Surprise Rally

So today we saw a decent rally in the market. Fueled by better than expected retail sales and a decrease in jobless claims the broader market had a very positive reaction. This was all in the face of a 4 dollar jump in oil prices. The catch is that we could give it all back tomorrow if unemployment comes in worse than expected.

I am decently positioned regardless of what happens. I am currently still biased to the bullish side with more positive delta, however it is only at a rate of 4:3. It's at times like these you wonder why diversification is good because 5 of my call positions are up, all my put positions are down. Theoretically if we have a down day I'll hope some of my calls stay up or keep up and my put plays go way back down.

ANF is a case, it drops to 68 today's numbers come out and it jumps to 7o.25, that is not a very convincing close to me and given the possibility of a drop tomorrow I'll stay in for the insurance for now. Same with MS.

Near the close I entered into some SPY puts, the S&P closed at 1404, this should have signaled an exit, again this is a hedge and I am only down .5%. None are at my 2% max loss, although ANF is very close. If we have a bullish unemployment number I will likely cut those positions loose very quickly to limit further expected loss.

The number comes out I think before the open so the futures should tell the story in the morning. AAPL is still sitting right below 190, it needs a nudge which could be this number or the WWDC.

On a side but great note the Celtics won game 1 of the NBA finals. Hell yea, do it Garnett! ;-)