DailyPlay Update – April 29, 2022

After our buying the QQQ call spread Thursday morning when it pulled back to our entry level of $320 (after opening even higher than that) we saw the Qs reach as high as $330 during the session, giving our Daily Play May 20^th $320/$344 call spread trade a very solid Day 1 gain. However, the official 4pm QQQ close at $328.01 basically disappeared in after-hours trading, with the 8pm close at $322.75.  Easy come, easy go.  And that’s why – especially in this market – celebrating any “paper gains” before they’re actually booked is an exercise in futility, and almost assured disappointment.

Amazon blew up after earnings.  Intel sank, too.  Apple rallied but the subsequent analyst call stating “no more forward guidance” was not taken well by investors, so it abruptly turned around and fell some 4% to head into dinnertime with my thinking that, “Oh boy; Thursday’s rally was going to disappear on Friday.  Wouldn’t that mess up a lot of heads.”

As I write this late Thursday night, SPX futures are now only down 17 points (they were down as much as ~60 points earlier this evening) while Nasdaq futures are down 146 points (having been down over 300 pts. earlier).  Professional traders and investors are getting made to look foolish almost daily, so don’t worry that you might also be having a hard time with the market.  I promise you that everyone is.

QQQ – Thursday 4/28 2-min. chart (including after-hours)

I will not put out a new trade idea for you today, because market movement is so erratic.  Add that today is a Friday AND the last day of the month and I am very happy to simply watch today’s shenanigans from the sidelines.  We’ll see if any new news comes out over the weekend to give investors a better chance of what’s coming next.  Rest up for another rousing week next week.

Don’t forget to login on Monday at 8:45am ET for the weekly Options Play Macro Market Outlook. 

– Rick Bensignor
Chief Market Strategist