links for 2011-02-25

Rampant oil volatility forces big margin hikes | Reuters Whipsaw trade in oil prices forced exchanges to hike trading margins sharply on Thursday, including the first U.S. increase in over two years, potentially forcing some traders to close out positions. (tags: oil margin commodities)

Setting Up for Another First of Month Pop…or A Bull Trap?

Buyers are again lifting the stock market from its intra-day lows and providing some potential clues on where to draw the bull/bear lines from a technical perspective. The case for a bullish setup is relatively strong: Three days of high volume selling is washing out sellers. 50-day moving average (DMA) essentially successfully retested, leaving primary … Read more

Overbought Matters for At Least A Day

For one day at least, sellers converged with stock market technicals to deliver a large one-day drop in the S&P 500. As it turned out, the three-month highs in T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving averages (DMAs), did matter after all. T2108 plunged along with the stock market for its worst … Read more

Priced In Gold, the Stock Market Continues to Struggle

Over the past two days, I have crowed about silver, pondered whether gold will catch up, and marveled at the doubling in the S&P 500 from the March, 2009 lows. Yet, I failed to put the stories together into one chart for proper context: the S&P 500 priced in gold. Of course, almost every gold … Read more