Thursday’s Top Stocks
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‘Gimme a break……PLEASE!!!’ It’s definitely not a labor of love when your ETF friends are experiencing contraction after contraction, but unfortunately that’s exactly what brave traders faced, if they decided to poke and prod around in today’s trade. Low volume and low volatility were the centerpiece of today’s ‘inaction’ in the index proxies. Closing prices and market breadth also confirm that these ‘contractions’ were painful as well, as the Spyders, Q’s, and Diamonds all finished down between .10% and .75% with a ‘you pick ’em’ style day for advancers over decliners…or was that the other way around?
The painful contractions will end, I promise you that. And when they do, so will the technical consolidations that are lending themselves to so much trading angst. Think of this as the quiet before the storm, at least in the ETFs. It seems that elsewhere, like in the land of equities, many individual issues are already giving investors a reason to batten down the hatches. Think Schnitzer Steel
(
SCHN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in today’s session, or names like Biosite
(
BSTE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Hi-Tech Pharmaceutical
(
HITK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) if you need some evidence to heed caution in your investing activities. All I know is that with evidence like that, once again I can’t help but think, ‘it’s good to be a daytrader.’
That’s right, even on churn and burn days like this one, and a few other recent sessions, it’s still good to be daytrading. As daytraders that prepare ahead of time, we only trade when the intraday patterns in today’s session confirm the bigger daily picture that we analyzed last night. Sometimes the ‘game conditions’ the next day end up giving us the day off as we seek refuge under cover, as stormy, choppy conditions dictate the trading climate. ‘No harm, no foul’ and no problem, as I look forward to playing tomorrow’s game when once more, we’ll be the odds-on favorites to have a winning session.
Volatility Readings:
| Volatility Index | Close | Net Change | Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average | Significance |
| VIX ( $VIX.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
20.72 | up .49 | none | 0% below | Not At Extreme |
| VXN ( $VXN.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
30.86 | up .70 | CVR 2 Sell | 3% below | Not At Extreme |
Hottest Sectors : Oil Services
(
OIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Pharmaceuticals
(
PPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Weakest Sectors : Semiconductors
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Internet
(
HHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)Â
Thursday’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 |
| Cintas | ( CTAS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
39.90 | Top of range intraday consolidation to close at top of daily chart consolidation pattern |
1,181m | 1,610m |
| Talk America | ( TALK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
11.54 | Intraday consolidation on bullish price gap higher with strong volume |
480k | 2,249m |
| Microstrategy | ( MSTR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
42.31 | Wide range reversal bar in direction of daily trend, after technical test on volume |
551k | 869k |
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 |
| Intuit | ( INTU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
42.27 | Daily test of 200-Day EMA on reversal bar lower, to close at bottom of range |
3,143m | 2,475m |
| Avocent | ( AVCT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
25.58 | First decisive close below 200-Day EMA in daily consolidation, on heavier volume |
910k | 1,428m |
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 |
| Abbott Labs | ( ABT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
39.28 | Doji close on strong volume after technical test of April pivot lows and 62% Fibonacci support |
3,771m | 6,606m |
| Weatherford | ( WFT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
35.55 | Spinning top daily formation on technical test of YTD lows |
1,626m | 1,680m |
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 |
| Cisco | ( CSCO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
19.28 | 58,820m | 39,612m |
| Amgen | ( AMGN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
69.73 | 9,913m | 6,973m |
Institutional
Laggards.
| Name | Symbol | Price | Average Volume | Today’s Volume |
| IBM | ( IBM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
80.96 | 7,631m | 6,453m |
| AOL | ( AOL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
15.19 | 20,212m | 24,694m |
| Merck | ( MRK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
55.46 | 6,762m | 5,842m |
| QLogic | ( QLGC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) |
43.19 | 5,351m | 6,804m |
Best of luck to everyone. Please use
protective stops on class=890430920-15102001> all trades.
Chris Tyler