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If You’re Listening, Then You’re Buying

By Jeff Clark
Thursday, July 27, 2006

I started off this week by generating a lot of controversy.
 
First thing Monday morning, I recommended my Trade of the Week subscribers buy call options on a housing stock.
 
Just a few minutes after the recommendation went out, I received three e-mails from colleagues. Each one subtly suggested that I ought not to be drinking so heavily in the morning.
 
After all, I’d have to be drunk to be recommending call options on housing stocks when the entire sector has taken up permanent residence on the NYSE’s list of New Lows.
 
I responded by e-mailing back the simple two-word phrase that my Korean Tae Kwon Do instructor says when he’s afraid I’ve missed the real meaning of a lesson… “Better Listening.”
 
You see, there are two ways to listen to the stock market. You can take what the market says at face value, or you can dig deeper and try to find the real meaning…
 
It’s kind of like when your wife asks you if the pants she’s wearing make her look fat. If you respond to her question at face value, then you’re likely to be dining alone that evening.
 
On the other hand, if you look for the deeper meaning behind her question, then you’ll recognize the opportunity being presented (Gee, dear, you look gorgeous no matter what you’re wearing).
 
And so it is with the stock market.
 
Last Friday, the market was telling investors on the surface to sell housing stocks. But if you looked deeper, you’d have noticed that the sector was making new lows on lighter volume.
 
The Bollinger Bands were coming together indicating that the stocks were about to make a major move. And, all the housing stocks were trading more than 30% below their 200 day moving averages – an extremely oversold condition which typically leads to sudden reversals.
 
Indeed, by listening to what the market was really saying, my colleagues could have profited from the opportunity being presented
 
 
Oh, and by the way, the call options I recommended on Monday morning doubled in value by Tuesday.
 
“Better Listening…”
 
Best Regards & Good Trading,
 
Jeff Clark




Recent Articles
Market Notes
Earnings today: Anadarko Petroleum, Beazer Homes, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Bunge, Cummins, ExxonMobil, Newmont Mining, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon.
 
Can it get any worse for the Internet ETF? Huge drops in Yahoo!, eBay, and Amazon leave this tech fund down 32% in 2006.
 
Transportation giants UPS (package shipping) and Norfolk Southern (railroads) suffer severe declines… the Dow Jones Transportation Index at 5-month low.
 
Big Oil makes a move: ExxonMobil and Chevron break out to new highs.
Market Watch
Symbol Price
Change
52-Wk
S&P 500 1221.53 +1.28% +10.12%
Oil 37.77 +1.53% -2.75%
Gold 135.20 -0.13% +13.44%
Silver 27.93 +0.43% +47.86%
US-Dollar 80.67 -0.81% +8.09%
Euro 1.32 +0.64% -12.10%
Volatility 19.39 -9.22% -8.19%
Gold Stocks 564.53 +1.34% +10.57%
10-Year Yield 3.00 +1.35% -9.64%

World ETFs
Symbol Price
Change
52-Wk
USA 122.56 +1.28% +10.17%
Canada 30.44 +1.33% +13.84%
Russia 21.63 +2.27% +16.67%
India 37.73 +1.92% +19.97%
Israel 16.47 +0.86% +9.65%
Japan 10.58 +0.95% +7.41%
Singapore 13.88 +1.02% +19.24%
Taiwan 14.72 +1.59% +17.76%
S. Korea 56.56 +1.67% +22.80%
S. Africa 70.85 +3.89% +22.94%
China 45.06 +1.37% +0.13%
Lat.America 52.82 +1.40% +6.71%

Sector ETFs
Symbol Price
Change
52-Wk
Oil Service 136.18 +1.51% +14.84%
Big Pharma 64.13 +0.61% -3.32%
Internet 72.13 +0.70% +22.34%
Semis 16.03 +2.10% +28.86%
Utilities 31.21 +0.29% +1.56%
Defense 18.51 +1.26% +10.11%
Nanotech 9.99 +1.32% 0.00%
Alt. Energy 9.95 +1.43% -4.42%
Water 18.31 +1.10% +12.19%
Insurance 16.07 +1.20% +18.34%
Biotech 20.58 +1.08% +27.12%
Retail 19.65 +0.10% +28.43%
Software 24.59 +0.94% +24.07%
Big Tech 53.73 +1.02% +21.92%
Construction 12.99 +2.12% +13.25%
Media 13.57 +1.12% +24.95%
Consumer Svcs 67.26 +0.81% +23.30%
Financials 54.87 +2.39% +5.18%
Health Care 64.22 +0.74% +1.31%
Industrials 63.25 +1.61% +19.70%
Basic Mat 73.57 +1.56% +21.56%
Real Estate 55.24 +1.36% +23.77%
Transportation 91.17 +1.35% +25.60%
Telecom 22.48 +1.08% +17.08%