opened down and leveled off 4 more points down after a disappointing earnings report yesterday afternoon despite beating estimates from what I have read. Funny think is that while IBM is down, Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) were up to the point Microsoft is within half a dollar of its all time high and Intel made a new all time high today. 
• Spotify is expected to report earnings after close today and I expect it to be positive since they just went public with their stock a couple of weeks ago. This should drive Netflix in the same direction tomorrow. So if it is good, Netflix will hit a new high tomorrow. If it is not, expect a day like today. Spotify was up during today's trading which has shown to be a set up to drop after earnings are announced after the market close.
• Netflix and Google came down but traded within a predictable range all day. GOOGL opened at 1079, down to 1072, up to 1077, down to 1070, up to 1079, down to 1072, up to 1080, down to 1073, up to 1080, down to float around 1076 near close. I like this trading range from a day trading prospective as you have a clear defined trading range that it didn't break out of. This was held down because of the large run up yesterday and cautious reaction to IBM's call.
• Home Depot went straight up to 180 as they reports an increased technology presence very soon.
• Best Buy (BBY) and Amazon moved sharply up today on news that they will enter a partnership for selling televisions. This is very positive as Best Buy has matched Amazon on pricing for a couple of years which has given Best Buy a leg up with their ability to demonstrate features and have a great return policy. ROKU traded down on this news which makes no sense to me as ROKU devices are sold in Best Buy as well as integrated in many televisions sold today. I see this as being positive and possibly presents an opportunity to ROKU to incorporate Alexa into their devices with their own partnership with Amazon.
• JP Morgan and the banks were up quickly and dropped drastically after the first half an hour. Sharply is a dollar! The earnings reports from the banks have given temporary gains only being taken back and dropping lower although the percentage changes are not that substantial and I think you are wasting money if you are buying options to make money. American Express reported after market close today beating estimates, having a spike up and I would expect a drop in the first half hour of the market open tomorrow. That would be a great time to buy some PUT options on American Express at 9:45am on Thursday.

Netflix Up, Banks Down

• Netflix retracted to 323 in the first few minutes of trading today before blowing through its all time high and hitting 339 by the afternoon. GOOGL took off like a rocket with very little retraction until the last 10 minutes of trading. From the action today in the tech sector we should expect a couple more days like this before a small pull back next week maybe. 
• I noticed NVDA was down before ending the day up over 6. Tesla opened down 5 before going down to 282 from there it bounced and ended around 289. This was a reaction to them shutting down production on the Model 3 for a week.
• Apple traded strong throughout the day coming close to 180 with very little pull back. 
• Goldman Sachs has a great earnings report before the market opened and it was trading up 3 before the market opened. It along with the financial stocks had a quick pop in the first 20 minutes followed by a decline near the lows for the week. The movement was not substantial enough to warrant finding a pattern for option trades. 
• Home Depot was up past 176 with the rest of the market and then came down to 174 where I noted to a colleague that the stochastic is showing that it is far over sold. We bought Calls with 175 strike price around $1 and sold them for $1.60 which was slightly early as it did reach $1.65. It did go back down as expected and finished the day around 175.
• IBM traded up during the day with earnings to be reported after market close  As noted before that when something is up before earnings, it is more likely to disappoint with the earnings news. This was the case here as it dipped right after close.
• Something I should have posted at the beginning of the week is the earnings calendar.
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More Bank Earnings, Netflix and Stuff

• Bank of America reported earning before market open and they were good. Bank stocks popped at open. JPM went down from 111.47 to approximately 110, came back up to 111.23 before going down to close just above 110. Months ago JPM had a great quarter and the price action was similar. I found that when the stock would hit a high for the day, buy a PUT and sell it once it drops a dollar. This worked for a couple of weeks before it broke out of the cycle and continued higher after a short drop. I found this worked with Home Depot as soon as it would hit a new high.
• The DOW Jones was up from beginning to close. Home Depot had nice movement to the upside peaking around 175.50 before losing a dollar by close.
• Google popped at open to hit 1044 before coming down to 1034. It came up a little before retesting the low for the day and with everything in the market took off and peaked at 1pm. It’s high was just over 1050 and closed at 1046.
• Netflix earning were reported after the market close. It was down more of the day from 308 to as low as 304. Last Friday on CNBC’s Option Action they were showing buying a PUT spread anticipating Netflix will go down as low as 275 with a 50% chance after earning were reported (I didn’t like because it was just as likely to go up).. After close it went down to 300 and shot up to 326 with excellent earnings report with strong customer growth in the US and international. CNBC’s Fast Money show expects to see Netflix hit it’s all time high which was established in March before coming back down.

Bank Earnings, Pt 2, End of Week

• JPM, PNC and WF reported earnings before market open. JPM earnings were excellent but PNC conference call outlook caused all to drop as soon as market opened despite being up before open. Prior close 103, up to 105, down to 110 by close.
• GOOGL opened 4 higher than prior close at 1040 and peaked at 1052. Came down sharply to 1036, back up to 1044 at 2pm, down to 1029 and rebounded in the last half hour to close at 1035. In past weeks it has gone down past 1000 to close slightly above, but optimism regarding earnings have shown a different reaction rather than all negative.
• Trump has threatened to charge Amazon more for postage which has caused their shares to decline rapidly over the past month. The worries about tariffs have subsided as nothing new has been imposed.
• Strike on Syria was ordered in the evening and on Saturday was marked as a success by Trump tweet. Futures showed positive reaction Sunday night.

Bank Earnings Take

• Blackrock reported great 1st quarter earnings before market opened. JPM and other banks rallied throughout the day before a small drop before market closed.