Monday Evening

S&P Futures Daily

S&P futures drifted around all day and couldn't gather enough steam to push over 1396 (1400 on SPX). Daily timeframe indicators have room for more selling. The weekly pivot is 1376 on the futures (1380 on SPX), and that's the first level of major support that I'll be watching if the bears start pressing tomorrow.

Monday Afternoon

Gold Futures (Dec) Daily

Gold futures pulled back inside that daily triangle pattern during contract roll and are now moving back up. Daily timeframe indicators have room for more buying... but 1620 was the area it reversed from a few days ago. I'm stepping away from a "buy the dips" approach until I see a few closes above 1620.

GLD vs SPY

This is a daily comparison of GLD vs SPY going back to early 2011. I made a red box around the time when they were inversely correlated. You can see it only lasted for a few months. Since then, they have been positively correlated (generally). The reason I bring it up is because I think Gold futures should be watched as a heads up to S&P futures. If it can't break up above 1620 in the short term, we might not see much action over 1400 on S&P futures.

Monday Morning

Gator's Chart of the Day: HERO

Hercules Offshore, Inc is not a flashy company.  They drill in shallow water so they don't command $650k/day for a rig but they are doing just fine, thank you.  The company reported earnings July 27th and while they didn't knock it out of the park they were solid and the stock has acted well since then.  On Friday it popped above resistance and it looks like the next headwind could be the 200 day sma.  I say could be because it hasn't been terribly relevant.  Finviz shows the 12 month price target as 5.88. 

The Trade
Ideally the stock will pull back to test the breakout and bounce from about 3.75.  If it does I think that is the entry and it it should be with a half position and the stop back below support around 3.65.  I would add when the position is solidly profitable.  If you can start the position under 4.00 there should be about 50% upside and a risk of about 9%.