ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Near the end of the last oversold period toward the end of June, I identified three stocks that I claimed had to hold support to maintain a bullish outlook for the stock market for various reasons: Proctor & Gamble (PG), Clorox (CLX), and Oracle (ORCL). I titled that piece “Chart Review: These Giants Must Not … Read more
July has continued a healthy recovering from the June lows for many stocks. However, some stocks have remained stuck in stock market purgatory. Today’s chart review shows two examples of this dichotomy. The extra bonus is that the stock in recovery mode, Caterpillar (CAT), has apparently topped while the stock stuck in purgatory, LDK Solar … Read more
“Fed May Launch New Round of Stimulus.” So rang the headlines. The Federal Reserve seemed poised to launch another round of quantitative easing if only it had a weak economy to generate the proper excuse. An Associate Press article about steel stocks suggested that the market’s rally was specifically about the prospect of potential stimulus: … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) If you followed anything I have written about Research In Motion (RIMM), you know that the company may begin its latest massive share buyback as early as Monday, July 11. RIMM will buy up to … Read more
Apple (AAPL) initially failed a critical technical test at the 200-day moving average (DMA) and even made a new low for 2011, but the stock’s under-performance has finally ended. AAPL has gained over 10% since its 2011 low June 20th. The majority of the gains have come on just 4 days with strong bursts of … Read more
2011 has been a rough year for Google (GOOG) as the stock continues to underperform relative to the S&P 500. GOOG is down 14% year-to-date while the S&P 500 is up 6.5%. I was premature in mid-May speculating that GOOG had finally reached some kind of bottom in the wake of its bond-offering. However, a … Read more
On July 1, 2011, Brett Arends wrote in MarketWatch a piece lambasting groupthink and crowd psychology in “Dominique Strauss-Kahn and your money; Commentary: Wisdom of the crowd comes into question yet again.” The article was an intriguing way to relate the rush to judge DSK in mass media in the absence of complete information to … Read more
On June 20, famed money manager Doug Kass tweeted a stock market warning: “once again the strength in consumer non durables (pg pep cl clx k gis etc) are a market warning sign.” So what happens when these stocks start to break down along with so many others? Is their weakness suddenly a harbinger of … Read more
A friend and I have actively discussed how best to position ourselves for the near-term, bearish risks in the market. As my favorite technical indicator, T2108 – the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving average (DMA), hit oversold territory, he asked my opinion about adding to his SSO put spread. Puts on SSO … Read more
The stock market is oversold, so I am hunting for bullish setups in the charts. Apple (AAPL), the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund ETF (EWZ), and the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund ETF (EWA) are a few of the charts that have caught my interest. Apple (AAPL) plunged through dual supports and bounced right back … Read more