Two Months Later, the Market Finally Fears An Ambac Bankruptcy

At the heights of the stock market’s low-volume spring rally, Ambac Financial (ABK) soared 72% and the 105% on two consecutive days. ABK was up another 50% the next day before closing with a 28% loss. The upward surge was quite startling given ABK was pretty clear in its earnings report at the time about … Read more

Some Commodity-Related Stocks Lose A Year’s Worth of Gains

For many commodity-related stocks the bounce from the March, 2009 lows to the first peak in June encompasses the bulk of their respective gains in the past 15 months. The current, on-going correction has delivered such heavy losses to some of these stocks that they are now trading at those June, 2009 prices. About 1/3 … Read more

Toyota “Quietly” Sets Fresh 52-Week Lows

Toyota (TM) filled the headlines of business news for several weeks as it struggled with seemingly unending revelations about its poor product quality. After about a month, sellers finally exhausted themselves, and TM began an impressive bounce. This bounce only lasted the same amount of time as the overall sell-off. TM peaked in late March, … Read more

The “20% Rule” Works Again on the Brazil Index Fund (EWZ)

I spent a lot of time over the past oversold period studying rules and guidelines for trading the (inevitable) bounce out of the selling pressure. The oversold period ended inconclusively, but my rule for buying the ETF for Brazil, iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund ETF (EWZ), definitively worked for a second time. When EWZ started … Read more

The Latest Oversold Period Ends Inconclusively

T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their 50-day moving averages (DMA), hit 21% on Wednesday. This milestone finishes nine days of technically oversold trading conditions as defined by T2108 dropping to 20% or below. I am reposting below a chart of the historical distribution of durations for oversold periods as a reminder that the … Read more

Market Oddities Abound in This Era of Globalization

(This is a guest post written by “Chenzo” of forexcharts.net) If any lesson was clear during the past few turbulent weeks of trading, it was that our markets are more closely entwined than ever. Perhaps this is a sign of our continuing globalization path, but the waves created by any financial event are traveling across … Read more

Adjusting to Potential For Extended Oversold Conditions

The stock market is now on day #6 of this oversold period and a powerful resolution to the upside is beginning to look less likely. Asia and Europe led off with powerful rallies. However, the U.S. follow-through stalled out and fell short. Although the indices faded hard and ended notably down, the percentage of stocks … Read more

S&P 500’s Rubber Band Is Ready to Snap Back

After a disappointing Monday, bulls got a good scare on Tuesday’s open as the S&P 500 marginally cracked the February lows. However, buyers stepped up in force and bid the index higher for the rest of the day. Buyers have now stepped up in force for the last two up days. With this oversold period … Read more