by ilene - August 23rd, 2010 11:32 am
Courtesy of Prieur du Plessis, Investment Postcards from Cape Town
Last Thursday was a so-called 90% down-day for American stock markets (and many other bourses also recorded downward dynamics). A 90% down-day is defined as a day when downside volume equals 90% or more of the total upside plus downside volume and points lost equal 90% or more of the total points gained plus points lost. The historical record show that 90% down-days do not usually occur as a single incident on the bottom day of an important decline, but typically on a number of occasions throughout a major decline. As far as the very short term is concerned, 90% down-days are often followed by two- to seven-day bounces.
The stock market is on a knife’s edge at the moment as seen in the chart below, showing the long-term trend of the S&P 500 Index (green line) together with a simple 12-month rate of change (ROC) indicator (red line). Although monthly indicators are of little help when it comes to market timing, they do come in handy for defining the primary trend. An ROC line below zero depicts bear trends as experienced in 1990, 1994, 2000 to 2003, and in 2007. And 2010? With the ROC delicately perched just above the zero line, the primary trend is still bullish, but barely so.
Source: StockChart.com.
Regarding seasonality, I have done a short analysis of the historical pattern of monthly returns for the S&P 500 Index from 1950 to August 2010. The results are summarized in the graph below.
Source: Plexus Asset Management (based on data from I-Net Bridge).
As shown, the six-month period from May to October has historically been weaker than the period from November to April as seen in the average monthly return of 1.05% for the “good six months” compared with 0.25%% for the “bad six months”. Importantly, when considering individual months, September (-0.18%) and October (-0.19%) have historically been the only two negative months of the year. (A word of warning, though: one should take cognizance of seasonality but understand that it is not a stand-alone indicator and it is anybody’s guess whether a specific year will conform to the historical pattern.)
Where does this leave us at this juncture? Considering an array of indicators, we are somewhat in no-man’s land regarding whether the bull or bear will…
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by Chart School - July 8th, 2010 2:11 pm
Courtesy of Scott Brown at Sabrient, co-author with me of The Dark Horse Hedge
The SPX continues to trade below both the 50 and 200 day moving average (MA) but yesterday rallied to close above the once solid support level of 1040. The market bounce off the lows of July 2 also correlated with the Dark Cross formation which occurs when the 50 Day MA crosses the 200 Day MA downward. As we discussed in the Dark Horse Hedge, this has not traditionally held up as a good foreshadower of bearish activity. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that it took place.
With a low volume rally on Wednesday, and the lack of any follow through midway through Thursday, combined with the rally lacking any real quantifiable economic basis, the charts lead us to believe that Wednesday’s action was a relief rally so far. To begin even a modest short-term uptrend, the SPX will need to hold above the July 2 close of 1023 on any downward close and then break the close of Wednesday at 1060 or close today, whichever is higher. The 14 day RSI is slightly bearish at 41.68 and would need to cross 50 to become a bullish technical signal. As one other confirmation of the weak technical chart, I have added the 12-26-9 MACD which is currently -17 with the bullish signal line being a break of 0.
So in conclusion, the SPX had a earnings foreshadow or relief rally on Wednesday, with Volume below the 50-day MA. The index itself is remains securely below both the 50 and 200 day MA which have crossed. The confirmation by RSI and MACD lead us to believe that based on our reading of the current chart, the rally of Wednesday will have to retest 1040 and more importantly 1022 before it can move higher. If the next down move breaks 1022 and seeks what should be technical support from Sept 2009 of 995, we are technically in a downtrend.
The DDH started with a 67% SHORT tilt last Thursday which is confirmed through this chart analysis. On Tuesday, both LONG positions were up and the 4 SHORT positions were down creating the “Perfect Storm” for that day. DDH attempts to build a L/S portfolio with the best fundamental companies held as LONG positions and the worst fundamental companies held…
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by Chart School - April 22nd, 2010 10:07 pm
Courtesy of Fallond Stock Picks
Small Caps again took charge and dragged Tech indices with the help of the semiconductor index. Bulls used rising support to launch their attack as the Russell 2000 added another percentage point. Supporting technicals made modest gains but are mapping bearish divergences with lower highs – but bulls won’t be complaining too much.
via StockCharts.com
The Nasdaq managed a new closing high, Thursday’s trading engulfing the narrow trading range from Wednesday. It’s nicely set up for a positive Friday.
via StockCharts.com
The semiconductor index added close to 2%, negating what was the most bearish close from the indices I track
via StockCharts.com
The strength in Small Caps and Tech filtered down to at least a positive finish for the S&P. But even here there is enough to suggest Friday could follow through higher
via StockCharts.com
Markets are nicely poised to continue higher – extended though they are. Will Amazon and Microsoft earnings be the dampner?
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by Chart School - April 1st, 2010 2:23 pm
Pharmboy’s latest chapter in his TA eBook – Chapter 7! - Ilene
Links for previous chapters:
1. Understanding Market Cycles: The Art of Market Timing (Chp. 1),
2. Dow’s Theory of Markets (Chp. 2),
3 & 4. Fundamental vs. Technical Analysis and Types of Technical Trading (Chps. 3 & 4).
5. Stock Charting Basics: How to Read & Understand Stock Charts (Chp. 5 here.)
6. Using Moving Averages for Long and Short Trades (Chp. 6)
Courtesy of Pharmboy of Phil’s Stock World
In Figure 1 below, typical up trends and down trends are shown. These zigzag patterns are seen all the time, but why do they form? Let’s say someone bought a stock at a certain point. If that stock went up, but pulled back to the original purchase price, they will often think that it’s an opportunity to buy more at their original price, thus adding to their position. This is also the same for shorts when they are able to short a stock at the same price they shorted previously. Then why do peaks form? People sell (or cover) to take profits. Obviously, any increase in selling will pull the stock back. Those who bought at a lower level may start buying again. This repeats and repeats until 1) there is no more stock left for people to buy, or 2) there is too much supply and not enough buyers. On a larger scale, this is how bull and bear markets begin and end.
Figure 1 Typical up and down trends.
The following basic chart…
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by Chart School - March 10th, 2010 11:28 pm
Courtesy of Fallond Stock Picks
Small Caps and Tech continued their good form. Technicals continue to support the move higher for Small Caps (Russell 2000) with new highs for the MACD and +DI line. The Russell 2000 would have to give up 25 points (or 4%) just to test breakout support at 650.
The prior underperformance of the semiconductors was undone with today’s 2% gain.
This revival helped keep the rally in the Nasdaq ticking over
But Large Caps didn’t quite live up to the gains of Tech and Small Caps
Last Friday’s breakout gap remains the most tempting pullback zone.
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by Chart School - February 3rd, 2010 9:38 pm
Courtesy of Fallond Stock Picks
A non-event day; techs made small gains, small and large caps posted small losses. From a technical perspective there was at least a stochastic ‘buy’ for many of the indices.
The Russell 2000 remained contained by its 50-day MA
Of the market breadth indicators, the Percentage of Nasdaq Stocks above their 50-day MA marked a bottom as it crossed its 5-day MA helped by an Ultimate Oscillator ‘buy’.
Other market breadth indicators are still some way from firming a bottom but buyers are prepared to take a look here.
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by Chart School - January 30th, 2010 10:00 am
Courtesy of Nicholas Santiago at InTheMoneyStock’s Rant and Rave Blog
This morning the market soared higher after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report by the U.S. government. Reportedly the GDP increased 5.7 percent in the final quarter of the year. This news was much better than economists had expected, and a rally was underway to start the day. This was another day when the good news just kept pouring in and the media headlines looked great. Then one might ask, why did the market reverse after making a 10:30 am high? Please realize that the NASDAQ was trading at 2202.00 during the morning peak and is now below 2175.00, and negative on the day.
Often when a "buy the rumor, sell the news" type event takes place it is usually because price is already built into the market. However, today many leading technology stocks have rolled over intra day even as they are at major daily chart support levels. Leading stocks such as Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) have reversed to the negative side by selling off more than eight points intra day from today’s early session highs to the recent intra day low. Sandisk Corp (NASDAQ:SNDK) is another leading stock that is getting punished today by traders and investors. However, this stock gapped lower and has continued to sell off into its daily 50 moving average at 25.80 which should be some short term support. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) is another stock that supposedly had very good earnings and was trading higher to start the day. This stock gapped up higher at the open by trading at 29.90. Since that opening print the stock has sold off and reversed to the negative side.
What is this telling us when good stocks can’t hold their gains after good news? Often it tells us that conditions have changed. The market has obviously priced in the good expectations from earnings and even the economic data. It is prudent to remember that the market is similar to a pendulum. Often the markets swing to one side too far, and then to the other side too far, and rarely finds that common middle ground or equilibrium point.
With that being sad one should always realize that you can’t fight the tape and the market is always right. Therefore, price action is king and…
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by Chart School - October 13th, 2009 1:56 pm
Courtesy of Binve at Market Thoughts and Analysis
Here are the leading options as I see them. Again, there are no slam-dunk winners here and still several ways to count this rally.
First is my preferred count:
Pros: Listed here (Alternate Count Possibility - now the preferred count)
Cons: Wave 1 is now much longer than is proportional to the size of the A wave it will be part of in this count (I believe the long term wedge trendlines are *extremely important* and will be mostly respected until the final finishing wave where we might get an overthrow).
Alternate Count 1 – Columbia’s Option
Pros: Very elegant. Look at the trendlines for this count in his post (Week-end thoughts, A Fresh Prospective!!!)
Cons: None. I really like this count. And am really thinking about making it my preferred. Col’s trendline observation is the most insightful analysis yet I have seen on this rally.
Alternate Count 2 – Large Ending Diagonal
Pros: I think a huge wedge *wants* to end with a diagonal (Alternate Count (Very Speculative))
Cons: That is one big freaking wedge. It is way out of proportion with the rest of the waves in the rally
So did today’s action give any clues?
Like I mention above, **if** the move today is a Minute degree Wave 1 completion (as opposed to a A wave or a completed C), this has a few implications.
1. This will be the start of a very large rally, and will likely take us past the 7-month wedgelines.
2. I believe the wedgelines are *extremely important* will be respected, with only minor excursions, until the final move. If we get a significant break to the downside, I believe P2 will be over. If we get a significant break to the upside, then that will be the final rally before P2 is over.
I, of course, may be completely wrong. But this is a key assumption I am making.
So before jumping into some counts, lets look at Weekly and Daily charts.
Here are…
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by ilene - July 11th, 2009 11:00 pm
Click here for a FREE, 90-day trail subscription to our PSW Report!
Courtesy of Allan
Yet every so often a communication from one you impacts me with frustration and dismay. By now I would think that if you have been with me for six months, or a year, or longer, you would be making money trading, using some ideas and techniques that I have described over the months and years of writing AllAllan. But I hear something else from these communications, I hear that many of you are not getting it.
Today I am going to present to you three ways to trade using the simplest of strategies based on end of day prices and a minimal of necessary hardware or software. I am going to use an unleveraged ETF and remove all of my more sophisticated (read: expensive) tools, using only Market Club Triangles and 3 Line Break Point charts, both very similar in their construction and entirely objective in their application.
You can trade this going forward on XLF and probably not need anything else to be successful month to month, quarter to quarter and year to year. But it is my hope you will instead, glean from this the very basic premise of a simple rule-based system that can be applied and tweaked to any number of tradables, a simple trend following trading system from which anything is possible if you only have the discipline and desire to make it work.
Their are actually two systems shown on the chart:
(1) Enter trades on appearance of WEEKLY TRIANGLES and exit on appearance of reversing DAILY TRIANGLES. If flat, RE-ENTER on appearance of DAILY TRIANGLE in direction of most recent WEEKLY TRIANGLE;
(2) ENTER/EXIT on appearance of WEEKLY TRIANGLES (disregard DAILY TRIANGLES).
…
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May 19th, 2013 8:35 am
Courtesy of Doug Short.
Ready or not, we should expect a week dominated by an even greater focus on Fed policy. There are four reasons:Fedspeak is described by former Fed Vice-Chair Alan Blinder as "a turgid dialect of English." In the Greenspan era, the Fed Chair was intentionally ambiguous. (Blinder, who favored a more open exchange, did not last long in the Greenspan era). In the Bernanke era there is supposed to be more transparency....
May 19th, 2013 1:09 am
NEW: Newsletter writers are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.
Here's the latest Stock World Weekly! Just sign in with your PSW user name and password, or sign up to try it out.
...May 19th, 2013 12:00 am
Courtesy of Benzinga.
Global X, the New York-based ETF sponsor known for its unique lineup of commodities and emerging markets funds, announced six of its ETFs will be reverse split, including three gold mining-related funds.
The $29.4 million Global X Gold Explorers ETF (NYSE: GLDX) will undergo a 1-for-4 reverse split while the $2.78 million Global X Junior Miners ETF (NYSE: JUNR) will see a 1-for-3 reverse split. The Global X Pure Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: ...
May 18th, 2013 9:59 pm
David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz on Toxic DisinformationOn the Billl Moyers Show
Public health historians discuss thwarted efforts to hold the lead industry accountable for toxic exposure threatening American children.
Science can be a battleground — witness the politics of climate change, the teaching of evolution, the uncharted terrain of genetic modification and stem cell research, among other contentious issues. But when industries release untested chemicals into our environment — putting profits before public health — our children are the first to suffer. Nowhere is this more troubling than in the ongoing story of lead poisoning.
Bill talks with David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, public health historians who’ve been taking on the chemical industry for years — writing about the hazards of in...
May 18th, 2013 9:37 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum of Acting-Man blog,
Full Court PressNot a day passes without the financial media denouncing gold as an investment option and hailing the bureaucrats heading the world's monopolist monetary central planning agencies as superheroes. It began prior to gold's recent breakdown, with widely cited bearish reports on gold published by Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, among others. Never mind that most of their arguments were easily unmasked as spurious. ...
May 17th, 2013 1:40 pm
Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Click here for the full report.
May 16th, 2013 2:08 am
Courtesy of Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics
It seems that every Tuesday in 2013 since January 8 has been positive on the Dow. And this past Tuesday was no exception. Now that sounds like a trend to put money on -- buy the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) at the close each Monday and close out the position late on Tuesday.
The Dow and S&P 500 both hit new all-time highs once again on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq hit its highest level since November 2000. The “risk on” allocation of new investment capital into cyclicals continues, although Wednesday saw leadership from defensive sectors Consumer Staples, Utilities, and Telecom, along with Financials. Nevertheless, ConvergEx reports that the average correlation of the ten S&P business sectors to the overall index averaged 82% last month. While that is below the 86% averag...
May 15th, 2013 8:46 pm
Options brief will resume May 20th, 2013.
Today’s tickers: BMY, TIBX & WMBMY - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. – Shares in drug maker, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., are ripping higher today, up 6.5% at $44.94, the highest level in more than a decade, ahead of the release of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2013 Annual Meeting abstracts tonight. The ASCO Annual Meeting begins on May 31st in Chicago. Options on BMY are far more active than usual today, with overall volume topping 64,000 contracts by 12:25 p.m. ET, versus average daily volume of around 11,400 c...
more from Caitlin
May 15th, 2013 1:09 pm
Submitted by Mark HannaCourtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
We are starting to see some very extreme readings on our monthly and weekly index charts since there has been no correction this year. I posted below first the monthly chart of the S&P 500 going back 15 years showing bollinger bands – rarely do we get above the upper one, and never have we been this far above. Then below that I posted (with 4 charts of 4 years each) the weekly data and you can see we are at a rare time we are above the weekly bollinger band as well. This non stop rally is getting very historical.
Monthly – we've never been this far a...
May 13th, 2013 1:11 am
Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).
We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options.
Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.
To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here
Optrader
...May 12th, 2013 7:23 am
Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Stock market posts another record setting week, but the big news came after Friday’s close.Courtesy of NASA
The stock market put on another record setting show with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) closing at a record high 15,118 and the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) closing at 1633.70, another all time closing high.
For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) gained 1%, the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) climbed 1.2%, the Nasdaq Composite (NYSEARCA:...
January 21st, 2013 8:09 pm
Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Well, well, well....it is good to know that there are others in the scientific arena who believed that YMI Bioscience's data (cough - Gilead) is a better drug than Incyte's Jakafi. Now, the definitive data are still unknown, but there was enough evidence from a Phase 2 trial to take a small risk for a huge reward. So, let's forget about Apple (AAPL), and do nothing but biotechs from now until Congress passes universal health care coverage for prescriptions....and drive the prices down so that research and development is no longer feasible to conduct in the US. Even Seattle Genetics (SGEN) has been on a tear as of late...
November 18th, 2012 11:09 am
FAS Money $25KPA $25KPM AAPL Money Peter's Strangle Portfolio Income Portfolio ...
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
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Note: The material presented in this commentary is provided for informational purposes only and is based upon information that is considered to be reliable. However, neither Philstockworld, LLC (PSW) nor its affiliates warrant its completeness, accuracy or adequacy and it should not be relied upon as such. Neither PSW nor its affiliates are responsible for any errors or omissions or for results obtained from the use of this information. Past performance, including the tracking of virtual trades and portfolios for educational purposes, is not necessarily indicative of future results. Neither Phil, Optrader, or anyone related to PSW is a registered financial adviser and they may hold positions in the stocks mentioned, which may change at any time without notice. Do not buy or sell based on anything that is written here, the risk of loss in trading is great.
This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or other financial instrument. Securities or other financial instruments mentioned in this material are not suitable for all investors. Any opinions expressed herein are given in good faith, are subject to change without notice, and are only intended at the moment of their issue as conditions quickly change. The information contained herein does not constitute advice on the tax consequences of making any particular investment decision. This material does not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situations or needs and is not intended as a recommendation to you of any particular securities, financial instruments or strategies. Before investing, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice. |
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