Weekend thread

Friday afternoon

It's a ring gun. Wonder how much Rick would pay.

Friday morning

Well, damn.  It's back to dead (or fabulous) cats bouncing again.

Thursday evening

Don't forget to vote on Mr TopStep, if you care. === poll ===>

Thursday afternoon

SP-500 high of the day is 1620.07 and the 50 day sma is 1620.48.  There's the line in the sand.

Thursday morning

You were expecting maybe a cat ?

Wednesday evening

GLD Weekly Chart
(Click chart for better view)

Pick your support level.  You may need to consider supply of physical gold could dry up if it stays below cost of production for very long.  Some say that cost is around 1250/troy ounce.  That would be 125 on this chart.

Wednesday afternoon

RRD Daily Chart (11:15 EDT)

Here's a slow money trade.  RRD has recently cleared its 2012 high.  Watch for a pullback to either the horizontal line or the diagonal support line.  If the stock bounces that is your buy and your stop could be fairly tight.  You might use 2 or 3% below the horizontal line (if that's the trigger for the entry) or a .25+ breach of the diagonal trend line.

This is a buy and hold stock.  They pay an excellent dividend (current yield is 7.5%) and the forward P/E is 8.4.  There is also a large short interest to hold up price. Finviz shows the Short Ratio of 21.56 with 22% of the float sold short.

Wednesday morning

Tuesday evening

Could this be why AAPL was downgraded?

DJ-20 has printed railroad tracks so far this week and they are the triple digit variety. We may be range bound for a few days.  If you are a long term holder you may want to take some time off here.  You probably won't miss much.  If you are a day trader there should be enough movement to manufacture some profits.

DJ-20 Daily Chart
(Click chart for better view)

Tuesday afternoon

The market has basically hung around the same level it reached yesterday afternoon before retreating into the close.  I'm reading/hearing traders say we are now range bound.  Could be.  I have no data to say differently.

Tuesday morning

Monday evening

EEOC

(Equipment Exceeds Operator Capabilities)

Monday afternoon

DJ-20 Daily Chart (11:20)
(Click chart for a better view)

The transports are one of my favorite keys and lately they have been leading the SPY in direction and magnitude of movement.  I don't see any support here and expect a test of 5900.  The white line is the 4/5 low of the day (5878.)  Lots of chatter from the idiot box about corporate profits and falling deficit ... watch the transports. They'll tell you if the economy is doing well or just .... meh.

Monday morning

Weekend thread

SP-500 Weekly Chart
(Click chart for a better view.)

Pick a support target.  It's about 80 points to the 50 period moving average or the lower Bollinger Band.  It's 300 points to 200 period moving average.  The stochastic says the ride has only just begun ...

Friday afternoon

Best correct this before the closing bell

We have seen 2.50% on the 10 Yr Note and equities don't like it.  Where is support? Can't tell yet.  I tossed a rock down the hole but I didn't hear it hit bottom.  If you know of any planned event that would influence markets higher please post it.

Friday morning

Everybody needs some puppy now and then

(and happy summer solstice)

Thursday evening

It's safer than trading stocks

Thursday afternoon

Ms. Market trying to find the bottom

And so far we are not convinced she has found it.  The close will be interesting.

Thursday morning

Wednesday evening

SPY 60min

Retracing 100% of the bounce in the green box is not very good.  But there is still some chart support below (blue lines).  Doesn't look like a good time to swing for the fences, either way.

Wednesday afternoon ... waiting on Ben

The market has been mostly red this morning but has shown no real conviction in any direction as traders are waiting to hear what Ben will say today.  After the verbal slap President Obama delivered in his Charlie Rose interview I have heard speculation that Bernanke must start that taper thing before the end of this calendar year.  Else his legacy will be limited to being the guy who just threw money uncontrollably and had no plan to do anything else.  (That may turn out to be true anyway.)  I think he may begin tapering even before he wants to since I don't think he wants to leave with the spigot running full blast.

Wednesday morning

FOMC statement at 2 p.m. today

Tuesday evening

Tuesday afternoon

What a country!!!

The market has been steadily moving higher as the FOMC begins 2 days of meetings.  The DJ-20 and XLF have both been moving higher since Monday just before 3 PM EDT.  I continue to watch these for tells on current market direction and they have been highly correlated.

Tuesday morning

Monday evening

SPY 15min

The inverted head & shoulders played out this morning.  But the breakout over the tops failed.  I suppose it's more bullish than bearish, but it's kind of a mixed bag.

Monday afternoon

Monday morning

Weekend thread

Friday afternoon ... Patience

The market made an early move higher but it turned out to be an opportunity for traders to take some profits and reduce downside risk for the weekend.  I would not look for much of a rally this afternoon and I will be taking the cat's advice.

Friday morning

Thursday evening

Thursday afternoon

WNR Daily Chart (10:54 EDT)
(Click to make bigger)

So far the 200 day is doing a good job of holding it up but the slope has flattened and without a strong move up it will begin to droop.  The stochastic reads "oversold" and it could print a buy signal as early as tonight. 

You may also notice a Head & Shoulders pattern (Feb - Apr) which suggests a low of approximately 29.60.  (It hit 28.85 on 4/15.)  Today's price could be low enough to satisfy technical traders so you may want to grab a little into the close if it stays green and buy with both hands if it clears the 50 day sma.

Thursday morning

Wednesday evening

Wednesday afternoon

We have no earnings data to move the market so it seems any shiny object (news item) grabs attention which results in fits and starts for prices.  Remember you don't have to try to trade this choppy mess.  Maybe it's time to take a breath of fresh air or get a couple of appointments out of the way.  (That's what I'm doing this afternoon.)

Wednesday morning

Attention Bloggerz

Twitter has retired an old programming interface.  This has broken our twitter feed to the right.  Perhaps there is a way to restore it, but I don't know yet.  In the meantime, I have added a link to the Algofighters Twitter list in the pages section.  You can leave that open in a tab and it should update itself with new messages.

Tuesday evening

Tuesday afternoon

Remember when we had to watch the news out of Greece or Europe in general for market moves?  Now we have to watch Japan or the Asian continent for clues. Someday (maybe) earnings and natural interest rates will be important but Tuesday is not that day.

Tuesday morning

Monday evening - One for Marty

Marty's hobby plane

Mixed performance for the major indexes today.  None of them moved much in any direction.  Volume on the SPY was well under average and earnings after market were mixed but LULU was pantsed.  It could have been a transparency issue.

Monday afternoon - Head & Shoulders

Just because you see it does not guaranty it.

Patterns are helpful but you can't assume they will fulfill the prediction.  ANW should have hit 4.60ish but never came close.  Fitz used to say (likely still does) that spotting a pattern does not entitle you to make money.

Monday morning

Weekend thread

Greenspan was on Squawk Box this morning

He didn't say it but he was thinking it.

Apparently testing 1600 was just what the market needed and when the jobs numbers temperature was in the Goldilocks range it put the 20 day sma (1646) in its sights.

Friday morning

Thursday evening SPY

SPY 60min

SPY violated its 50dma by about 35 cents and then snapped right back up.  That was a real good bounce.  But just a bounce.  There are plenty of disappointed buyers overhead, so I wouldn't expect it to zoom higher without some backing and filling.  Plus, there is some real nastiness going on in the currency markets.  Be careful out there.