After hours today AAPL reported … as as expected will not provide many option players with any profit. You can view the release HERE. 
After a full after hours session AAPL closed with less than $1.00 of movement from the close. We’ll see how it trades tomorrow, it’s possible the market has a different view in the morning and the premarket session will reflect that. As it stands now, it’s up to BIDU to bring a little life back to the market and help GOOG carry it higher. In BIDU + AAPL = Direction Market Will Go I stated I felt the best trade here is to simply take advantage of the volatility before and after earnings. BIDU I’m sure will provide numerous $3 to $6 dollar swings in both directions tomorrow but as far as buying, shorting or playing options… flip a dice.

Scan List: BEXP KOG PDO ENT DGLY EXM ICO SCA MMR WMG

This is a purely technical scan and what I’m looking for on each. There may be earnings expectations being built in and if hit could spike further, or upon a miss could sink, there also may be news releases that come out and disprove any reads on the charts as of tonight 4/21/08! So with that, proceed with caution but here are my thoughts!

Big day in the markets tomorrow with AAPL first and then BIDU Thursday

KOG
Very nice move as of late. Lots of players trying to find the top (which it did top temporarily) but managed to squeeze higher and higher. The top is near in my opinion. Watch for a morning spike, if it loses $3.20 this should test $3.00 support again and end up near the $2.75 mark shortly there after. Worth a watch here could be an easy .50 cent play given a morning squeeze.

PDO - very thin not worth it to take a big position. I would watch for the test of $7.00 again before shorting. This is one of those stocks that could wash out to $5.50 and immediately recover to the $6.50’s leaving shorts confused and before you know it … its double digits.

ENT - A lovely chart, volume is really kicking in now. The volume tells me there is still more to come and may very well take out the last high of 2.65-2.70. On this break it should see $3.00. It’s not ready to be shorted … yet…

BEXP - quite a break out lately watching for the break of $10.00. If it breaks $10 it will probably start consolidating around this level before it heads for $12. If it breaks over $10 proceed with caution, and wait for the trade to come to you. $10 is a key area. There are two plays I am watching for.
1) Any spike to the upside of .50 to .75 I will likely scalp (rather quickly unlikely to hold for any period of time)
2) If it opens above $10 and squeezes higher I will wait for it to show weakness, upon breaking $10 on the downside I will enter looking for mid 8’s.

DGLY - met some resistance today, if this loses $9.00 it may retest low 8’s before heading back towards $10.

EXM - what a breakout $28 to a near $45 in a week. Watching for this to “gap and crap” tomorrow. This may open up $43.50-$44.00 and sprint towards the $45 before closing near $41. Most definitely on radar!

ICO nearly 10 million shares traded hands today. If this trades above $9 tomorrow I will watch for the fade under $9 to begin my short. What does that mean? If its $9.10-9.20 and begins to sell off towards the $9 mark I will short then, rather trying to catch the top. This can very easily see $10 so I’d rather not try to find the top by picking it out of a hat but rather let it form and then just join the fall.

SCA - starting to turn off bottom here, I’m not usually a fan of the sub dollar plays. If this breaks $1.18 it could turn into a supernova of sorts after it breaks $1.50 in which case I’m sure you’ll find Tim PennyStalking it but its time time and as he’s mentioned its just a POS random stock. I agree. BUT its on the radar just in case it squeezes not worth a position yet, although I do think we’ll see .80 before 1.20.

MMR some of these NYSE stocks vs. NASDAQ stocks are unbelievable. They just trend straight up without looking back. It’s heading towards $30 but I don’t think it will make it. This is on watch for any weakness, potential upside I feel is $31.00 potential downside support is around $24.00. Tomorrow may be the last day it closes green before taking a breather to gain additional momentum.

WMG - Heading towards $9.00. Note back in February it had trouble getting past that. This is what I’m looking for, if it fails as you can see it corrects rather quickly to the downside!

RDTA a great short heading right to where it belongs…

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Why is it that BIDU and AAPL earnings will determine the way the market will go? Tech has really been leading this bounce, had Google missed…. the market would be in the gutter.. .. again…

(To sum up what’s below - the real money is in taking advantage of the volatility of the stocks prior to and post earnings, there will be abnormally large swings back and forth with an unknown direction. Your chance of picking the right direction is about as good as the guy who thought GOOG would be up $95 dollars Friday…………….)

GOOG has brought a lot of momentum to the market the past two days not only aiding in the bounce, breaking out of a 3 month channel but more importantly giving some of the other big boards the credit they deserve with the numbers they hit (RIMM specifically, IBM and others). RIMM shattered expectations beating wall street estimates a few weeks back and based on the way it traded you’d think they straight up disappointed wall street. Yes.. it did traded within a few dollars of its recent highs but just didn’t have enough in it to break $125 on the attempts in the past two weeks. Sure enough with the help of GOOG’s juice it broke through $125 hitting a high of $126.60.

RIMM - $130 is psychological

BIDU unfortunately has been on steroids of some sort lately running into earnings. AAPL has been continually trending up but consolidating more so than BIDU. My fear that if BIDU nails their numbers there is still a good chance it trades down for a period of time as it consolidates and puts in a floor to its recent run. Similarly AAPL may follow the same scenario but may be able to support a higher price near the $180-190 range with a psychological target of $200 and upgrades to $220+

BIDU: Some traders have noticed, the volatility is already on the rise HERE, HERE and HERE

Again this is all hypothetical and there is no way to predict the street, I don’t feel like there is any good play here except to take advantage of the volatility. Long, short or even an options trade might not. Options may screw everyone and end up like RIMM for those looking to close the contract within a day or two. BIDU will probably trade a range of $50 to $60 dollars before tightening up to within $15-20 of the prior close. If they hit their numbers it may settle perfectly at the $320 range filling the gap, consolidating and moving towards $400 over the next 3-6 months. AAPL on the other hand I feel more strongly about, AAPL may hold its gains but must consolidate before a longer term move.

AAPL usually trades fairly well on earnings days (given a good report) and continues its squeeze towards foward looking events (ie: the launch of the new iphone). The main sell off usually happens the day of or day after the launch. (This should be kept in mind for a trade idea) Other ideas include: HERE and HERE.

Overall it’s possible that they nail it, mark accepts and we are off to greener pastures… I however am not convinced…. YET. and it may take another quarter to prove that things are stabilizing and clear sky’s ahead. Not to mention, the last resorts if AAPL and BIDU can’t turn it up will be MA and V on the 28th of April. (Which V on a side note has broken through resistance and people are already starting to talk about $100)

GOOG - if you are looking for a long $550 is breakout

AAPL - $162-163 may retest $170 is breakout
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BIDU - there’s only so much to say… ???????????? sums it up!

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Lots of good things happening around the markets today. Very bullish day all around not to mention IBM!! IBM’s Q1 earnings jump 26 pct, company increases outlook - this should lift the markets into a spectacular day tomorrow!
Wall Street Journal: IBM Bucks Slowdown, But We’re Not Out of the Woods Yet
Seeking Alpha: Is It Really a Tech Tell?
Seeking Alpha: Big Blue Delivers Big Profits

AAPL $160 breakout

BIDU shorts have been and continue to be toast

IBM great numbers out after the close and unlike CROX they actually increased their outlook

MA - we’ll see if it can bring V with it, again I’m not buying V until it breaks $70, then its a sure break towards $100 since its a physiological target

ICE on the verge of breakout, another great set up here, this can easily squeeze towards $165

Trade Ideas for tomorrow?

GRMN has it sank enough yet? $43, if the market is strong tomorrow this could move towards $45, I’d expect a small bounce before it hits more lows. In fact I believe $42s will be the lowest this goes for the next month

GNVC - This one finally peaked as expected - didn’t quite make it to $2.50 but surely lost it from there, should test $2.00 before testing $2.50 again - in fact it should test around the $1.80 mark.