Don't Let Mortgage Mess Cloud the Opportunities

The New Century (NEW Quote) death rattle will no doubt weigh on everything from Citigroup (C Quote) to AIG (AIG Quote) today. That's because the instruments the bears use to profit from the storm hurt everything financial and because the bears want to get their financial shorts on ahead of the reporting of Bear, Lehman and Goldman.

Which is why it pays to avoid that battleground entirely and look to trade tech or health care.

Although I dislike the semis, the bulls have National Semi (NSM Quote) to drive up Texas Instruments (TXN Quote), Linear Tech (LLTC Quote) and Microchip(MCHP Quote). That could be a buck or two there.

The health care cost containment plays -- Medco (MHS Quote), Cardinal (CAH Quote) or United Health (UNH Quote) and Wellpoint (WLP Quote) -- would be a good place to go. I noticed the rails kicking up.

And the drillers, courtesy could weather, have been an excellent gig to work in.

Sometimes during the day it bothers me that there isn't a network talking about all of the other ways to win that are silently going on all of the time. Extrapolating the winners is an obvious game to play but extremely helpful for home-gamers. Endless prattle about Washington Mutual's (WM Quote) next isn't nearly as helpful as non-prattle about how Pemex has to drill deep water and Exxon's becoming a believer in the higher oil price scenario. Global SantaFe (GSF Quote) and Transocean (RIG Quote), with rapidly rising rates, seem so right, despite the insistence of analysts that the best is now behind them.