Portfolio notes during the -311 Day for the Dow

As everyone saw, both FLIR and CLB got stopped out. CLB was near breakeven, while we rode FLIR for nearly 10 pts on the final 100 shares. Long time holding JOYG sold on the 25th after earnings dropped the stock into a nosedive from 63 to 52. These were the original casy shares that we got in together in March of 2005. It's the last remaining memory of, in my opinion, the best trader I have ever witnessed in the trading room. He always wanted us to make him proud, so should one day, one of us make the cover of a Dow Jones, Time Warner, or McGraw-Hill publication, I'm sure he'll be smiling at us.

When the market was down 150 on the Dow, I initiated three new shorts using the double-short index ETF's of 200 of TWM, 100 of SRS, and 150 of SKF. This was to somewhat mitigate the remaining 4 longs. Although all 4 longs are sitting very close to their stop points, I'm playing the shorts for a quick 5% move before I flip them out.

Contrary to what the news is saying, I believe the past few days is similar to what occurred in the last trading day of February and the following ten days. So if this move plays out the same, the averages should move down another 5% before finding support twice and then rallying again to another new high.

A catalyst for a move down on Friday is the GDP report and as a short, the best scenario is something below 1% growth. As for the likely cover date for the shorts, I'm guessing Fri, Aug 3rd since my best guess on the monthly 401k money being invested is Mon, Aug 6. One of the traders suggested the Wed AM release of CSCO on the 8th could be the catalyst to stop the current downtrend. Her technology calls are spot on, so if anything I might play it indirectly by adding to my AAPL shares or purchasing RIMM.