Check call volume and put volume alerts
The
Nasdaq perked up on the heels of Thursday’s distribution-laced
outing, with the Internet glamours lighting up the tape.Â
Breadth was flat on the Big Board;
marginally positive on the Nasdaq. Interestingly, all of the people that used to
whine to me about the narrowness of the market’s advance have suddenly turned
silent. I guess that’s what making money in the market does to
one.Â
In technology, little if any
distribution was seen in the marquee names…among the best-acting issues,
Sun, 3Com, Cisco, EMC, Lucent, and H-P showed a dry-up in volume,
while Microsoft continued to act well as it works on a five-month
base…the semis were the weak sister of the complex, off on Y2K
worries–it was the first distribution seen in the group in a few weeks…chip
titan Intel sold down for the fifth day, with turnover increasing from
the prior session for the fourth day in a row.
A lot of people are fascinated by the
cup-with-handle, a pattern popularized by Bill O’Neil…Check out AOL
today–it broke out of an eight-month c-and-h–the volume confirmed the
legitimacy of the move.
Heads-Up
Dept.: Do you check TradingMarkets.com’s Call Volume and Put Volume alert
screens? One Los Angeles trader, a friend of mine, told me that Tyco
showed up Tuesday night as No. 1 on the call side and No. 3 on the put side of
the screen, which alerts TradeHard members to abnormal option volume. Before
Thursday’s open, Tyco announced that the SEC was conducting an informal inquiry.
Thursday morning the stock opened at 25 5/8 vs. a Wednesday close of 36 1/4.
Like anything else in the market, this screen isn’t perfect, yet extreme levels
of volume in options often signifiy an impending big move.Â
Elsewhere in color=#008000>Webville, RealNetworks cleared a two-week
congestion zone on twice its average daily volume…
At press time, Kevin N. Marder held a
long position in AOL.