All Blog Posts (331)

Using Put/Call Open-Interest to Predict the Rest of the Week

Options expire this Friday, so let’s take a look at the open-interest on SPY, DIA, QQQQ and IWM to see if they hint at movement the rest of the week. Here’s the theory: the market conspires to cause the most pain, to cause the most number of people to lose the most amount of money. If the market is to accomplish this, what does it need to do this week?

SPY (closed 115.49)

… Continue

Added by Jason Leavitt on March 16, 2010 at 8:44am — No Comments

Tunnel Vision With Technical Indicators

It's easy to look at technical indicators and get tunnel vision. Take a look at the following chart:

See the breakout candle? On this day, Williams %R was "overbought". But, look at h

… Continue

Added by Craig on March 13, 2010 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

S&P 500 Caution

I see reason for caution here in the S&P 500... The bull task is to take out the Yellow line and stick. The bear task is to reject price at yellow line...

My Action plan will be to avoid opening long positions until the S&P proves it wants to move higher. Monitor open long positions.

… Continue

Added by geo777 on March 5, 2010 at 10:29pm — 1 Comment

Jim Cramer Project Starts

The Jim Cramer project has offically begun. You can follow it on my blog. I currently own JPM and M. JPM has done good, M no so much. I will hold no more than 5 different stocks at a time. The selling part is tricky since Cramer usually doesn't say when to sell the stock. Being an experienced trader I will use my own judgement on when to cut my losses or sell for a gain. You are in for quite a treat. Stay tuned for more trades!!

… Continue

Added by John Obeid on February 26, 2010 at 5:42pm — 2 Comments

The Money Play Is Palm. (NASDAQ:PALM)

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) has been under intense sell pressure since the January 9th, 2010 high was made at $14.17. Since that point, the stock price has fallen to a low today of $6.07. This is just slightly off the 52 week low of $5.85. The 5 week dramatic fall in Palm, Inc. culminated with a warning yesterday from the company that fiscal third-quarter and full-year revenues would be far below Wall Street estimates.

From the stock action in the previous 5 weeks, it seems Wall Street a… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 26, 2010 at 11:59am — No Comments

Its ok to stay on the sidelines

It's Okay to Stay on the Sides!!

Most people think traders never have a boring moment. This is far from the case! Some people might trade day after day, but it will not last. Experienced traders know there are slow stagnant times like we are in now. I'm going to say something that mig

… Continue

Added by John Obeid on February 25, 2010 at 3:41pm — No Comments

Deja vu from February 2007 (NYSE:SPY), (NYSE:DIA)

Many traders and investors will remember the crash on February 27th, 2007. Back then at that time the market declined as the sub prime crisis began to surface and many countries including Iceland had huge exposure to these toxic assets. On that day the SPDR Trust (NYSE:SPY) declined about 5 points, which is equal to about a 50 point decline on the S&P 500. The Diamonds Trust (NYSE:DIA) which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined about 4 points, which is nearly 400 points on the DJ… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 25, 2010 at 1:26pm — No Comments

Top 3 Setups For Legendary Swings. (NYSE:XOM), (NYSE:VZ), (NASDAQ:CNLG), (NYSE:T)

The markets continue to get hammered today with the DOW lower by 1.65%, Nasdaq down 1.40% and the S&P 500 dropping 1.50%. This is all on the back of economic data released over the last three days that has stunned Wall Street. Consumer Confidence shocked, New Home Sales jolted and today, Jobless Claims slammed. Double dip? Quite possible!

While the markets are dropping for the second day in the last three, solid risk to reward swing trades are emerging at key technical levels. I w… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 25, 2010 at 12:13pm — No Comments

Economic News Shocks But Gives Forth Opportunity. (NASDAQ:FSLR), (NASDAQ:QCOM), (NYSE:UUP)

The markets are significantly lower on a strong dollar (NYSE:UUP) and shockingly poor economic news.

Jobless Claims were released at 8:30am and showed a sharp increase to 496,000. This is now approaching the 500,000 number again, from December 2009, when the market cheered numbers near 400,000. This was a surprise to Wall Street and has caused an increase sell. Durable Goods ex-transportation was -0.6% from +2.00% in December.

After the last few days, the bad news keeps com… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 25, 2010 at 9:19am — No Comments

A Stagnant US Economy?

Stagnant US Economy?

I am a believer that the US economy will be stagnant at least until 2012. The first scary sign was the horrible consumer confidence number that came out yesterday (46 when the market was expecting 55, it was 56.5 last time). If you were watching the economic calendar you saw New Home Sales info was coming out

… Continue

Added by John Obeid on February 25, 2010 at 8:24am — No Comments

The Jim Cramer Project

Following Mr. Cramer

Most of us in the financial world know about Jim Cramer. Some of us love him while some of us loathe him. What I am going to do is buy his stocks in a practice account and see how I do. Let us see how good his stock

… Continue

Added by John Obeid on February 24, 2010 at 11:24pm — 1 Comment

The Big Bad Double Dip Is Coming. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN)

After the Consumer Confidence numbers came out at a pathetic 46 from 56.5 last month, many began to wonder where the disconnect was? The President and his economic team have said the economy is on the road to recovery while many firms on Wall Street have reported stellar earnings. Yet the consumer apparently is having a major drop in confidence. This news was released at 10:00am ET yesterday.

Fast forward to today. At 10:00am ET New Home Sales were released. The markets once again sol… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 24, 2010 at 12:34pm — No Comments

S&P 500: Possible Reverse Head and Shoulders Pattern

The S&P looks like it could be in the process of forming a reverse head and shoulders pattern:

Continue

Added by Craig on February 24, 2010 at 8:38am — 4 Comments

Consumer Confidence

Ouch! 10 points lower then what analysts expected. No wonder why we got that 100 point loss! However, with huge losses comes great buys. PALM dropped 10% today because a few analysts said their PALM's sales w

… Continue

Added by John Obeid on February 23, 2010 at 7:16pm — No Comments

Shorting Denied!

Nothing more frustrating than seeing a great setup, watching it unfold and as you pull the trigger on the trade - Denied because there are no shares available to short..Grrr Continue

Added by Mike on February 23, 2010 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

First Solar, Inc. Looks Cloudy As Canadian Solar Inc.Wins No Gold

Solar flares are sputtering from the solar sector of late as margins look to be under excessive pressure and outlooks appear cloudy. First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) reported earnings last week and disappointed Wall Street. The stock was punished. Today again, First Solar Inc. is under quite a bit of pressure after an analyst from Wunderlich Securities started the company with a sell rating and a price target of $90.

Other companies have seen similar earnings pressure and comments from… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 23, 2010 at 9:15am — No Comments

Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) Stumbles Into Possible Top

Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) is beginning to look like it is in the process of making a top. The Federal Reserve raised the discount rate a quarter basis point last week and that may spell trouble for the home improvement retailers. While the discount rate does not impact them directly, it may signal the Federal Reserve is nearing a tightening phase on interest rates. Needless to say this would be extremely bearish for the housing market and transla… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 22, 2010 at 9:04am — No Comments

Swing Trading Strategies

Plan, Knowledge and Discipline. These are three traits you need in order to be a successful swing trader. Being a swing trader means not caring one bit about the fundamentals of a company. You can make money in good stocks and in bad stocks. It

… Continue

Added by John Obeid on February 21, 2010 at 8:32pm — 2 Comments

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Slams Into 50ma Daily...Does It Pullback?

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) slammed into the 50 moving average on the daily chart today as the dollar gapped higher and then fell sharply back to the flat line. FCX has been on a wild ride of late in 2010. The stock started 2010 by rallying to a new 52 week high in early January. It hit $90.55 on January 11th, 2010. After making that high, FCX fell hard, dropping all the way to the 200 moving average on the daily chart.

As this drop was going on, the dollar was… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 19, 2010 at 2:07pm — No Comments

United States Steel Corporation Into Major Resistance And Could Be Near Term Top

United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) is hammering into the 60 minute charts 200 moving average. In addition, there is a key double top here at $52.60 from February 17th, 2010. The combination of both these levels should work as a great resistance level and could spell a pull back coming for U.S. Steel.

U.S Steel has rallied from a recent low of $42.32 to a recent high today of $52.68. This has all happened in just two week. U.S. Steel is now short term overbought and due for a dec… Continue

Added by Bryan Leighton on February 19, 2010 at 12:04pm — No Comments