Monday’s Top Stocks
In today’s abbreviated session, the pre-holiday fireworks from yesterday turned into something resembling more of a scud attack. The ETFs gapped lower on a worse-than-expected Employment Report, setting the early tone. Maybe if we called it the ‘unemployment report’ the perception would have been bullish. But then again, what fun would the opening be for those few that still bothered to show up? Well, how about throwing in an erroneous Institutional sell order into the Dow Jones e-mini contract? If below-average participation wasn’t enough to spark some extra volatility, an extra 1800 contracts ‘to go’ was certainly enough to do the job. It might have been a half-day of trade, but the down, up, down, up…and down sequence of events definitely gave today’s participants a session ‘full’ of volatility. Closing numbers have our ETF friends closing down between 1% and 1.35%, with decliners on top of advancing issues by about 1.5:1, on average ‘extrapolated’ volume.
Plenty of games today, which one normally expects before the real fireworks go off tomorrow. But today’s trade might just go down as one of the more memorable in recent memory. I personally don’t agree with ‘the breaking of the error’ by those in charge. It seems a lot of people want it both ways. When they don’t use stops, the brokers are to blame, i.e., Merrill Lynch. And with incidents like today, where someone has an order below the market that gets hit because of somebody else’s supposed error, they want ‘their protective stop’ broken because it ‘wasn’t a real trade’ that limited their loss. Are ‘they’ seriously for real? Maybe you got away with a freebie today, but in my book the authority to protect profits and limit losses is about as real as it gets in the market. To start looking for other illusory means of protection (like pointing fingers instead of accepting stops) from the market gods will most certainly end up costing you in the long run.Â
Apple pie, camping, seats in the bleacher, a classic Wimbledon showdown in the making? I’m not sure which is your bag, baby, but I do know that the one thing we can agree on is coming back prepared, and ready to enjoy that day’s festivities using our favorite High and Low RS issues, as they trade out of classic reversal and continuation patterns each and every day.
Volatility Readings:
| Volatility Index | Close | Net Change | Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average | Significance |
| VIX ( $VIX.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
21.61 | up .47 | none | 1% below | Not At Extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
32.47 | up 1.42 | none | 3% above | Not At Extreme |
Hottest Sectors :Â Internet
(
HHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Broker/Dealers
(
$XBD.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors : Networking
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Software
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Monday’s HELVETICA>stocks to watch:
Technical
Strength Top of Range.
Stocks are scanned from TM’s Proprietary and
Technology 10 Momentum lists on the Indicators
page, as well as being hand selected, based on the most recent technical action.
This may include some or all of the following: abnormal volume, price patterns,
as well as bullish action off of technical price supports or clearance of
technical resistance in that day’s session.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Quest Diagnostics | ( DGX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
65.78 | Top of range close near daily chart consolidation breakout levels, on above average volume |
874k | 719k |
| Safenet | ( SFNT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
31 | 52-Week closing high, on above average volume at top of range consolidation |
354k | 354k |
| ADTRAN | ( ADTN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
55.65 | Top of range close, near 1-month consolidation highs |
994k | 465k |
| Packateer | ( PKTR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
18 | Consolidation close at top of range, fresh 52-week highs on strong volume |
533k | 929k |
Technical Weakness Bottom of Range.
Stocks
are scanned from TM’s Implosion and
Technology
Implosion Lists on the Indicators page, as well as being
hand selected, based on the most recent technical action. This may include some
or all of the following: abnormal volume, price patterns, as well as bearish
technical action at key support, or resistance levels based on closing prices.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Cigna | ( CI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
46.85 | Low RS stock closing in a bearish outside day engulfing pattern |
1,345m | 810k |
class=890430920-15102001>
class=890430920-15102001>Stock Reversal Setups Closing Basis.
Stocks that are setting up on a closing basis as potential long
or short reversal pattern
candidates. Candidates listed may have triggered on a closing basis, or close to
triggering ( my general rule is to list the pattern setup if it is within +/-.15
of trigger price). Patterns include basing patterns (“Slim Jims,
“1,2,3s”, Double bottoms)
consolidations, and triangle reversals. Background
technical supports in the form of Fibonacci levels, EMAs (DEMA=daily ema), RS, and former price
action are
used in the decision making process.
class=890430920-15102001>Long Reversals class=890430920-15102001>Closing Basis.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Lexmark | ( LXK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
74.01 | Session-long triangle pattern consolidation after daily wide range reversal bar higher |
1,727m | 697k |
class=890430920-15102001>
Short
Reversals
Closing Basis.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Technical Strength | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
class=890430920-15102001>
Institutional
Favorites
and Institutional
Laggards.
The following stocks are selected from
the Nasdaq, S&P 500 & 600 Indices, and HOLDRs. These are normally heavily traded,
liquid issues that
are exhibiting relative strength or weakness, patterns (consolidations or
“Slim Jims”) , or last hour volume surges, indicative of follow through in the very near term.
Institutional
Favorites.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Mercury Interactive | ( MERQ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
41.32 | 3,655m | 2,298m |
| Gilead Sciences | ( GILD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
57.98 | 4,107m | 3,329m |
| Merrill Lynch | ( MER | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
49.25 | 5,942m | 4,027m |
| Yahoo | ( YHOO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
34.85 | 13,000m | 7,863m |
Institutional
Laggards.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| Intuit | ( INTU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
43.79 | 4,402m | 2,373m |
| Lehman | ( LEH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
66 | 2,828m | 1,764m |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use
protective stops on class=890430920-15102001> all trades.
Chris Tyler