Paper Trading
Do you know how I can tell when there
isn’t going to be much upward activity in the tech sector? I’ll admit that there
are several indicators that I look at, but there are some very quick and simple
things that you can check each morning. For example, why not see what other
sectors are moving? When I wake up in the morning and hear that consumer
products and chemicals are on the move, I know that it’s going to be a slow tech
day.
So what’s moving today? Hold on to your
seats, it’s the ever-so-exciting Forest and Paper Products Sector!
As for the Nasdaq, let’s
start making a list of the cup patterns that we see. In the big-name techs I’m
seeing a lot of small high-level cups forming.
Also, remember that
Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is scheduled to release earnings after the bell on
Wednesday.
Today’s
Watchlist:
(
MDT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
(
CHKP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
(
LRCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Medtronic
(
MDT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) hit an old resistance level for the first
time in several months on Wednesday. It’s time to add MDT to the Watchlist and
watch for a potential breakout. Remember, the market has been weak lately, so we
haven’t seen a lot of continuations following the breakouts. Daytraders are in a
different situation, since they are often only concerned with the initial move,
but swing traders may have trouble. We’ll have to see how this scenario plays
out. Look for a volume-backed move over resistance followed by a continuation
the following day.
Checkpoint Software
(
CHKP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) broke out from a high-level cup
Wednesday. It’s impressively holding up intraday despite the broader market
declines. Something to note is that the all-time high set earlier in the year is
still roughly 10 points away. While CHKP is likely to see some resistance at
this level, it still has some breathing room.
Lam Research
(
LRCX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is forming a pennant on the daily
charts. I’ll have to admit that I’m a bit excited, because the pennant is one of
Trading the Techs’ most successful formations on the Watchlist, and I haven’t
seen one for some time now. This pennant is quite interesting because the volume
has slowly been declining as it approaches its apex. Let’s set our alerts near
24 1/2 and 21 3/4 as we watch for a move outside of the formation to provide us
with a trading opportunity. If it breaks out to the upside, watch for it to
potentially fill the gap from early August. On the downside, there may be some
support at 20, but otherwise we’ll have to turn to the weekly charts to find
anything.
Today’s
Non-Tech Watchlist:
(
COST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Costco
(
COST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has formed a low-level cup after basing for some time. It closed above the top
of the cup on Tuesday and failed to put in a continuation move on Wednesday.
Let’s watch for a move above Tuesday’s intraday high to possibly lead to a
filling of the gap.
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Until we talk again,