Bulls Battle Bears

Simply put, Monday was not really the way I expected to go. I guess the markets are not really going on any logical movement and have become their own entity.

Before the markets were to open, the futures were showing a down day with Pfizer leading with its merger in a high open price. At the open, the stock market shot up and Pfizer and Wyeth were down.

(BAC) was just as expected. Its like watching a swing at a park, one day its swinging up towards the sky (like Friday) and then the next day it comes down. Many people, almost me included, probably bought the stock as it shot up at the open. All of them are probably scratching their heads. I always say, look at previous prices, if a stock has a pattern, it probably will follow it unless major news comes out. No big news today to effect (BAC) so it just shot up on small investors and their hype, and within a few hours, the stock began its decent back to a realistic price. Anyone that shorted this stock made some money. Personally, I was not at my computer while the price began to fall so missed out today. No money made, but more importantly, no money lost.

Yesterday I also mentioned (AUY) and gold stocks in general worth watching, (AUY) can speak for itself on how well it did. The stock opened up largely before coming down a bit. It still ended 5.3% up today which is much better than the overall market. Again I personally missed this one too.

However, my play for today was another sector I was watching. Oil has been steadily rising and the average price of gasoline has been creeping up in the United States. I got into (XOM) early with a pre-set limit price of $78.50 for 100 shares. It was not a big gain, but manged to sell out at $80/share. This was a really basic play for some quick cash today.

Total profit on (XOM) = $150

I know that compared to the previous two big money weeks, this day was fairly slow. But that is how the market goes some days. As tempting as other stocks are, there are many instances when you might not have full info on a specific company, or even you don’t believe in a price or product represented for that stock. Today was just that. I didn’t want to throw money as tomorrow is another day to make money. If even a person made $150/day x 5days a week on the stock market, that is about $39,000/year. Does not look bad if your a conservative investor.

Anyways, here is the Monday roundup to review:
If you don’t have time to watch the video, basically American Express missed earnings by $1B, that stock is going to drop. 50K jobs were lost in a single day on Monday. GM is laying off 2000 jobs and closing all plants for a bit to move inventory. Citigroup is run by morons who bought a $50Million private jet after crying last month about needing a bailout. I seriously wonder what business school some of these CEO’s go to. Home sales, yes the sale of existing homes went up 6%!

For Tuesday, I am going to look for (BAC) to go up if the swing is still running. Sprint is cutting 8000 workers by March which should cut costs and trim the fat on a well built company. I might look for a longer hold play on this stock if the price comes down a bit. Apart from that, oil and gold along with financial seem to be the most fluctuating and easy to make some fast money off.

Also breaking news tonight is the fact that Geithner has been confirmed as Treasury secretary (news here) which is good news for many who believe this Obama dream team is setting up now for some big stimulus news.

Hope you all profit tomorrow.

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA