Sitting out the rest of the week

I was in the process of moving to a more options-friendly platform than my current brokerage, but was disappointed to find out today that they aren't willing to clear me for spreads. Without that ability the comparative advantage of trading in options is greatly reduced, and it wouldn't be much of an upgrade from my current broker, so I guess I'm stuck for a while.

I had some other business to take care of today, but I did make some time to look at the markets. I considered taking on a short term position to try and swing trade a bounce, but it's a bit late for that move. There were plenty of opportunities earlier in the week for both long and short positions, but I was tied up trying change brokers.

Apple Inc. will release their quarterly earnings report tomorrow and it had a down day today (also their daily highs and lows have been narrowing since their big drop Monday), so there is a good chance it will pop if the news is favorable. However, the underlying forces are bearish, so any run will likely fade and maybe even give back some before the end of the day.

If I made a trade today and wanted to pull out tomorrow I would be stuck holding the bag due to the free ride restrictions. My account should be cleared for margin tomorrow or Monday, though, and once it does I will have more ability to take advantage of volatile markets like the one were having. There's just nothing out there right now I'd be confident about enough to commit to holding for more than three days, especially over the weekend.