Market overview for April 1 - Roller coaster ride...

Today was a wild ride in the market. We started the day with yet another gap - this time down big, after the ADP unemployment numbers came out this morning. However, after the 10:00AM numbers came out, buyers came out with vengeance. The market recovered all its losses and quickly closed the gap and ended the day up 150 points - that's a swing of over 300 points from low to high. Of course, we had the last hour shenanigans messing with traders as well. It looked like we might reverse and go lower, but buyers emerged yet again in the final 30 minutes to push us into the highs of the day.

I had some issues today! Everytime there is a surge in volume in the market, my eSignal application freezes up! This has occurred frequently and only happens during high volume periods (like yesterday afternoon, this morning, and every time there is some news event - e.g. Fed announcements). It is driving me crazy and support has not been able to fix. So, having said this, I missed my first (and most important) signal of the day at around 10:15AM. By the time I saw it (after I re-booted my PC), the market had continued its move and I did not feel confident with the entry. Luckily, I was able to go short SDS at around 11:15 after the SPY bounced from the daily pivot - managed to squeeze about .70c from the trade. My second signal was counter-trend - but I took it anyway around 1:00PM and got stopped out on the SDS long. But immediately after, I got a long signal in the SPY and took a short in SDS. That was good for 70c and I was able to recoup my losses from the earlier call.


I also took some trades in SRS long (REITS were underperforming) and short, and POT short (twice - I was stopped out on the first and got the second one to work). My missed trades of the day were RIMM (which I highlighted on Twitter) where it was positive right from the get go in a bad down market, and APOL. Yes, the same APOL I have been blogging about all week!!! My short entry point was below 75, but it gapped way below that around 72 and I decided NOT to take the short! (You may insert expletive here _____ )! I'd like to know if anyone took the trade - which was good for oh about $8 from the open! This is a multi-day move in my opinion, so I'll look to short in the coming days.

I think it's going to be wild again in the coming sessions with unemployment numbers tomorrow and Friday, lots of headline news risk, and earnings season coming up.

Good luck and don't forget to stick to your trading plan!