ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
A False Breakout I started the week with Micron Technology, Inc (MU) as my favorite trade prospect. The breakout from last week was near poetry. MU enjoyed buying support most of the week as it first pushed through resistance at its 200-day moving average (DMA) (the blue line in the chart below) and next sliced … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Whether market breadth wanes or rallies, the stock market just maintains an upward drift through the path of least resistance. Last week, short-term market breadth partially improved thanks to a strong July jobs report. The lingering weakness from the previous week receded just enough to given the stock market a more bullish … Read more
The Follow-Through: Quick Hits Weakness still lingers from the oversold bounce, but two trades I mentioned in my last Market Breadth post turned into quick hits in the first two days of trading this week. On Monday, Tesla (TSLA) quickly hit my initial profit target on a calendar call spread. I also snagged the calendar … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Welcome to the new world of “The Market Breadth.” I used the switch from AT40 (T2108) to AT50 (MMFI) as my market breadth indicator to improve the name of this blog series. The Market Breadth marks a change from a technical name that sounds like a Space X rocket to an English … Read more
Above the 50 (AT50) Replaces Above the 40 (AT40) I had a long and rewarding journey using AT40 (T2108), the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), as my key measure of market breadth. Over the past several years Worden and its TC2000 platform gradually reduced support for the FreeStockCharts platform … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The oversold bounce last week exceeded my expectations. I did not expect the week to end with the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hitting fresh all-time highs. Both indices seemed to offer limited upside for trading oversold conditions.The oversold bounce also disappointed me. I looked to beaten up stocks as the source … Read more
The Follow-Through: Bounce Stock market traders delivered a classic bounce from oversold trading conditions. The S&P 500 (SPY) confirmed a picture-perfect test of support at its 50-day moving average (DMA). The NASDAQ (COMPQX) pulled off a picture-perfect toe tap of its lower Bollinger Band (BB). The iShares Trust Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) confirmed a … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Unlike the months long process of declining market breadth, the resolution into an oversold trading period came swift, fast, and in a hurry. I thought my wait for an oversold trading period would last more days and weeks. Instead, a further plunge in market breadth combined with other important price signals to … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock chickens have come to roost on declining market breadth. The stock market indices still generally appear fine, but an ever growing swath of individual stocks have fallen further and further behind. Last week in particular, sellers delivered an extended beating on individual stocks. The signs of waning confidence in the … Read more
A very simple message from Above the 40 for today: gravity continues to tug the stock market toward oversold conditions. While the melt-up on the S&P 500 (SPY) has transitioned to a “levitation” and the NASDAQ (COMPQX) stumbled into a test of support at its 20-day moving average (DMA), the percentage of stocks trading above … Read more