May 1st Watchlist

Futures have pushed into negative territory this morning after holding the all time high on the S&P up until 8 AM or so. ADP private payrolls came out lower than expected and we also had a PMI figure come out at 9 AM which investors are reacting negatively to. We have a consortium of earnings that hit this morning. Some of the major ones are Merck MRK, Mastercard MA, Time Warner TWX, & Viacom VIA. This evening we’re going to get numbers from Visa V & Facebook FB so make sure to pull up all these names and see if you can find a scalp or two.

We are clearly holding under all time highs and unable to aggressively push above and beyond. Many traders are betting that this is the top due to a lack of reasons to get us through. The FED will come out today and release the minutes from their two day meeting on the state of the economy and future FED policy. Most investors are expecting a non-event but Bernanke could deliver comments about the economy that entice investors to make bets either way.

I like the idea of sitting out until the market finds a direction to focus on. I’ll be writing credit spreads on Apple AAPL for the rest of the week and staying away from trying to go after 100% weekly options trades.

Make sure to register for our webinar after the close today on ‘Trading with Twitter’!

GOOD MORNING YOUNG WORLD!