Not necessarily a shocker that today finished slightly up. It was a typical Friday float around the flat line all day, kind of day…
Next week is options expiration week. The normal play book is for the large institutions with “prop desks” (proprietary trading desks which means they trade the banks money which is also the shareholders money) to whip the market and stocks back and forth collecting all the odd lot puts and calls around various strike prices.
That said, you need to be aware that throughout the week not everything is as it seems. Rumors fly around that speculate about buyouts, mergers and a host of other nonsense.
Side note just for fun: Today Amazon was up $18.28 or 5.57% apparently on news that their comparable sales were significantly higher than last year. That’s nice, but whenever the stock goes down everyone complains that they don’t have earnings and sooner or later “the street” will care about earnings. Where were the earnings people today?
I’m a big fan of Amazon the company, and I really don’t have an opinion on the stock. I do have an opinion on the chart which is discussed in today’s video.
What happened to Portugal and Banco Espirito Santo from yesterday? You see, unless they need a reason for a down market, the bad news is put away for the day. It’s a fascinating study in behavior as it relates to the market, news, reasoning and money. It’s a wicked combination.
Speaking of wicked, my daughter received a gift of Wicked Good Cupcakes. If you’re a Shark Tank watcher then you may be familiar. Holy cow are these good. If you’ve ever had one, you’ll know what I’m talking about. (she authorized the one I ate)