Great Rally Today

5:30 PM EST The rally today was pretty breathtaking. While I don't believe it was a short covering rally, I am still cautious. I have made this point several times but it bears repeating. Healthy markets do not rally 6% at a time. Healthy markets do not rally 6%, especially when the catalyst is a government bailout. Remember profits? Remember when they were important? Remember those "silly" days when we bought stocks because they had things like strong cash flow and earnings growth?

All kidding aside, I am reminded of the statistics about the market coming out of recessions. Depending on who you talk to, the specific statistics are different but the point is the same. When the market finally turns around anticipating the end of a recession, the bulk of the move is in the first month or so. So if this is the beginning of the new bull market, have you missed it? If you are a long-only, 401(k)er who tries to use the market as a glorified savings account without regard to risk, you might have missed some of it. If you are an informed market participant who invests and trades in the market, there is still a TON of opportunity out there. While there weren't many opportunities to get long today, let's have a look at some of my recent calls.

First up is (DXO). I have been long this Oil ETF since Jan 20th. My cost was $2.48 per share. It closed today at $3.23. That is a 30.25%. I think it still goes higher.

I explained the trade I made in (DIA) in several previous posts. My cost was $70.58. I took some off at $74.03. I took a little more off today. No reason to be greedy. I have a little less than half of my position left.

I was buying calls in (PNRA) at $51. It is now above $54. I still have the trade on. I think this one still has room to run.

I missed the run in (FCX). I have always loved the saying "I'd rather be out of a trade wishing I was in, instead of in a trade wishing I was out." That is the case here. I felt the trade was very low risk when I mentioned it here, but I never got a nice entry point. A trader misses money-making opportunities every single day in the market, some just hurt more than others.

I took the trade in (NUE). I set up a diagonal calendar spread by buying Oct $37.50 Calls for $5.40 and selling the Apr $40 Calls for $.90 for a total cost of $4.50. The stock moved much more than I thought it would and now those $40 calls are in the money. The stock was up more than 7% today and I am confident it will pull back so I can buy the front month calls back. My total spread on this trade is $6.20 right now, for a 37% gain. A small pullback will really hurt the front month contract, while the October contract will retain more of it's value. I think this trade will still work well.

Those are some of the recent trades. Be sure to head back often. I update at least once per day and I am regularly on Twitter under the name @chrisyeager. Keep checking back and until next time, stay low risk