Aloha Friday

Dow Jones 10,620 -162.79 -1.51%

NASDAQ 2,346 -47.51 -1.09%

S&P 500 1,135 -21.76 -1.88%

Can a 162-point drop on the Dow ever be a positive sign? After dropping about 230 or 240 points intraday, the Dow rallied into the close. So did the Nasdaq and S&P 500.

I didn't get up until about 5 am Hawaii time, 90 minutes into the session. I missed HAUP's gap up and run to 4.85. Like yesterday, when it ran crazy in the final two hours on a press release involving Apple, I wanted a retracement to Fibonacci levels. It didn't happen. That's what happens when a 92-cent stock increases in one day by five-fold.

A down market is one thing, but this one had a range underwater and I wanted some AAPL, which bottomed at 249.50, but ran to 252 or so in the second half of the day. But FAZ and VXX intrigued me; aside from HAUP, there was nothing else on my screen that was green aside from inverse ETFs/ETNs. It was a great day to be short the market coming in, not after the fact.

Still, I tried. FAZ settled into a range between 13.80 and 14.00, and I got shares at 13.96. Teetered, tottered and I held up and down, revising my exit point along the way several times. However, when I added more shares at 14.06, that was basically the all-points-bulletin for shorts to pile in. It ran to 14.13 for a second, then sold off and I got out at 13.86. Could've been worse, but I should've gotten out at break-even or somewhere above 14. It was a good trade in the sense that I limited the loss in a turbulent market. But timing is still an issue. I sold these shares of FAZ yesterday before the bell at 12.51 for a 10-cent loss. I didn't want to hold anything overnight, which cost me $1.50 on today's gain.

By the close, AAPL had run from 250 to 254. The banks ran, too, to no surprise. C was at 3.92 for most of the afternoon* before closing at 3.98.

The inverse ETFs/ETNs closed weaker but were still green. Nice green, too.

• EUO 24.60 (+0.57, +2.37%)

• EPV 25.94 (+1.52, +6.22%)

• FAZ 13.75 (+1.08, +8.52%)

• FXP 44.11 (+1.62, +3.84%)

• SDS 32.05 (+1.12, +3.65)

• SKF 19.76 (+1.06, +5.67%)

• TMF 36.87 (+1.95, ++5.58)

• TZA 6.10 (+0.33, +5.71%)

• UUP 25.21 (+0.23, +0.92%)

• VXX 26.86 (+2.13, +8.63)

EUO is a steady short on the euro, not a high flyer like VXX, but very consistent. FXP (short China) is interesting, but I'm not comfortable touching that yet. Getting more familiar, though. No good news out of China for awhile. In other words, the slightest good news will wreck the FXP and fuel the FXI (down 21% the past year).

TMF (30-year treasury index) is killing it. Go Grandma! UUP, the U.S. dollar, is also solid.

GLD and SLV are down fractionally. Overbought, yes, but people will stay in for the most part. Or go to treasury bonds, maybe TMF.

US Steel (X) sold off 5.66% today. Other big sells were in NFLX (100.56, -9.45, -8.59%) and ETFs like FAS (-8.74%), STD (-7.28%), and financials like IRE (-4.44%). GS is down 1%. C rallied into the close from 3.91 to 3.99 (-0.11, -2.69%).

HAUP held up fairly well, despite the tape, and closed at 3.93 (+0.90, +29.70%). Missed my opportunity there, but it could be interesting on a retracement to 3.38 and lower.

IMAX down just 0.57% to 19.30. A nice rally since dipping to 17 last week.

Next week is a mystery to me. My gut says better hedge than go long, but anything can happen over the weekend, especially with the Euro league of nations.

An AAPL/VXX pairing sounds interesting, but I don't want to deal with any slippage by VXX again. Staying 100% cash for now.

The week was a series of losses, mostly small, with a few wins. Study time. I think one key note is that I'm sticking better to discipline now, an improvement from earlier in the week. No matter how much I like AAPL, it's subject to the whims of the market like everyone else. Dry powder rules.