Back...

I was away for a few days doing some skiing in Colorado......great to be away from the flicks and ticks of trading - OK I did check my blackberry for some quotes when I was on the chairlift but still great to be away.
The markets have declared loudly and clearly that it does not want to be bothered by issues such as Greece solvency and does not even want to hear anything about California's budget woes. What the market did want to hear was some rumor that AAPL was going to split its stock 4-1 which was good for a very strong rally in the afternoon hours. The SPUZ had been down as much as 17-18 points and finished down about 3 and tonight are up 3.5 so 24 hours no real movement...
After the close tonight DECK reported numbers and the stock was up $10 afterhours...I own some calls in there so bully bully for me...this is the maker of UGG boots something that in my life as a Dad and husband I have seen my girls and wife wear...and wear alot - expensive boots they are - I usually tell my kids to ask Grandma to buy them for them for Hanukkah...
Anyways economic numbers are having very little baring on the market as yesterdays confidence and housing numbers were total SHIT and todays initial jobless claims almost pierced the 500k mark....oh yeah things are great in the US - no wonder companies are reporting great numbers they are firing everyone.
I continue to buy names like Verizon and MO which have big dividend yields...I also sold some puts in PALM today as the stock seems really washed out...I have some short positions in commodity play FCX and have sold some call spreads in Toyota...Im sure lots of people are short Toyota now but one thing I know about auto businesses is that when things go bad the ship does not just right itself in a week or two - it takes a while if ever - screw Toyota anyways - they were so frickin pompous - I love this smackdown they are getting - they make amazingly boring cars and somehow hoodwinked the whole world into believing that they were perfect when really they were just drinking to much saki at the karaoke bar - I was born and raised in Michigan and my Dad worked for Ford for a loooooooooooooong time - can you tell??
Anyways the market is as usual confusing and challenging but we battle...

JB