Talk of slow growth and rising interest rates spook the Market this afternoon. Stocks started sliding after comments from the Federal Reserve seemed to stoke some anxiety among traders. This took the large-cap index well off that 11,000 point mark that it's been flirting with this week and left the Dow with a triple digit loss. The rest of the indices were just as weak with selling dominating late in the session.

On the economic front, it was an extremely slow day as far as any new reports being released. Other than the weekly oil inventory report, the only other piece of data was the consumer credit report. This piece of data comes from the Fed and wasn't particularly pleasing to the Street. The numbers show that consumer borrowing declined by $11.5 billion in February, which was a larger decline than the Street was expecting. Remember, consumer borrowing and spending is what drives the economy and right now it appears that this is not taking place. If the consumer was a turtle, it would be back inside of its shell.

The chart below shows how far this has changed since 2007. We thought we were hitting the bottom at the end of the 2009, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on today's release.

Graphic from Briefing.com

To top off the anxiety in today's session, Kansas City Fed Chairman stated that he thought the Central Bank could raise the federal funds rate up to 1% without hampering the Market. But with today's report showing that consumers are already fearful of borrowing, the thought of raising rates doesn't appear to be the right move, as far as we're concerned. That's because it could have the side effect of increasing interest rates for consumers across the board at a time when the consumer appears to remain in a fragile state. But then again, we're not the ones setting policy, just living with the results of it.

Of course, it couldn't be another week without fresh concerns out of Greece. But we're tired of talking about it and we're sure you're tired of hearing about it. It's just hard to believe the same old problems aren't already baked into the Market.

Crude finally cooled off in today's session after another jump in supplies was reported. In the weekly Energy Information Administration's inventory report, the country's stockpiles climbed by two million barrels last week. This was more than the 1.3 million barrel increase that the Street was expecting. While the rise in supplies wasn't all that disturbing to the energy bulls, it was the concern over global demand that caused them to hit the sell button today. Oil finished the session down $0.96 at $85.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, crude was trading above $87 a barrel. Let's watch to see if this was just a one-day setback or if crude is going to give us a little retracement the rest of the week.

Friday's Economic Reports

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally headed south in a big way. Well, it wasn't a triple digit loss, but it did finish the day down 72 points at 10,897. This came after the large-cap index continued to flirt with the 11,000 point area on the daily chart.   

The S&P 500 also hit a barrier in today's trading when it gave up 0.6% this afternoon. This translated into a 6.99 point tumble that left the S&P 500 sitting at 1,182 points.

The Nasdaq Composite held up better than the other two indices, but still managed to lose 5.65 points on the session. This leaves the tech-laden index sitting at 2,431 points heading into the final two trading days of the week.   

Of course, the selling had to be good for something. The VIX (CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX) was able to move higher due to all the selling. It rose 0.39 of a point to 16.62 points. While this does increase the option premiums, today's move higher in the VIX was hardly a big jump as far as that index is concerned.

We finally started to get some fills this week with two of them taking place on Tuesday. We were still trying to open up a new RUT spread for May, but so far we haven't had much luck. If we get another round of selling in tomorrow's session, we should be able to get filled in this one. Let's throw the May trade alert out there for one more day and see if we can get anyone to bite.

For the three spreads we have working for April, we like how we're sitting in each of them. While the selling into today's session wasn't good for them, it should have allowed anyone that missed out on Tuesday's fills to get into the new trades. Now that everyone should be in the spreads, we'd like to see the positions start moving north to give us a nice cushion heading into expiration week. For now, let's go ahead and take a look at each of the spread in a little more detail.

NEW TRADE ALERT (1)

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

FOR MAY CYCLE

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 590-580 MAY BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 May Puts at 590 strike price

Buy 15 May Puts at 580 strike price

Total Credit 0.60 per contract

Potential Profit $900.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $595.00.

RUT 630-620 BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts entered on xxx)

RUT CLOSED AT $699.46 Today (69.46 points away from our put spread)

Profit potential of $40.00 per contract

Contingent Stop Order set at $635.00

The RUT has been flirting with the 700 point level this week, but just couldn't manage to hold above it this afternoon. The selling took the small-cap index back below this barrier and left it 2.02 points into red territory at the close. This leaves the RUT nearly 70 points above our "short" strike price at $699.46. We really like how we're sitting in this spread and wouldn't be surprised to see the index keep moving north if the Market can avoid any serious selling over the next couple of days.  

CME 290-280 BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts entered on 04/06/2010)

CME CLOSED AT $314.31 Today (24.31 points away from our put spread)

Profit potential of $35.00 per contract

Contingent Stop Order set at $635.00

The wild ride in the CME on Tuesday was perfect for helping us get filled in this spread. Today, the stock also battled the selling but wasn't able to find itself in positive territory at the closing bell. It finished the session down 2.59 points at $314.31. But even with this selling, we still like how we're sitting in this position. We only have a week and a half to go and a comfortable amount of breathing room in this spread. On the chart, we like the support near $310 that the stock has seemed to bounce off of several times. This should help us if there's more selling in this one. For now, let's just sit back and see if we can avoid any serious selling the rest of the week.

OEX 520-510 BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts entered on 04/06/2010)

OEX CLOSED AT $539.59 Today (19.59 points away from our put spread)

Profit potential of $37.00 per contract

Contingent Stop Order set at $635.00

This is another position that took us quite a while to get filled. We had to go up several strike prices and lower our credits, but that finally did the trick. Thanks to the weak open in yesterday's session, we were able to a good chunk of traders filled at a little better price than we were hoping for. We'll take that extra change any time we get the chance. We're currently sitting with nearly a 20 point cushion, which should be plenty of room as long as we avoid any heavy selling over the next week and a half.

As always, Trade Happy and Trade Smart

We had a pretty good day on Tuesday with two of our new trades getting filled. The only one we couldn't get was the new RUT spread for May. Let's throw this one out there again for today and see if we can get this one. If not, we'll take another look at it tonight in the newsletter.

NEW TRADE ALERT (1) for Income Spread Trader -

Reg. & Pro Trader Members

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

FOR MAY CYCLE

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 590-580 MAY BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 May Puts at 590 strike price

Buy 15 May Puts at 580 strike price

Total Credit 0.60 per contract

Potential Profit $900.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $595.00.

Today was about par for the course as far as this cycle has been. We got another move to the upside, which prevented us from getting our fills once again. Let's make an adjustment for our OEX spread by raising the strikes and dropping the credit. The other two we'll leave the same for tomorrow. Let's see if we finally get lady luck to shine on us in Tuesday's session.

NEW TRADE ALERT (3) for Income Spread Trader -

Reg. & Pro Trader Members

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 290-280 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 290 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Total Credit 0.35 per contract

Potential Profit $525.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $292.50.

S&P 100 INDEX (OEX)

OPENING 520-510 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 520 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 510 strike price

Total Credit 0.35 per contract

Potential Profit $525.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $522.50.

FOR MAY CYCLE

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 590-580 MAY BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 May Puts at 590 strike price

Buy 15 May Puts at 580 strike price

Total Credit 0.60 per contract

Potential Profit $900.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $595.00.

Short week provides big gains. There might have only been four trading days last week, but stocks still managed to post solid advances across the board. Of course, anytime the Market if flying higher, it's always going to be extremely difficult in getting our put spreads fills. The only bit of good news for us last week is that we managed to get filled in our RUT spread. While time might be running low, we still have some trade ideas left for Monday. But first, let's take a quick recap of how the week finished up.

Friday was a day of rest for the stock market, but there still were big data points being released. Unlike the ADP employment report that was released last Wednesday, the highly anticipated non-farm payrolls didn't disappoint. The government data showed an increase of 162,000 jobs during the month of March. Although the expectations earlier in the week were calling for an increase of 184,000 jobs, after Wednesday's ADP release, traders probably would have been happy with any type of increase in jobs.

The chart below shows just how far the jobs data has come since bottoming out. While we're still sitting below the range that we experience in the early 2000's, we're certainly moving back towards that area.

Graphic from Briefing.com

Besides the good numbers for March, there was also a bit of encouragement in Friday's report with the upward revision of data from January and February. January was revised to show an actual gain of 14,000 jobs, which was improved from the original report that showed a loss of 26,000 jobs. At the same time, February's loss of 36,000 jobs was changed to show a loss of only 14,000 jobs. Any way you look at these revisions, it's very good news for the economy.

The other big report released on Good Friday was the unemployment rate. As expected, the rate held steady at 9.7%. While this number was just as the Street was expecting, there was a little bit of trouble in the internal numbers. Average hourly earnings fell by 0.1% while the year-over-year earnings barely edged up when you factor in the core CPI. While this might be slightly disappointing, we'll take no rise in the overall unemployment rate as a very good sign. However, we'd expect that looking into April the expectations might start to revolve on this number falling.

Graphic from Briefing.com

On Thursday, the commodities enjoyed a strong session with crude crossing the $85 a barrel mark for the first time in 18 months. It wasn't able to close above that price, but it did finish the session up $1.11 a barrel at $85.22 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Friday's Economic Reports

After last Wednesday, we almost expected the Dow Jones Industrial Average to pull back and test its 20-day moving average (light blue line) on Thursday. But that's not what happened. Instead, the large-cap index surged 70 points to finish the week at 10,927 points, making a new closing high for the year. However, on the char the index still remains in a slight consolidation pattern on the chart. Let's see if it can break out of this trading range in the new week.

The S&P 500 also ran higher on the final trading day of the week. It rose 8.67 points on Thursday to finish the week at a new trading high for the year at 1,178.10 points. Similar to the Dow's daily chart, the S&P 500 is at the upper end of its trading range, but still appears to be having a problem with the 1,180 line on the chart. Let's see if it continues to struggle with this resistance line in the upcoming week or whether it decides to blow right past this barrier.       

The Nasdaq Composite was definitely the weakest of the three indices last week. It fell below its 20-day moving average (light blue line) intraday, but then was able to lift nicely off this line. It finished the session up 4.62 points at 2,402. However, unlike the other two indices, the Nasdaq is now sitting more in the middle of its trading range. Let's keep an eye on the tech-laden index to see if it remains a drag on the Market.  

The VIX (CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX) looked as if it was going to continue to move higher on Thursday when it rose above its 50-day moving average (red line) intraday. However, it finished the session below this line when it gave back 0.12 of a point to finish the week at 17.47. If it remains below this line in the upcoming week, then the bulls should be able to keep control of this Market. However, if the VIX starts to rise, it could make things a lot more interesting.   

It certainly has been a disappointing cycle so far for our new trade alerts. However, the lone bit of good news last Thursday was our fill in the RUT spread. At least we got paid for one spread over the three day weekend. Remember, as spread traders we love to profit from the lack of trading over any type of extended holiday like the one we had this weekend. It's just one less session for trading and speeds up the time decay in our spreads.

While time is now getting shorter, we still have the optimism that we can add a few more spreads in the month of April. The trick is trying to remain conservative in our new spreads while avoiding unnecessary risk.

Our plan for Monday is to raise our OEX put spread a few strike prices and see if this can do the trick. At the same time, we'll raise the credit by a nickel. We still like the fact that we'll be able place our spread below some solid support levels on the chart.

We also will be sticking with our CME spread, but lowering the credit by a nickel. We felt that we were very close to getting filled in this one last week, but just missed it by a hair. However, we do realize that we might need a little selling to help us get filled on Monday.

Our other idea is that we're coming in with another put spread on the RUT, but for the month of May. We're going to go out a little farther than normal in this spread, but we might not stay in this one the whole cycle. If we get most of our profit in this one, we might close it down early and employ the same strategy the following month. By doing this, we're able to place our strikes at very safe levels and still pick up a solid credit for the risk. While we normally don't like to be in a spread as long as this one, let's see if we can get in and then get out a little early and pick up a nice chunk of change along the way.

NEW TRADE ALERT (3)

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 290-280 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 290 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Total Credit 0.35 per contract

Potential Profit $525.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $292.50.

S&P 100 INDEX (OEX)

OPENING 515-505 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 515 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 505 strike price

Total Credit 0.45 per contract

Potential Profit $675.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $517.50.

FOR MAY CYCLE

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 590-580 MAY BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 May Puts at 590 strike price

Buy 15 May Puts at 580 strike price

Total Credit 0.60 per contract

Potential Profit $900.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $595.00.

CME DAILY CHART

OEX DAILY CHART

RUT 630-620 BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts entered on xxx)

RUT CLOSED AT $683.93 Today (53.93 points away from our put spread)

Profit potential of $40.00 per contract

Contingent Stop Order set at $635.00

The RUT had a little intraday pull back on Friday, taking the small-cap index down to both its 20-day moving average (light blue line) and its 50-day moving average (red line) on the chart. The good news is that it bounced right off these lines and moved higher into the close. It finished the session up 5.34 points, giving us a nice cushion in our put spread. We aren't feeling any pressure in this put spread, but let's keep a close eye on how the RUT trades around these moving averages in the new week.

As always, Trade Happy and Trade Smart

With the Market being closed on Friday due to the holiday, we'll need to adjust the trade alerts to take into account for the time decay element. We'll be sending out our regular Sunday newsletter with revisions for Monday's session. Until then, have a great three-day weekend and let's get back to work on Sunday night.

 As always, Trade Happy and Trade Smart

We got a little more selling intraday, which helped us get filled in our RUT spread. However, the rest of the trades went unfilled in today's session. For tomorrow, let's send the same alerts in and see if the volatility surrounding the non-farm payrolls is enough to help us get filled.

Normally, we might adjust the strike prices or the credits to help us get filled. But with the ADP report coming in weaker than expected on Wednesday, we're anticipating the same kind of problems with tomorrow's data. If this plays out, then we probably have a very good chance of getting some more fills. Let's buckle up tight because it might be a bumpy ride tomorrow.

NEW TRADE ALERT (3)

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

OPENING 210-200 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 210 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 200 strike price

Total Credit 0.35 per contract

Potential Profit $525.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $212.50.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 290-280 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 290 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $292.50.

S&P 100 INDEX (OEX)

OPENING 510-500 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 510 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 500 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $512.50.

We finally got some red at the end of the day, but once again, it wasn't enough to get us filled. Stocks slid into the close of the third quarter today as commodity prices soared. At the same time, the disappointment on the economic front gave little encouragement to traders as the Street braced for more key data that comes out during the final two trading days of the week. The problem for us is that we continued to struggle with our fills in today's session. For tomorrow, we'll have some key adjustments to make, but first let's recap the action from today's session.

There was a little uneasiness this morning after the ADP report on private employment showed a jump in job cuts. The Street was looking for a gain of 40,000 jobs in today's release. Instead, the actual data showed a decline of 23,000 jobs in March. This was not a very good sign heading into Friday's more important non-farm payrolls.

At the same time, February's ADP figure was revised downward to show a loss of 24,000 jobs last month. This means that the new number is a fairly flat reading, which wasn't the bump upward that traders were anticipating. While that actual report is not the big enchilada, like the one we'll get on Friday morning, it is seen as a gauge of how non-farm payroll number will come in. Based on today's release, we shouldn't be all that optimistic.

The next piece of data came out today mid-morning when the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index was released. Following in the pattern of disappointments, the index fell to 58.8 in the month of March. This was down from the previous reading of 62.6 and below analysts' expectations of 61.0. This release shows a slight slowdown of business activity in the Midwest. While the number wasn't a huge drop, the real disappointment was that there were no signs of a pickup in business spending.

Shortly after this release, the Factory Orders were announced. Keeping with the trend of subpar data, the orders for February came in under expectations. Ahead of the release, analysts predicted a jump of 0.8% in new factory orders. Instead, the actual figure was at 0.6%. Although this doesn't seem like much of a drop-off, the problem is that last month's figure of 0.5% was the downward revision from the previous reading of 1.7%. Now that's a sizable downward revision, and not in a good way. The chart below shows the massive rebound that we've seen in the data during the recent Market rally, but with the number already elevated, we have to wonder if it's now losing steam.

Graphic from Briefing.com

Oil faced some selling pressure today in a bearish report from the Energy Information Administration. The government numbers showed an uptick in both crude and gasoline supplies last week, surprising most traders. The oil inventories rose to 2.9 million barrels, which was above the 2.1 million barrels that the Street was expecting. At the same time, gasoline stockpiles climbed by 300,000 barrels last week. This was quite a contrast from the 1.3 million barrel drop that analysts had forecasted.

When we combine today's ADP report (showing continued pressures on the jobs front) with the jump in supplies, it should help bring down the price of crude and gasoline, one would think. The funny thing about today's trading in crude was that before the release of the EIA data, oil was actually hitting a new high for the year at nearly $84 a barrel. After running into some selling intraday, it bounced right back due to the weakness in the dollar. It was kind of hard to believe that it actually gained $1.39 on the day to settle at $83.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  

Today's Economic Reports

After a pre-Market tumble just after the ADP report was released, the Dow Jones Industrial Average actually made a nice recovery after the opening bell rang. The large-cap index spent most of the day hovering around the break-even region but really struggled during the final hour and a half of the session. The index closed near its low of the session, down 50.79 points at 10,856 points. On the daily chart, the Dow appears to be bumping up against some selling pressure intraday. Let's see if this continues during the rest of the week.  

The S&P 500 gave us a similar trading pattern intraday. After overcoming the early selling in pre-Market trading, the index had a nice little gain going intraday. But the final hour and a half of the session really took the wind out of its sail. The S&P 500 found itself down 3.84 at the closing bell. This left the index sitting at 1,169 points and just off its low for the trading day. The index looks like it's going to test its rising 20-day moving average on the chart (light blue line). After this, the next support level will be its rising 50-day moving average (red line). Let's keep a close eye on both of these lines the rest of the week.      

The Nasdaq Composite appeared to be dragging down the other two indices today. It finished the day just off its low with its loss of 12.73 points at 2,397.96. Just as in the chart for the S&P 500, we want to watch the two closest moving averages during the next two trading days. If there's any more selling, these are going to be the ones to provide some support to the tech-laden index.

The VIX (CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX) was able to climb in today's session, but not by all that much. It inched up 0.46 of a point to finish the session at 17.59 points. The "fear index" has a ways to go before we get too concerned, but a little nudge up in the VIX would certainly help us get our fills tomorrow.   

With the pre-Market futures taking a nose-dive this morning, we were very optimistic about getting some fills today. However, the indices had bounced back by the time the opening bell rang and pretty much wiped away any chance that we had on the day. There was some late selling that came at the end of the day, but it was too little too late for our spreads. For tomorrow, let's continue to get a little more aggressive in our trade alerts and see if this can lead to some fills.

We are also adding another put spread on our old favorite the OEX. This index caused us a little problem a few months ago, but we like the pattern it's giving us on the chart. We also like the fact we can come in 25 points out of the money and place our strike prices below some solid support levels. Let's throw this one out there tomorrow along with the others and see if we can get some fills.

NEW TRADE ALERT (4)

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 630-620 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 630 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 620 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $635.00.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

OPENING 210-200 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 210 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 200 strike price

Total Credit 0.35 per contract

Potential Profit $525.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $212.50.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 290-280 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 290 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $292.50.

S&P 100 INDEX (OEX)

OPENING 510-500 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 510 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 500 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $512.50.

RUT DAILY CHART

AAPL DAILY CHART

CME DAILY CHART

OEX DAILY CHART

As always, Trade Happy and Trade Smart

We got a little more selling today, but it still didn't do the trick. For tomorrow, we need to be a tad bit more aggressive. Let's lower our credits once again and see if we can finally get some trades started for the month of April. Even if we're filled in all three spreads tomorrow, we plan on adding some additional spreads in tomorrow night's newsletter.    

NEW TRADE ALERT (3) for Income Spread Trader -

Regular Members

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 610-600 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 610 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 600 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $615.00.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

OPENING 210-200 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 210 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 200 strike price

Total Credit 0.35 per contract

Potential Profit $525.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $212.50.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 280-270 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 270 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $282.50.

As always, Trade Happy and Trade Smart

It was another interesting session, but no luck with the fills. For tomorrow, let's keep the orders the same for just one more session. We're getting some patterns on the chart that appear to be suggesting a pull-back. Let's give it one more day before making another adjustment. We know it's tough to wait so long for our entries this month, but let's hold out one more session and see if we get paid to wait.   

NEW TRADE ALERT (3)

for Income Spread Trader - Regular Members

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 610-600 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 610 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 600 strike price

Total Credit 0.45 per contract

Potential Profit $675.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $615.00.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

OPENING 210-200 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 210 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 200 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $212.50.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 280-270 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 270 strike price

Total Credit 0.45 per contract

Potential Profit $675.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $282.50.

Stocks finish the session flat, but still post another gain on the week. Things got a lot more interesting at the end of the week with the indices struggling to hold onto positive territory. Despite the uptick in volatility, we still continued to struggle with our fills. We'll make some adjustments to our trade alerts, but first let's recap Friday's action.   

Friday's session started off with some bad news in the pre-Market with the downward revision for the fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product reading. Ahead of the release, the Street was looking for no revision, or a reading of 5.9% in the release. However, the previous reading was downgraded by 0.3% to a new figure of 5.6% for the fourth quarter. At the same time, the GDP deflator was revised higher to 0.5% due to rising prices.

Graphic from Briefing.com

Friday's number kind of reinforces many of the expectations that are out there for the economy. The positive reading for the fourth quarter GDP does show that the economy has moved out of the recession. However, we're not looking at an economy that is firing on all cylinders. Instead, the growth is probably due more to the restocking of inventories, which will be done at a very conservative pace until we see real demand showing up.

Although the downward revision in GDP was not good news, the Market didn't look too bad early on Friday morning. Of course, this was helped out by the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index. After giving us a preliminary loss in its reading two weeks ago, the index actually reversed course on Friday morning. The index jumped from its initial reading of 72.5 two weeks ago to a final reading of 73.6 for the month. While the Street was looking for an increase to 73.0, the actual reading was a little bit more pleasing to traders. The chart below shows the nice upward trend in the index.

Graphic from Briefing.com

Oil continued to lose steam at the end of the week. It fell $0.97 a barrel last week, helped out by a $0.53 decline on Friday alone. This decline took crude down to the $80.00 a barrel mark at the session's close. Gold seemed to follow suit last week when it dropped $3.20 a troy ounce to finish the five day stretch at $1,104.20 on Friday's close. Let's see if commodities continue to face selling pressure this week.

Friday's Economic Reports

During the last two trading days of the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had some very large gains working intraday. However, it struggled to hold onto those moves higher in each of the trading days. On Friday, it still managed to hold in positive territory at the close, but only by 9.15 points. But this did secure a 108 point gain for the index last week, leaving the Dow up 1.01% for the five sessions. On the chart, the large-cap index appears to be bumping up against some resistance levels intraday. Let's see if this continues to be a problem for the index in the upcoming week.

The S&P 500 also ran into some troubles intraday during Thursday and Friday's trading sessions. On both days, it finished very much like the other indices, near its low of the trading sessions. On Friday, this still meant a small gain for the S&P 500. It hung onto a 6.69 point gain at the close. This helped lock in a 0.58% advance for the week with its closing price of 1,166 points on Friday. Just like in the Dow, let's watch to see if it continues to bump up against resistance intraday at the start of the new week.     

The Nasdaq Composite wasn't able to finish the session in positive territory on Friday. Unlike the other two indices, the Nasdaq fell 2.28 points on the day, closing at 2,395 points. However, it still was able to climb 20 points on the week, helping the tech-laden index to gain 7.01% over the last four weeks. On the daily chart, the Nasdaq does appear weaker than the other two indices with its rather large red body on Friday's candle. Let's see if this is foreshadowing an ugly week for the index coming up.

The VIX (CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX) finally showed some signs of life last week. After hitting a low in the neighborhood of 16 points last week, the VIX started to move higher on the chart. It made a new high for the week on Friday, but wasn't able to hold onto that gain at the close. The index finished the session down 0.63 of a point at 17.77 points. Let's see if it continues to climb at the beginning of the week.  

The green start to the week made it really tough for our fills during the last week. We finally started to see things go our way last week with some selling creeping back into the Market. However, the selling was quite fast and furious for our put spreads.

On the daily charts, it's quite evident that we're seeing the indices bumping up against some decent resistance levels. If we can get a little retracement at the beginning of this week that should really help us get filled in our put spreads.

Although we think the odds of this happening are pretty good, we can't waste any more time being patient with our new trades. We need to at least get three of them going this month before the time value starts to disappear.

Due to this, we're going to adjust our trade alerts for Monday to see if this can do the trick. Let's keep the alerts out there as day orders for tomorrow. If we don't get filled on Monday, we'll once again make some adjustments tomorrow night, but at a more aggressive approach.

NEW TRADE ALERT (3)

Please Note: This is a Day Order and Limit Order.

RUSSELL 2000 INDEX (RUT)

OPENING 610-600 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 610 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 600 strike price

Total Credit 0.45 per contract

Potential Profit $675.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $615.00.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

OPENING 210-200 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 210 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 200 strike price

Total Credit 0.40 per contract

Potential Profit $600.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $212.50.

CME Group Inc. (CME)

OPENING 280-270 APRIL BULL PUT SPREAD (15 contracts)

Sell 15 April Puts at 280 strike price

Buy 15 April Puts at 270 strike price

Total Credit 0.45 per contract

Potential Profit $675.00

Once Filled, Use a Conditional Order: Use a Stop or Buy Market if Touched Order if stock reaches $282.50.

RUT DAILY CHART

AAPL DAILY CHART

CME DAILY CHART

As always, Trade Happy and Trade Smart