Red Flags
Monday
was an uneventful day as volume dried up in front of the Fed. Does
anyone really care about number 12, if that’s what it is? NYSE volume dropped to
75% of its average at just 1 billion shares, a volume ratio of 35, and breadth
-228. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) only traded 60% of its average volume,
finishing +0.1%, with the NDX 100
(
$NDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.2%. The Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
closed at 8689, or -0.6%, and also with a lower high, low and midpoint. The SPX
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed at 903.80, -0.5%.
Everyone trades the
market differently from a position standpoint, and I decided during yesterday’s
session to protect against the September/October period, especially after this
recent profitable run-up from a key zone. There are several ways to do that with
option strategies, but this is not the forum due to the unknown option education
of the readers. You get my drift.
As you know, from a daily
chart standpoint, I am only interested in identifying buying/selling pressure
and then determining whether the stock is in a high-probability pattern to move.
This is the second step in the top-down process which follows the major indices,
sectors and groups. Net net, the major indices are currently short-term
overbought, along with some sectors mentioned
yesterday. The September/October season is upon us and the very low volume
yesterday with nothing to note in buying/selling pressure. That scenario means
very active scrolling of intraday charts today and certainly being ready to
probe all good intraday short setups, including any futures-induced Fed
excitement to the upside. Beware the Ides of September/October.
Have a good trading day.
Five-minute chart of
Monday’s SPX with 8-, 20-,
60- and 260-period
EMAs
Five-minute chart of
Monday’s NYSE TICKS