I am at an age now (aka old) that I begin noticing more subtle things. I can differentiate between the cries of my infant daughter. I know when I ask my wife what is wrong and she says ânothing,â I can tell exactly how serious she is in the intonation. I know when my car is not acting right. But I am also that much more of a âlistenerâ to the markets. I preach all the time that we as traders should let the markets tell us how to trade rather than make our own guesswork and we got a subtle yet high-pitched squeal yesterday morningâ¦certainly for a day trade. I even mentioned it briefly in yesterdayâs market comment piece. The latest GDP report came out much worse than expected. In English, the economy is doing even worse than the wise economists opined when asked to give their estimates to services such as Dow Jones and Reuters. When a terrible economic number comes out, one would expect the market to fall. Indeed, S&P futures fell a couple or three handles when the GDP number was released, but within two minutes, all the ground had been regained and the market was even higher. That signaled to me that the news was already in the market plus if the market could not go down on that horrible piece of news, my trading for the day would be focused to the long side- and that is exactly what I did. I did not try to guess why the market performed as it did; I just went with it. So, as I try to improve on this facet of my trading performance on a daily basis, the daily epiphany is two-fold: 1) the tone of the market is very strong right now. It can change at a momentâs notice of course, but wow- yesterday was impressive. 2) Pay attention to what the market is telling you. Know the newsflow and have a rudimentary understanding of major events like economic reports; by doing so, one can actually earn a dayâs pay trading equities. Foreign markets soared overnight on the heels of Wall Streetâs rally yesterday. Markets throughout Asia were up 3% to 4% across the board while prices in Europe are up 2% to 3%. There seems to be no real catalyst for the rally other than an increasing belief that the banking system is going to survive this financial crisis. Futures are sharply higher again and there just isnât any real reason to see this changing as we approach some pretty big numbers on the S&P chart. Short covering is in vogue and that is that right now. Look for a continued upside day on the busiest earnings day of the season. It will likely be a bit calmer than yesterday; use banks as your benchmark, but it seems like the firm tone is going to hold ahead of Mondayâs stress test results release. Reiterating- Please understand that if the ideas do not get to the hoped for set-ups cited below, more often than not, one should not blindly trade the symbol next to said idea. If the whole story is not there - If something is good, assume either a short thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specifiedIf something is bad, assume either a buy thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified- Good- The following stocks have good news and/or a strong technical pattern MGM- received a reprieve for its CityCenter deal in restructuring debt; LVS and WYNN may move with it F,GM- rumors after the close that teh government may utilize TARP money to buy equity or debt stakes in the automakers AKAM- good earnings TRIB closed on a high SRZ- closed on a high NFP âclosed near a high PNRA- on âMad Moneyâ TWC- closed on a high after posting good earnings FSLR- great earnings CTXS- good earnings GMR- great earnings OI- great earnings TRN-great earnings VARI- great earnings GMCR- terrific earnings FLS- great earnings CCI- good earnings AMKR good earnings ARRS- good earnings SKX- great earnings TTEK- good earnings ORLY- decent earnings WYN- closed near a high AMG- closed near a high after posting great earnings CELG- good earnings CLI- good earnings DOW- great earnings HOT- good earnings MOT- good earnings NWL- good earnings PCX- good earnings PG- good earnings TNDM- good earnings TYC- good earnings WPI- good earnings ASH- good earnings CL- good earnings IP- good earnings NRG- good earnings Bad-The following stocks have bad news and/or a weak technical pattern SQNM- company indicated researchers falsified documentation on its lead drug V- beat earnings, but volume growth slowed; MA may move with it URI- terrible earnings JDSU- terrible guidance CVD- poor earnings ITRI- terrible earnings CBL- bad earnings NTRI- poor earnings FTI- bad earnings AIZ- bad earnings VAR- bad earnings HAR- poor earnings RYL- bad earnings HIW- bad earnings DRIV- bad earnings RE- bad earnings CAVM- bad earnings FORM- bad earnings RNR- bad earnings MANT- bad earnings AVB- bad earnings CI- bad earnings EK- bad earnings OSK- bad earnings Earnings: THURS APR 30 BEFORE AHL APA ASH AWI AZN BBW BC BRY BWA CELG CI CINF CL CLI CMI CMS COCO COV CTL D DLR DOW DPZ DRE EK EQR EQT ERIC ETH EXPE FAF FMX GEO GTI GTIV HOS HOT HP HS IFF IP IRM ITG K KBR KIM KSU LNT LZ MFA MOT MRO MYL NBL NEM NRG NU NVO NWL NYX OC OCR OMX OSK PCBC PCX PDE PEI PG PTEN RGC RYN SBH SEPR SPR STRA SWY TNDM TRH TRV TSM TYC WMX WPI XEL XOM THURS APR 30 AFTER ACS ARBA ATHN ATO BGC BMRN CAB CHH CMO CPT CQB DLB ELY FISV FR GPRO HIG IM IN ITMN MCRS MET MFE MTD MTW MWW MXIM NETL NFG NLY NST NTCT PKI QLGC SQNM SSD TEG TSRA TSYS UGI VPRT VSEA XRAY Good luck today. Erik R. Kolodny