Erratic Day Possible
The S&P 500
finished down 12.4 points or
-0.8%, but it was another excellent trading day for those who sit in front of
the screen. There were two distinct trends yesterday, both approximately the
same percentage move. From 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the S&P 500 traded down
17 points or 1.2% from 1451.71 to 1434.63, and then rallied 20.5 points or 1.4%
to 1455.14, to make the intraday high about 2:30 p.m. From there, it retraced
.618 of the rally, closing at 1442.40. Key reference points on your five-minute
charts are 1443.61 — the 20-EMA, 1445.17 — the 60-EMA, and 1450.03 — the
260-EMA.Â
In spite of the two-way day, you got
good entry and moves in Sanmina
(
SANM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Digital Lightwave
(
DIGL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Brocade
(
BRCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Adobe
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and a moon shot in Gemstar
(
GMST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
There was no entry — and therefore, no pain — in the big techs Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Sun Micro
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and EMC
(
EMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). That’s the beauty of only
getting on the train in the desired direction. So far nothing of note has been
accomplished by the Generals this week in the major techs as the S&P 500 is
essentially flat on the week as we start the last day of the month today. This
could be a very erratic day as many of the specialists head out early for
the holiday weekend and the word to those who are left to guard is, “Stay
flat. Don’t get stuck in any positions and just go with the order flow.”
The same thing holds true for the upstairs traders as the word is passed to go
home light.Â
As we look forward to next week, you
anticipate the reinvestment of some new monies by the Generals but that is not
always the case, as they might just take positions in the S&P futures until
they can acquire the individual stocks at prices that don’t create too much
market impact and that is the positive side of the utilization of the S&Ps.
The EMAs for the S&P futures today on your five-minute charts are: 1461.59
— the 20-EMA, 1460.28 — the 60-EMA, and 1462.18 — the key 260-EMA. Needless
to say, things are always better when they are trading above all three EMAs.
As of next Wednesday, after the
holiday, I will include in my Commentary every day, a five-minute chart of the
S&P 500, overlaid over a chart of the New York Stock Exchange ticks. The
index chart will have the 20-, 60- and 260-EMAs, and the exact EMA numbers will
be highlighted on the chart. I will leave the charts with no lines drawn on them
so you can do your own work to highlight patterns that develop, such as Slim
Jims, divergences, 1-2-3 bottoms and tops, geometric retracements and anything
else you utilize in your trading. You should run this off every day and keep
them in a file for future reference. It will definitely help you in your market
dynamics and pattern trading. Make sure you jot down some comments on the charts
to remind you of how the market reacted after any economic, Federal Reserve or
Abby Cohen-type remarks. You will be very pleased as you accumulate some of this
daily trading market history and I know it will be be positive for your
trading.Â
I would be remiss if I didn’t give
special mention to Marianne Winfield of the TradingMarkets.com staff, who made
it possible to deliver this to you on a daily basis. Remember, Monday is a
half-day, so trading can be very thin through Monday, but you can oftentimes
catch some excellent moves. Your stops should be very tight because the program
traders can totally dominate price action today and Monday.
| Program |
||
|
Fair
|
Buy
|
Sell
|
| 18.95 |
20.15 |
17.75 |
Pattern Setups Â
Nortel
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Mercury Interactive
(
MERQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Chiron
(
CHIR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Intuit
(
INTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Telefonos de Mexico
(
TMX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Morgan
Stanley
(
MWD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Lehman Brothers
(
LEH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Ariba
(
ARBA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), BEA
(
BEAS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), BroadVision
(
BVSN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) (first intraday buy pattern you get on BVSN
should be taken), Verisign
(
VRSN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and also Glaxo
(
GLX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). EMC
(
EMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) don’t set up on the
daily charts but it is still report-card time so if they are green, take the
first intraday setup
Have a good trading day and if you’re
going to take a pass on Monday, have a wonderful holiday weekend.
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