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Daily Market Update – March 26, 2014 (9:15 AM) Another day of no news and another day of an upward pointing market to get us started. With little in store for the rest of the week there’s not too much reason to think that this pattern won’t continue, particularly since next week is another Employment Situation Report and that has had a long standing record of being the conclusion to positive market weeks. It’s that kind of confidence and certainty that can get you into trouble. This week has so far been a mildly positive one on all counts, but I would take “mildly positive” week after week, as opposed to some of the alternating and unpredictable big moves that can come our way.It certainly hasn’t been a very exciting week, but excitement can be over-rated. While I like to trade, all of that excitement is long in the past and forgotten once I look at the changing bottom line at the end of each day and especially at the end of each week. The bottom line trumps everything. I can always use that bottom line to help get the excitement I crave in other ways. At the mid-way point for the week I’m not actively looking for or expecting any new purchases, although as next week’s expiring options become available for more positions starting tomorrow and still having cash to spend, the story may shift a bit. In the meantime any opportunities to find additional cover would be appreciated as I continue to want to create additional streams, even at the expense of greater maintenance need for positions, such as Cisco, which was the object of a “mini-DOH” trade, yesterday. Fortunately, there’s still three more days for traders to come to their senses and try to understand why they drove up those shares by about 3.5% on a day when there was no news for a stock that tends to trade with very low volatility except in the absence of news, such as earnings. As with the DOH trade of Target about a month ago which suddenly shot up beyond the strike and is now looking as if it is coming to an end after some rollovers, the extra maintenance may turn out to be worth an additional 1.5% or so, while waiting for its return to its original strike price. Today, as has been the case for the past week or two, most of the attention will be focused on today’s IPO, this time of the maker of the fad game, Candy Crush. With most of its revenues based on a single game and a valuation in excess of $7 billion, it’s hard to keep a straight face as the market is set to embrace the debut. That valuation is one thing, but the announcement of Facebook’s purchase of “Oculus” the maker of a virtual reality head piece for $2 billion, just a couple of months after a second round of funding valued it at about $250 million, is an attention getter. For some reason, and I may not be justified in thinking this, I’m reminded of the movie line “Be
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