shorting mark z.

FB, Facebook, one of the most disappointing IPOs in recent memory.  The hype. The media frenzy. The over-priced IPO.  The disappointment.

It recently gapped up to near term highs.  Now putting on a short position in FB and leaving the stop as the high from 2 days ago and/or the high from the gap down from late July.  Rounding up to $25 just for kicks.

There are also a boatload of shares that will be flooding the market as lock-ups expire in the coming months.

Stopped out

So that did not work out well.  TECL, the leveraged tech ETF would have done a bit better if Google had not released disappointing earnings (accidentally during yesterday's trading day) and then continued its downward slide today.  The position hit its stop at $53.47 and then continued to trade lower, ending the day at its lowest price, $50.50.

Paul Tudor Jones (PTJ) probably put it best: "At the end of the day, the most important thing is how good you are at risk control."  Cut the losers, let the winners run.  This was a loser, it was cut and we move on.

Here are your closing numbers.

Dow Jones

13,343.51

-205.43

(-1.52%)

S&P 500

1,433.19

-24.15

(-1.66%)

Nasdaq

3,005.62

-67.25

(-2.19%)

The indices are breaking down, trading at or below significant moving averages and making lower highs and lower lows.  CMG, GOOG, AAPL, INTC, MCD, and myriad other stocks are getting beat down.  Great short opportunities abound for over-priced shares priced to perfection that are either missing on earnings, revenue or guidance.

Catching a bid

Yesterday the SPX bounced off its 50 DMA and after the significant sell-off the technology sector had in particular over the last week, the 3X leveraged tech ETF TECL managed to find support on its 200 DMA.

Given the SPX might have a bit more room to the upside if it manages to trade near its other recent highs of 1474 and 1470, the tech stocks should have a bit of a run as well.  Given today's move in TECL, a run to 60 perhaps is in the cards. If not, the low of yesterday, $50.48 is the stop on the position.

Summer's over...

Time to get back to work - nice break / hiatus from blog updates and postings.

The market heads towards the inevitable fiscal cliff - although it could be years before we do the lemming swan song so until then, there is likely loads of money to be made on the long side as stocks continue to defy logic and gravity by going up up and away.

Although plenty of short opportunities exist as well.  The goal is to take advantage of strong stocks surging upward and weak stocks drifting lower - minimizing overall portfolio risk while maximizing gains for the portfolio.

Here are your numbers from today's action on Wall Street:

Dow Jones

13,482.36

-32.75

(-0.24%)

S&P 500

1,445.75

+1.26

(0.09%)

 

Nasdaq

3,120.04

+6.51

(0.21%)

Speaking of great short opportunities, here is one that got some recent publicity (the bad kind) when Einhorn gave this stock the kiss of death by mentioning at an investment conference that he is short the stock, turns our that people don't really care whether they eat their tacos from CMG or Taco Bell and that CMG does not deserve the rich multiple.  So long Chipotle....