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The market started out weak today, pressured by earnings from AAPL, TXN, and AXP. But, after the gap-down open, the market climbed all day and accelerated upwards into the close. AAPL traded down nearly $20 in the morning, and ended down only $4.27 at $162.02. One of our brilliant members, Makemoney, jumped into AAPL calls early in the morning:
Makemoney
Posted July 22, 2008 at 6:42 am | Permalink (Edit)
Bought AAPL calls.
and rode it higher $13-$15 on the stock! Great trade, Makemoney!!

This morning, CME reported good earnings and saw its shares rise all day to close up nearly $41, or $12.51%! Yesterday, I said on the member board:
HappyTrading
Posted July 21, 2008 at 8:09 am | Permalink (Edit)
CME
trading lightly before earnings tomorrow. Daily chart shows that if the reaction is good, this can easily go to $400.

I got into August 360 calls at $8.9 and sold them at $15. Could have held on to these a little longer for quick double, but, I’m happy with a +68.5% gain:

These options traded as high as $22.2 and closed at $21.5. It does look like CME wants to go to $400 from here. So, I’ll be waiting to make more plays on this. Given that I was in CME, I published a trade on ICE today and cashed it out for an intraday gain of +31%:
7/22/08
sell to close
ICE ($96.5)
ICEHS, Aug 95 calls, at $8, +31.1%

buy to open
ICE ($92.69)
ICEHS, Aug 95 calls, at $6.1 (closed)

These options closed at $8.6. We’ll see if more opportunities present themselves tomorrow, as I think ICE could have a lot more room to recover also.

The financials got stronger throughout the day and helped pushing the market higher. GS added +4.02%. BAC jumped +13.27% (We started a new trade on this and it’s nearly a bagger.). PRU was also strong, gaining +8.22%.