Volatility remains high

The indexes have been way up and down today. We started down, then went down pretty hard only to reverse quickly back to where we opened (but still down) then mostly tread choppy water until the last 30-60 minutes where the indexes have finally all gone into the green. Technology and the NASDAQ have been on fire most of the day though being up 1.21% as I write this.

The early action stopped me out of a few trades. I closed out my trades in CBS for a 9.5% gain, KFT for a 2% loss, MCD for a 1.5% gain, and XRX for a 2% loss. During the weakness though I added to my positions in ARRS and LWSN near the bottom and both have swung for 3-5% gains from today's bottom despite not being up much on the day.

I also trimmed my position in MA some on a nearly 3% spike today, and will probably look to trim that one into further strength in the future. I also closed out a longer term position in DEO after it hit my price target. I actually still like DEO and may buy it back if it goes lower again, but I felt the risk/reward no longer warranted the position.

I also removed BEBE from my watch list after it reported very weak same store sales numbers against a really easy compare. In general, the same store sales reports out of the retail sector were quite weak, which fits my thesis that Christmas was not as strong as many thought, and that plus the upcoming minimum wage increase (provided it gets passed) will hurt the retail sector overall early this year. All that said I believe retail is actually up at the moment despite the bad news.

-Rizen