Ulta Beauty Gets Ultra Ugly

I first wrote about Ulta Beauty (ULTA) in early September, 2016 after it confirmed a bearish breakdown from support at its 50-day moving average (DMA). I never traded the stock and missed the entire recovery and 31% gain to the last peak and all-time high in early June, 2017. It took another bearish breakdown for … Read more

Cocoa Breaks Out On European Strength

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 12, 2017. Click here to read the entire piece.) Looks like my rotational trade on iPath Bloomberg Cocoa SubTR ETN (NIB) is coming to an end. {snip} Source: FreeStockCharts.com {snip} The headline driver for this strong move was the European … Read more

Above the 40 (October 6, 2017) – Stock Market Lift-Off

AT40 = 73.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) – overbought day #7 AT200 = 59.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 9.7 Short-term Trading Call: bullish Commentary This is what a lift-off for an extended overbought rally looks like. The S&P 500 (SPY) followed its … Read more

Turkish Lira Freshly Squeezed: Soaring Inflation and Erdogan

The tides are once again turning against the Turkish lira. For a week, USD/TRY battled with resistance at its 200-day moving average (DMA). Over the last two trading days, the currency pair finally made new closing highs on the 200DMA breakout. USD/TRY faded after testing the highs from the last 200DMA breakout in July. USD/TRY … Read more

As the VIX Plunges to All-Time Lows, Speculators Abort Their Seasonal Gold and Silver Rush

A month ago, I wrote about the near seasonal pattern of speculators accumulating net long contracts in gold and silver from July troughs to October peaks. THIS year, the speculators started up on schedule but aborted the mission as net longs peaked well ahead of October. Source: Oanda’s CFTC’s Commitments of Traders So seasonal patterns … Read more