Early morning free money scalps

Time to catch the amateurs off guard. Wednesday night, Oracle had good earnings, so the NASDAQ was going to ramp higher. Some joker bought the QLD (98.55) in the pre-market Thursday morning at 102 because they didn't take into account that it was going ex-dividend of $5.088. The stock then sold off almost 5 points when these guys realized their mistake! What's that have to do with today?

Well RIMM reported great numbers after the close last night, so the NAZ futures are up 23, and the Dow futures are up 100, and the S&P futures are up 14. The S&P SPDR's (SPY 146.80) closed at 146.80, and they should gap up at least a point. So offer stock out a bit less than a point up and see if you get taken. Some clown will think he's picking up a free 10 or 20 cents. Wrong!

SPY goes ex-dividend this morning, and granted, SPY is considerably deeper than QLD, and players that trade this are considerably more sophisticated. But if you're reading this so early, you may get a chance to short some shares to a clown at a higher price pre-market, and then buy them back from him when he realizes his mistake. It's not $5 but it's a "Free 50 Cent."

http://www.amex.com/etf/prodInf/EtPiDistributn.jsp?Product_Symbol=SPY

http://www.proshares.com/funds/distributions