The reverse splits will go into effect after the close of trading on Monday April 1. Among

Wild and volatile because, and this is no surprise, some of the best-performing ETFs on a percentage basis this year are

The Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF) is worth trading.

Leveraged play of the day: Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: TNA).

The ProShares UltraShort Silver (NYSE: ZSL) is on fire.

Sector play:

Net on the day, the Dow was up 95.38 at 13,424.23, the S&P 500 was up 11.54 at 1440.13, and the Nasdaq 100 close up 19.73 at 1739.87.

Advance-declines were 2 to 1 positive on New York Stock Exchange, and almost 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 3 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of just under 600 million shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.5 billion, and had a 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. Apple Inc. (AAPL) led the way, up 5.05 to 634.76. Goldman Sachs (GS) led the financial group, up 4.30 to 124.50. Amazon Inc. (AMZN) gained 1.82 to 244.18, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) jumped 1.13 to 208.93.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 3.18 to 111.68, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) snapped back 1.24to 59.70. The ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) rose 2.09 to 44.49.

There were some stocks that had a very strong morning, but gave same back in the afternoon. They included Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CYCC), which we traded today and which went from 5.25 to 7.93. The stock closed up 1.23 to 6.70, or 22 1/2%, on 2.3 million shares. Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AEGR) was up 1.50 to 17.46, getting as high as 18.21 at one point in the day.

Other gainers of note included Clearwire Corporation (CLWR), up 37 cents to 3.69, or 16%, on 166 million shares. Dyax Corp. (DYAX) gained 44 cents to 2.82, or 18 1/2%, and James River Coal Co. (JRCC) advanced 90 cents to 4.78, or 23%, on 6.1 million shares.

REEDS, Inc. (REED) spiked 56 cents to 7.89. Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (ANR) advanced 60 cents to 8.48. Workday, Inc. Common Stock (WDAY), a new issue, was up 3.25 to 51.94, DigitalGlobe, Inc. (DGI) 1.29 to 22.50, Citigroup, Inc. 1.91 to 36.66, and Zillow, Inc. (Z) 1.85 to 38.39.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, pulled back sharply to test support, but held, and then ran up to resistance and also held. Backing off by midafternoon, they held support, came on and broke out, and closed near the highs for the day going away.

That was an excellent start to the week. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

Good Trading!

Harry

Net on the day, the Dow was up 95.38 at 13,424.23, the S&P 500 was up 11.54 at 1440.13, and the Nasdaq 100 close up 19.73 at 1739.87.

Advance-declines were 2 to 1 positive on New York Stock Exchange, and almost 3 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 3 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of just under 600 million shares. Nasdaq traded over 1.5 billion, and had a 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher. Apple Inc. (AAPL) led the way, up 5.05 to 634.76. Goldman Sachs (GS) led the financial group, up 4.30 to 124.50. Amazon Inc. (AMZN) gained 1.82 to 244.18, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) jumped 1.13 to 208.93.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 3.18 to 111.68, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) snapped back 1.24to 59.70. The ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) rose 2.09 to 44.49.

There were some stocks that had a very strong morning, but gave same back in the afternoon. They included Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CYCC), which we traded today and which went from 5.25 to 7.93. The stock closed up 1.23 to 6.70, or 22 1/2%, on 2.3 million shares. Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AEGR) was up 1.50 to 17.46, getting as high as 18.21 at one point in the day.

Other gainers of note included Clearwire Corporation (CLWR), up 37 cents to 3.69, or 16%, on 166 million shares. Dyax Corp. (DYAX) gained 44 cents to 2.82, or 18 1/2%, and James River Coal Co. (JRCC) advanced 90 cents to 4.78, or 23%, on 6.1 million shares.

REEDS, Inc. (REED) spiked 56 cents to 7.89. Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (ANR) advanced 60 cents to 8.48. Workday, Inc. Common Stock (WDAY), a new issue, was up 3.25 to 51.94, DigitalGlobe, Inc. (DGI) 1.29 to 22.50, Citigroup, Inc. 1.91 to 36.66, and Zillow, Inc. (Z) 1.85 to 38.39.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, pulled back sharply to test support, but held, and then ran up to resistance and also held. Backing off by midafternoon, they held support, came on and broke out, and closed near the highs for the day going away.

That was an excellent start to the week. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

Good Trading!

Harry

Obviously, we're still bearish and the news we've been discussing this morning in Member Chat certainly hasn't changed my opinion on that.  Back on August 7th (first Tuesday of last month), I said we were about $700Bn in stimulus short of what we need to support S&P 1,400 and we knew we would have to wait a month to see how much we got from Draghi and Bernanke but, so far, and with Ben already out of the way, we have zero.  

At $10Bn per S&P point that puts our fair value all the way down to 1,330 but keep in mind that the $500Bn we did get only lasts for 6 months so more like 1,310 at this point without a proper commitment by the ECB or Fed this week.  Even 1,310 would be up 50 from the June lows and it would represent a neat 2/3 retracement of the rally since then.  Our $25,000 Portfolio has, if anything, gotten more bearish as we dragged along the top but another thing we've done each Tuesday has been to take aggressive bullish positions to cover ourselves IN CASE someone actually does put up the cash needed to goose the markets over our breakout levels (see Friday's post for current positions in the virtual Portfolio and our levels).  

On Tuesday, August 14th, our trade ideas were as follows:  

• 2 FAS Oct $105/115 bull call spread at $2, selling 1 BBY 2014 $18 puts for $3.25 for net .75, now $1.80 – up 140% (trade stopped at 150%) -
• 2014 SHLD $32.50 puts sold for $7.50, now $6 – up 20% 
• 6 EWJ Jan $9 calls at .53, selling 1 BBY 2014 $18 put at $3.25 for a net .07 credit, still net $2.60 credit – down 3,800% (trade stopped at up 1,000%)  

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