Tough but understandable...

Well, at least we know why some of the money market funds are earning higher yield  than others.    Joking aside, this is becoming a difficult market to trade(flip) when a sudden drop of news can literally derail whatever the bullish momentum.    Good thing is that we are pretty much used to this kind of volatility by now so today's action is not that surprising given the circumstance.     Basically, you have to flip into strength as oppose to wait till some bad news comes out that'd drop the market and your stocks along with it.   Sell when you can!   We have to be very vigilant about taking whatever the quick profit we may have on the table these days.

The way this month is going so far, it's going to be in the history book as something to remember.    Right now, the game plan is the same which means we  leave very little on the table going home on most nights.    The only exception is that we have a strong close like yesterday and only then we could have a strong case of carrying some stocks for a potential flip the next morning.

Here are some plays....

JST, this one had some very good follow through today and closed pretty strong too despite the dreadful index performance.   For us, if it isn't showing sign of stalling, we are sticking to our long strategy and added some near the end.

VMW, we have put this IPO on our watchlist today as we think this one will generate quite bit of interest days if not weeks down the road.   They claim this is the biggest tech IPO since Google and we'll see about that.

ARCI, we bought a little bit of this one late as it's showing some good relative strength in a very weak market.  To top it off, it closed at a new 52 week high with a break out.   Again, this one is small and may not be for everyone.

SIMC, this one came out with earning very late in the day and from the look of it, earnings looks to be decent.   However, given its past performance, it remains to be seen if this can get any kind of trading interest going this time around.   We'd find out more tomorrow.

..Too close to call..

..25bps or 50bps?...How cares now..!.  Let's just get this over with and move on!.    Last Tuesday, we put a cautionary spin on the DJIM players and therefore the market.  This has turned completely into a lack of set ups and muted action in those players.  Just look at the Russell 2000. Last Tuesday's close was 782, yesterday 775 and nothing more than a 15pts range within this time frame to trade.   You can't do much with that as far as trading opportunities go.   We'd rather have the credit crunch back in the news and trade those small banks on the LSE the past few days than sit through more of this grinding action.    So, that's why we say, let's just get this FOMC over and take it from there.....it might be a case of double or nothing, or doubling up or not  on the bps cut and 50% of the experts who have put money to work..on the line are not going to be happy.   This decision is far reaching as its going to make a significant difference to all the markets from equity to currency.    We've taken a different approach and that is not bet on either and be positioned very thinly as far as dollars invested heading into the afternoon.    Just don't do 25bps today and say ..th-th-th-th- that's all, folks!.    This looney tune from the Fed would send the market tumbling.    It's the accompanying statement that will play a the vital role as we want to hear they will be ready to do more.   So, that is the afternoon, but let's not forget the very crucial morning as the report from LEH kicks off the big banks reporting season.   This might leave this market stained for the FOMC decision if they didn't find a way to fudge the book with BS MS GS that follow this week.  Traders / investors will scrutinise these results from head to toe.  

..as far as individual plays yesterday of interest....

BIDU was definitely the one and really only that was of interest yesterday for us and traders in the momentum space.  Unfortunately, as always BIDU to us is a day trading stock and really not fitting to most of our subscriber base. The price also dictates that many are not going to dish out the bucks to make this a worthwhile trade on most days, so we tend to leave it off the board here.

EJ, last week we said 'volume' will dictate if its worth a further trade.   Yesterday, the initiations started for this recent Chinese real estate IPO and it got the volume going.  CIBC with a $25 and Lazard with a $23.  There were also some huge trades in this at 20 even, so there might be some protection from the usual volatility, especially to the downside.   A possible spin that we are trading now is that the lead book runners of the IPO will initiate in the next couple days, maybe Tuesday...Merrill Lynch, a tier 1 being one of them.

ROS,  last week we alerted this Russian telco again.   It's slow, which might be the best medicine the past week. Yesterday in the afternoon it got highlighted by Briefingcom....New High Profiles: OAO Rostelecom(ROS) .....is sitting just below its all-time high of 61.55 set last Thursday after edging above the top of its Jul-Sep range.........it is difficult to pinpoint a single event that has acted as the catalyst for the shares. However, we note ....recently reported impressive financial results,  FY06 results on 7/19 in which the co posted a 49% YoY increase in net profit and a 50% increase in revs....Deutsche Bank recently commented (8/30) that Russian operators are continuing to benefit from growing usage and a benign pricing environment, after VIP reported strong Q2 results on 8/30...

CMED, SIMC  are a few names played here before making new highs intraday without faltering by close.