ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Stock Market Commentary Say whatever you want, Jerome (Jay) Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, affectionately known as J-Pow, has become a master orchestrator of the stock market. Other Federal Reserve Board members peppered the airwaves with hawkish talk about tapering and inflation in the days preceding Powell’s address at this year’s Jackson Hole, … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Pattern trading uses consistent bets on repeated behaviors in financial markets. Over the course of time, pattern trading delivers profits from the diligent application of rules based on standard, technical setups in stock charts. The persistent uptrends and trading ranges in this pandemic stock market have delivered a surprisingly long stretch of … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The S&P 500 (SPY) lost 0.7% for just its 4th down day of the 12 trading days of August. The index closed at an all-time high the previous day. The pullback looks like just one more tiny pinprick in the middle of a monster run-up during this pandemic. Yet the ongoing deterioration … 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
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
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
Stock Market Commentary The stock market melt-up took a one day break. The signs of trouble were ever more clear ahead of the break. Something was wrong with the picture in the stock market. Yet, sellers could barely follow through. The S&P 500 stumbled with a gap down, but buyers stepped right back in at … Read more