Trade Ideas for 10/02/08

Today was an inside consolidation day. I think we all needed a little breather! But don't get complacent. Tomorrow the action might just start up again. The ban on short sales of financials has been extended, but to my eyes charts favor one more push to the downside. Bear flags abound. (Bear flags are setups that favor downside: a weak rally that doesn't really get anywhere)

We bought AIG today, and it should have been a reduced portion since AIG opened above our buy price. Recall that in this situation you can either buy at the original buy price (if it gets back down there) at reduced risk percentage, or buy at the new high of the day using the original risk percentage; either way it will be fewer shares than originally planned.

Current Holdings
Ticker	Basis	Closing Price	Perf.	Sell-Stop	Additional Exit Guideline	Chart
SLW	10.21	8.45	-17.2%	7.99	None	Chart
SIGA	4.01	3.57	-11.0%	3.19	Consider selling on a close < 3.48	Chart
AIG	3.57	3.95	+10.6%	2.99	None	Chart

For tomorrow, another beaten-down stock that could bounce (alongside AIG), a short-side bet, and good ol' Barrick. The latter has been basing in almost the same range every day for the past two weeks.

Trade Ideas for 10/02/08

Ticker	Entry	Exit A	Exit C	Chart
SPF (Standard Pacific)	5.26	4.69	4.29	Chart
SCC (UltraShort Consumer Services)	104.53	100.72	98.99	Chart
ABX (Barrick Gold)	39.61	35.92	32.95	Chart

Please refer to "How To Trade The Ideas" (right-hand side) to read this table.