Nuts !

Stocks rally strongly. They're up about 5% or more worldwide. Reason ? Greece and the Eurozone have been saved !
But how ?
Private creditors "voluntarily" give up 50% of their claims, thereby reducing Greece's debt by 100 billion Dollars. The IMF and other European countries advance Greece fresh money.
What is the HOPED for result ? That Greece will have "only" 120% debt to GDP in 2020 !
We've been there 2 years ago, and at the time, Greece was broke ! Now we shall hope that 9 years from now we'll be back to where Greece is just broke ?

Why is gold going up ? Sanity has left the building....

Ok, Maybe Not So Crazy After All.....

Just covered that put I sold at $4.70 for under $1. That yielded a return of more than 10% on capital at risk in 3 days. The stock itself though, went from $43 to now $52. Clearly an even better result at a slightly higher risk.

Crazy ?

Perhaps a little: just sold a strike 40 put in First Solar that has 3 1/2 weeks left for $4.70. With the stock now at 43, it obliges me to buy it at a net price (after option premium received) of $35.30.
In other words, I'm willing to bet that the company will survive and that there'll be no revelation of fraud.

First Solar Tanking

News that the CEO resigned sent the stock down more than 14 Dollars to a new low of $43.71.
No other news given, except that the board of directors "thanks him for his services".

Solar Stocks

Prices crashed recently with many companies losing between 2/3s and 4/5s of their value just in the last 3 months. Bearish bets (short interest) in many issues amounts to more than 50% of float, or the number of shares available for trading.
The largest publicly traded issue, First Solar (FSLR) fell from 140 to now 55 and has a short interest of about 20 million shares against a float of about 35 million. Recently downgraded by Ticonderoga (see "Barron's" link here : http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/10/12/fslr-ticonderoga-says-sell-modules-to-lose-money-in-2012/?mod=yahoobarrons), it was recommended for purchase by Goldman Sachs with a price target of $90.
Perhaps the best way to play this sector is an ETF with an unwieldy name but a much better ticker symbol.
Guggenheim Solar - ticker: TAN.
Because of its size, First Solar makes up about 20% of the fund.

Some Charts :
TAN


FSLR


Here's another interesting viewpoint:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Is-Solar-Dead-indexuniverse-4280332257.html?x=0

Story Of Two Headlines:

The Wall Street Journal: "Accusations Against Iran Fleshed Out".
Germany's "Der Spiegel": "USA Admitting That Case Against Iran Is Shaky".

"Police Foil Attack on Berlin's Central Station"

That was today's headline in "Der Spiegel". When you read the article though, you learn that it wasn't the valiant police force, but sheer luck that prevented serious damage: The detonators failed to work.