Back To ‘Wait And See’ Mode
I am not making excuses, but after
getting barraged with e-mails regarding yesterday’s column and finishing two
other articles for parts 3 & 4 on the Single Stock
Futures series, I am lacking a whole lot of creativity for today’s
piece, so bear with me.
Nonetheless, the market is starting to wrestle with the current trading
range, and as a result, trading has been improving. The S&Ps are locked in a
battle to see who wins out over the retracement levels (1126 & 1136) they
keep trading around. For now, there is no clear winner. At the risk of sounding
like a broken record, the time is drawing near for some increased volatility.
Today’s unemployment number came in a bit weaker than expected,
unfortunately, and it appears it has not given clear direction as to which way
this market will trade. Looks like we are back to a "wait and see"
mode as the market awaits more numbers.
An e-mail I received from a reader regarding the "return" of
volatility was interesting. He basically argued against the whole notion of the
bubble days returning in terms of volatility. While I would tend to agree with
him, old habits do die hard, and it would not be out of the question to see a
few more pockets of rampant speculation, but I seriously doubt we will have a
return to the 1999-2000 period. Traders need to adjust accordingly.
As I mentioned in Wednesday’s
column, I remain very assertive on the opening, and scale back as the day
wears on. However, yesterday’s afternoon session offered many good setups in the
Semiconductor sector. I even found myself trading Applied
Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Rarely do I trade Nasdaq stocks intraday, but
the price action was very compelling.
Key Technical
Numbers (futures):
S&Ps |
Nasdaq |
| 1146 | 1460 |
| 1138 | 1436 (confluence and resistance) |
| 1136 (key) | 1410 |
| 1126 (key) | 1401 |
| 1116 | 1385 |
| 1109 | 1366 |
| 1098.5 | 1350 |
| 1074 | 1336 |
As always, feel free to send me your comments and
questions. See you in TradersWire.