TUES. MAY 3- Desire

“Yeah
Lover, I’m on the street
Gonna go where the bright lights
And the big city meet
With a red guitar, on fire”

Does anybody recognize the lyrics of this song? Hint, if you’re a U2 fan, you should really know it. The next word is the main theme (and name) of the song: “Desire.” Now, I’ve written of similar themes in the past- most recently a piece on “focus.” But there is a major difference between “focus” and “desire.” Obviously, one has to have “desire” to have “focus,” but there are different levels of “focus.” For instance, I typically clean the table and the floor after dinner since my wife usually makes dinner. When I “clean,” I typically sweep all the crumbs and wipe down the table. So, it’s pretty good as I focus on making sure we don’t live in total filth. Now, if we’re going to have people over, that’s a different story. The desire comes in to really clean- mopping, scrubbing, making sure every last dust crumb is off the floor. In trading, all the time, many traders focus when they need to when in trades or looking at prospective trades. But it disturbs me on many levels as I’ve written here countless times when people do things like gloat at 4:02PM at having made “$200” for the day…followed by a mass exodus routinely as a for instance. How can someone be satisfied with that paltry number…and then try not to enhance the number? During the day, when it’s quiet at times, why not concentrate on learning as much as one can about the field one is in? Thus, one may focus when trading…but it takes true underlying desire to do better- to understand one can always improve- to realize success not only in trading but in the bigger picture as well.

Markets overnight were down throughout the world with Hong Kong down 0.4% and Frankfurt and Paris each off about 0.8%. Gold is down about 1% with silver off an even more notable 4%, the dollar is down across the board, and oil is down 1%. Bonds are up again with the 10-year now at 3.25%. Futures are modestly lower. The main trigger overnight seems to have been a surprisingly bigger-than-expected interest rate hike in India along with vague terror worries. Look for a relatively quiet and choppy session pending exaggerated movement in the non-equity markets which would likely lead to a sudden exacerbated move stock-wise. The focus will likely be on the earnings plays, Indian ADR’s, and the rare earths.

Good- The following stocks have good news and/or a strong technical pattern

RAH- closed near a high amid rumors Apollo Global management on verge of bidding for company

DISH- closed near a high after posting good earnings

HIG- decent earnings

HLF- great earnings

BGC- decent earnings

FMC- decent earnings

IRF- decent earnings

VVUS- decent earnings

OXGN- closed near a high

AVP- decent earnings

FDP- decent earnings

IPGP- decent earnings

KLIC- good earnings

PCS- decent earnings

MA- decent earnings

AAPL- closed near a low, but featured on “Mad Money” last night


Bad-The following stocks have bad news and/or a weak technical pattern

REDF- closed near a low

MOBI- closed near a low

TZOO- closed near a low

FSLR- closed near a low

LULU- closed near a low

SOHU- closed near a low

RIG- closed near a low

TDSC- closed near a low

CHK- poor earnings

DNDN- poor earnings

NETL- poor earnings

PFG- poor earnings

ANR- poor earnings

CTSH- poor earnings

FWLT- poor earnings

EMR- poor earnings

FIS- poor earnings

PFE- poor earnings

CLX- poor earnings

Earnings:

TUES MAY 3 BEFORE

ADM AMT ANR

AVP BBG BYD

BZH CLX COCO

CTSH DVA EMR

FIS HCN HCP

IPGP JOE LM

MA MLM MRO

MYL NYX OSG

PCS PFE PRGO

PWR RDC SMG

SU VNO

TUES MAY 3 AFTER

ASIA ATW AUY

BEXP BRE CBS

CENX CMCSA CNQR

CRL FSLR FWLT

GMCR GNK GNW

HRS INT JAZZ

LVS MCK MOLX

MOTR MYGN OKE

OPEN PEET PXD

THQI UNM VRTX

WFR XL

Epiphany Trading, LLC
www.epiphanytrading.com

Erik R. Kolodny- Chief Markets Strategist
Brendan P. Byrne- President