Emerging Markets Bull 3x  (EDC) Trade Now »     Rate EDC  -  Discuss EDC  -  Add to Watch List        

A little choppy around options expiration, but overall it was another very good week:

Since last Friday's close, the S&P 500 gained +2.45%, Dow +2.24%, Nasdaq +2.50%, and the Russell 2000 +4.09%. To make the big money, being long real estate (URE), financials (FAS), small caps (TNA), basic materials (UYM), natural gas (UNG), energy (ERX), and emerging markets (EDC) were all good choices. The worst performances this week could be found in anything and pretty much everything leveraged short like the SRS, FAZ, TZ & SMN.

It was a four-day trading week, but a very good one for anyone long the market. Amazingly on 9/10/01 the Dow closed at 9605. As you can see, we closed at the same exact level today:

We closed 2 points above S&P 1040 and today only saw healthy consolidation in overbought conditions without much of a price pullback. That's a good sign, of course, but all of us know never to let our guard down. Next week we'll have more data to chew through and trading volumes should continue to pick up their pace as the fall trading season really gets underway.

Filed under: Earnings reports, Home Depot (HD), Options

Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is recently trading at $26.50 in pre-open trading, above its close of $26.11. HD reported Q2 net earnings of $1.1 billion compared to net earnings of $1.2 billion in the same period in 2008. HD lifted 2009 EPS guidance. HD August 26 straddle is priced at $1.43, September 26 straddle is at $2.35. HD September option implied volatility is at 39; below its 26-week average of 43, according to Track Data, suggesting less price risk after EPS.

At quarter-end it is always interesting to see what some basic performance scans show up. Case in point, the ETFs which are up more than +50% since the closing price on March 31st:

The top performer has been the Emerging Markets Bull 3X (EDC) with a +102% gain over this time frame: