Not Sure What Retail Was Thinking

Maybe we can get a retail sentiment update (Sam?). What I find interesting is there were very few positions this week, today AAPL and QQQ both worked, but lets face it, they weren't huge gains.

The last I heard, retail was at multi-month highs in their bullishness so I'd think they'd be playing along with similar positions, however it's pretty plain to see that we were not thinking the same thing when comparing rank which is my way of seeing how retail is or was positioned and thus what their sentiment is.

So that's #12 of 666 (oh, that's creepy) and it's not an insane percentage gain.

 The only thing I can think of is other positions in the Options Tracking portfolio that they would not have been in, saw a lot of improvement and increased the overall performance for the week, positions such as:

HYG August Puts as HYG (Credit and very important to us right now) dropped -0.85% today which doesn't sound like a lot, but for HYG that is significant.

USO August $38 puts as USO was down -1.81% today and even more the last 4 days, I doubt too many on the retail side would be short USO. DTO  which is the equity part of that position (long) was up +5% today.

IYT August $113 Puts, IYT is down over 2% over the last 2 days and looks great (I'd like to add on some price strength/3C weakness) and TLT is a major add-to if it will just come down a little more.

XLF August $20 Puts, they're down nearly -1.4% off yesterday's open.

In any case, I don't think it's the recent call positions that are making the difference, I think retail probably was very bullish and the positions above are seeing significant improvement. That's the only thing that makes sense to me unless someone has some idea of what the tone was toward AAPL before earnings yesterday among retail.

In any case, I have a LOT to do before leaving tomorrow through Sunday on my first vacation in well over 3 years, it's actually a birthday present to my mother and brother! It's like I bought my wife a bowling ball with my name engraved in it... 

I will however take a look at the market and try to give you some more basic themes and ideas for the rest of the week, Friday tends to be an op-ex pin and kind of slow until late afternoon and Thursday tends rto close near Friday's pin.

I'll be back with a little bit more shortly and I'll have my computer with me, I'm sure I'll peak in on the market.