Torn

Im confused - I feel that we face a macro economic hell coming up but Im loving what I see out of Ford....Im not an analyst and even if I were I think getting thru their earnings report and financials would be tuff but it just seems like the company is making good progress almost every quarter.
I definitely think the companies not running to Uncle Sam for some cash resonates with people it sets them apart in a positive way, but more than that they are making products that people want and are buying as their market share numbers are showing. So I want to get long the name in a meaningful way but am afraid that if the market takes it on the chin there will be no where to hide.....buying the stock and selling Jan 7 1/2 calls covers you for a 10% drop in the stock but also caps you up 10%....although a 10% standstill return for 3 months or so aint to shabby..thats 40% annualized last time I checked. If the market gets tagged nothing will be safe...nothing - but I do like what Im hearing from Ford.
The market had a volatile session and at the end of the day the end results were pretty muted. I guess the big NEWS was the chapter 11 filing of CIT - put yourself in the shoes of the people who use CIT to fund their businesses - the sense of angst and not knowing must be awful. As an aside the treasury is gonna lose its 2.3 billion dollar tarp investment in this thing...it was so obvious back when they made the investment that the company was gonna need to file chap 11 eventually but it is this governments way to avoid taking its medicine. Oh well - whats 2.3 billion right?
Another noteworthy event today was Citigroup downgrading RIMM to the biggest 4 letter word on wall st. SELL. The stock fropped another $3 bucks or so...the stock seems washed out to me - so I bought some stragnles in there (puts and calls) but more calls than puts so I have an upside slant to it. Options seem relatively inexpensive in there considering how the stock moves.
I still am quite bearish overall as stocks like AAPL, AMZN , GOOG,BIDU still have huge room to drop, huge. AMZN is the biggest joke of em all.
Anyway sorry for the disjointed way this blog was put together.

JB