My Frustrated HAL 9000

While I was busy watching the Manchurian Candidate instead of the futures, I missed a trade that Fuzzy caught brilliantly. It got short the Mini-S&P just below 1119 during lunch (about a point of risk initially, which is about as good as it gets) and rode her down to 1110 and change where it covered. Impressive! Too bad I didn't hear it dinging away, begging me to pull the trigger -- the computer can't trade without my permission, alas. "This sort of thing has cropped up before... and it has always been due to human error." ;-)

ES, 5-minute Chart

Japancakes - Country Music from Mars

I heard a tune the other day that I really liked, but didn't catch the name. Turns out it was called "Far From Here" by a band from Athens, Georgia named Japancakes. If you like "atmospheric" music, I recommend you check them out.

Early Movers for Wednesday, October 13

Today's Trading Idea

Invitrogen (IVGN) looks interesting to me here. If price gets above $53.94, I'll get hot and bothered. Initial risk is around a dollar (less than 2%) and I expect it might get back up to around $59, so the reward to risk is decent. The iShares Biotech ETF (IBB) has a similar kind of look to it, which is heartening. Keep an eye on her.

(These trading ideas will be for Members Only (those who make a donation) once I get the new site up, which should happen by the end of this month.)

IVGN, Daily Chart

Chart of the Day -- CRB Index, Daily

The Energies and Metals went down yesterday and you can see the effect this had on the CRB Index. It'll be interesting to see if this "Test of Top" in the CRB marks a major turning point, or whether prices will continue their upward march. (Shorting the CRB here would be a countertrend play with the protective stop around 289.)

CRB Index, Daily Chart

Best and Worst Performing Stocks (last four weeks)

I scanned my universe of stocks for the best and worst performers over the last four weeks.

Best:

• Netegrity Inc (NETE)
  {acquired by Computer Associates}
• Dupont Photomasks Inc (DPMI)
  {acquired by Toppan}
• Roxio Inc (ROXI)
  {digital media software and services, Napster}
• Steel Technologies Inc (STTX)
  {intermediate steel processor}
• Immucor Inc (BLUD)
  {human blood testing}

Worst:

• Allete Inc (ALE)
  {Energy Services, Automotive Services}
• Tower Automotive Inc (TWR)
  {designer and producer of automotive components and assemblies}
• Calpine Corp (CPN)
  {power generation, electricity sales}
• Merck & Co Inc (MRK)
  {major drug company}
• Biolase Technology Inc (BLTI)
  {manufactures and markets advanced dental, cosmetic and surgical laser products}
• Chiron Corp (CHIR)
  {blood testing, vaccines and biopharmaceuticals}

My data is screwed up for ALE... they did some kind of spin-off/stock dividend followed by a reverse stock-split, so the data I have is no good and it's too much of a pain to adjust it correctly, so I'll just ignore it when the scanner picks it up.

How to Save The Economist and The Journal from Irrelevance, by John Battelle:

-- via Infectious Greed --

Con Job Redux, by Bill Gross (responding to his critics):

And it's very, very simple to see how many TIPS Gross is holding.

A Federal Inflation Conspiracy? by Amey Stone: