Thursday’s Top Stocks
You wouldn’t know it was a technically significant day based on the closing
numbers, as the SP500 and Nasdaq Composite finished fractionally around the ‘unched’
mark–between a .25% loss to a barely positive .01% respectively. As a matter of
fact, if you looked at the market when the boss wasn’t looking, or during your
lunch hour–you might have been pretty impressed with the percentage gains.
There were surely a lot of folks looking at today’s intraday action very
closely–as the market was setting up, until the 2 o’clock hour, as a Mr.Bill
Follow-Thru-Day or FTD. However, when the pastrami and chips were finished, so
was the market unfortunately. A two hour, late day sell-off dashed any chances
for intermediate-term traders to gear up with their few remaining stock picks.
No ‘Yahoo’ here. Maybe as a position short, but that’s about it–’cause in
short, today’s action turned out to be more cautious bull ‘fugly’, than anything
resembling decent bovine behavior.
Tailing bars to the downside on heavier, above-average trade in the broader
averages has this little guy feeling alright about stressing caution. As a
matter of fact, call them victims of circumstance or whatever you want, but the
few stocks trying for decent technical breakouts today, were probably much
better shorts. Case in point, off my own Intermediate-Term Report that I write
up once a week–Digital River (DRIV) triggered out the gate and ran up more than
10% intraday on heavy volume. I honestly was asleep at the wheel as DRIV raced
upstream in the early going. However, the stock was eventually alerted to our
intraday subscribers when two different intraday set ups were close to
triggering reversal shorts. With an average price of approximately 33.10 for the
two shorts, and a closing price of 30.88 on the day. It might not have been
played for the reasons that it made my Intermediate-Report list, but that’s not
a problem in these parts. In a market defined by its intermediate downtrend, and
through the use of our disciplined, consistent daytrading tactics– the shorts,
when all is said and done, suit this cautious bull just fine.
Volatility Readings:
| Volatility Index | Close | Net Change | Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average | Significance |
| VXO ( $VXO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
19.37 | down .45 | cvr 1 sell | 1% above | not at extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
26.15 | down 1.60 | na | 5% below | not at extreme |
Hottest Sectors : Software
(
SWH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors : Biotechs
(
BBH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Thursday’s stocks to watch:
Longs.
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 Assesment | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Western Wireless | ( WWCA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
26.03 | Top of range consoly of increased, above average trade out of daily handle pattern |
1,638 | 3,615 |
| Avocent | ( AVCT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
32.63 | Increased, above-average trade on reversal thrust out of inside bar technical low |
452 | 530 |
^next^
Shorts.
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 Assesment | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Lexmark | ( LXK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
92.39 | Gravestone doji on increased, above-average volume test of technical overhead resistance |
1,127 | 1,290 |
| Patterson Energy | ( PTEN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
29.93 | Bottom of range consolidation on increased, above-average volume break of daily price supports |
1,478 | 2,613 |
| Ann Taylor | ( ANN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
40.61 | Gravestone doji test of technical resistance on increased, above average trade |
907 | 1,639 |
Institutional Longs and Institutional Shorts.
The following stocks are selected from the Nasdaq, S&P 500 & 600 Indices,
and HOLDRs.
Institutional Longs
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Sina Corp | ( SINA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
30 | 3,933 | 6,815 |
Institutional Shorts
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume 000’s | Today’s Volume |
| Hewlett Packard | ( HPQ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
20.55 | 11,526 | 32,876 |
| Merrill Lynch | ( MER | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
55.26 | 4,992 | 5,078 |
| Interactive Corp | ( IACI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
29.53 | 5,953 | 5,663 |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use protective stops on all trades.
Chris Tyler