There was a lot of buying in the May call options Friday, right at the close. This means a lot of professional traders are anticipating a May rally. Couple this with the fact that most short sellers hold for 30 days or less, and it looks like we might be looking at a (short term) up market soon.....

As I said before, if we get a 50% retracement of the recent drop, I'll be looking at selling some more positions. Could be a final low of about Dow 8800 in early 06, before it's all over.....

Expected reboud after a big drop cannot be considered as a rally. But when all speak about a rally, wait for a drop.

I agree with lone. We are in a bear market trend now so we will get waves up on the down trend. The start of a wave up I will open longs and close them at the start of a pullback. I will then steadily add short positions, unless something dramatic happens to change the pattern that is developing. We could easily reach the lows set way back. This effect of a pullback always hits the general populous late so we have tons more selling yet!

Well, I can be patient before buying.

LU is on fire! Quadruple the earnings...not bad!

And which guy named Seminara said LU is the buy of the century under $3!!!!!!!

Good job Pabs!

Good earnings tonight and futures are up! I smell a short squeeze.

right now I'm torn. Im thinking that I need to get into either a basic materials (I think overall we are in a 'commodities era' where they will be stronger than stocks. However, I dont trade commodities, so it seems the smart thing to own companies that produce.

I was thinking of Canadian Natural Resource (CNQ, a oil/gas company), or Alcoa.

Alcoa Id just ride up to 33-34, which i think can be achieved even in this market, then unload, and shop again.

I was also thinking of Sara Lee. Might be a good deal right now, if they shake things up a bit, maybe spin off some companies and start righting themselves more and more, then they may have some good times ahead.

I was also considering Eaton Vance. Seems like a safe comany no matter what, with good management.

Chevron is always tempting to me, because oil will only be more and more important, and they make some good oil, which means they are a decent company I dont think I could go wrong getting into them.

I'm in LCAV and MRK since they were much lower. I bought MRK near bottom on panic, as a contrarian play - and have profited nicely. LCAV I bought right after announcing they were going to split. They are really conservative in opening new locations and do a lot of research before opening new spots. They do well, and the technology (Lasik vision correction), IMO will only get more and more popular. Im still holding them, and I think theyll keep returning nicely. The rest of my portfolio is rather ho-hum, but nice and secure.

But anyhow, Im sitting on a load of cash. Not necessarily a bad thing...

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

JMH

P and the rest of the gang,

I convinced my wife to let me transfer another $1000. I'm thinking LU and MOBL. Do you have any good picks?? Keep in mind it's only $1k, so it would have to be dirt cheap....under $3-4/share.

Z,

Since you are a long term holder I don't see a problem. I would split it up $500 now and the rest at another time. I would recommend CMGI.

Keep in mind we are in a BEAR market at this time.

someone give me a holler on the bat phone when you figure the market out!!!

Amkeer,

Thanks for the recommendation!

Hopefully we are not in a bull trap! 1000 points down I would say the market was do for a rebound. Look for some follow through the next few days. If that happens you can safely assume we are on a wave up short term.

I added some longs yesterday since I couldn't resist the setups.