Shanghai reaction tonight may impact Monday's open......

Chinese regulators took action against rampant stock market speculation by changing margin requirements and encouraging short sales, all this came out after Shanghai and Hong Kong closed.

Futures are indicating about 5% drop in Shanghai.....

North American markets will be hostage to overnight action in Shanghai and Hong Kong..

Open is expected to be weak in US.......

Greece decision is expected on Friday, this is going to be a bigger hangover for Europe than US.....

Earnings are in overdrive with Amazon & Facebook in focus.....

Earnings will be a bigger catalyst for US market

We are in last 2 weeks of April trading which involves month end buying or selling depending on the mood of Hedge Funds...

I am of the opinion that "sell in May" may have leg this year.....

Sell in May may start in the closing days of April.......

It is important to look @ portfolio and see IF your sector exposure is in vulnerable area.....

Some sector are looking better than others like retail, security, commodity related.....it is important to have exposure in some of these areas......

SO...the question is how to be positioned in "May selling".......

It is important to have short term horizon in trading like 24 to 72 hours, IF your idea is not panning out in 3 trading days...you have a problem and needs to be squared off and sold immediately.

IF you have profit in some stocks, then it may be advisable to @ least do a covered write for 60 days @ a time......

May to September needs to be taken very seriously with good "survival strategy"

Good luck with your own analysis and high comfort level with this market.

BLOG does NOT give buy or sell.

Saleem