Tuesday, February 2, 2010

2/2 Watchlist

Blue chip stocks (SPY) are trading between the 50 percent and 32.8 percent Fibonacci retracement levels. The macd remains in bear territory for the ninth consecutive trading day, and for three days has been trending upward toward the zero line.

A Person's Proprietary Signal (pps) bull signal is showing 90 minutes before the end of the trading session.


The VIX -- whose movements tend to be the inverse of SPY's -- has traversed 8.3 percent from high to low and is trading within the range of Jan. 21, the day the macd (and pps) first gave bull signals.

Interest rates -- both the Treasury long bonds (TLT) and the high-yield corporate bonds (JNK) are scarecely moving today.

Oil (USO) has bumped up 3 percent low to high and is showing a pps bull signal. The macd is still in bear territory but trending toward a switch.

Emerging markets (EEM) are trading slightly above yesterday's range with a very narrow rise from today's open to the current quote.


Gold (GLD), after gapping up this morning, is trading within a very narrow range. It closed with a pps bull signal yesterday, and the macd is trending through bear territory toward the zero-line.

The dollar is weaking against both the euro (EUR/USD) and the yen (USD/JPY). the macd has moved into bull mode on the USD/JPY pair, a day after showing a pps bull signal.

And PALM, the wayward child of my stock holdings, has bumped 3.9 percent low to high, bringing it within 15 percent of excercise of the strike 13 February covered call I sold against the shares.

No new macd signals on the high-volume exchange traded funds.


Looking now at high-volume corporate shares:
  • WFC, which I flagged yesteday as moving into bull mode on the macd, took back all of yesterday's gains. It needs to break above $29.43 to qualify as being in an uptrend (and there, to meet my trend-following trading rules).
  • XRX is showing a macd bull signal on a 2.6 percent rise, low to high. The rise stalled just below a bar that marked the end on Jan. 21 of a rise. On that date the price peaked at $9.48 in a muscular increase, then declined and has been rising for two days. Now, if I hedge by 2 cents I can declare the low of Jan. 29 to be a higher low, meaning are stair-step upward that began in March 2009 is still in force, and the stock would be tradeable under by rules. A trade above $9.48 would be a higher high and confirm that the uptrend is still in force. However, that's more than 4 percent away, and that's a lot to give up for confirmation. With a price that cheap XRX would make a decent vehicle for a covered call. The premiums are pretty low, though, so maybe not.
  •  MGM, four days after a macd bear signal, has not broken out of its trading range. However, the price is showing lower highs and higher lows, the mark of a symmetrical triangle pattern, with $12.87 as the upper point and $10.76 as the lower. A symtri is neutral, meaning it can break either way. And the macd is not trending further down in bear territory. So I can't judge whether the position should be bullish or bearish. The triangle will end when the price breaks out above the descending upper line traced from the high point or below the ascending lower line traced from the low point. 
  • HD shows a macd bull signal. The price since Dec. 28 has been tracing out a downtrend. If the current rise marks the beginning of a new uptrend, as the macd signal would suggest, the price will need to exceed the $29.06 level set on Jan. 21, and to really confirm, would then need to set a low that is above $27.19 (Jan. 28) and then reverse upward again.
  • USB showed a bear signal yesterday that I noted in the Watchlist. However, by the end of the trading the signal has mutated back into bull territory (weakly). Today, again, USB shows a bear signal. My remarks of yesterday regarding price levels still stands. It just goes to show, you can't keep a good bear down.
  • M shows a bull signal amid a downtrend. It signal is so countertrend, and the downtrend is so pronounced since October 2009, I'm just not interested in this puppy.  Actually, if you look at M on a monthly chart, it has been in a downtrend since June 2007. You can count a low in November 2008, and then a lower high in October 2009 before the present downtrend took force. All in all, this stock is a downer. (Love the parades, though.)
  • RIMM shows a bull signal. The shares have been in a downtrend since Dec. 21. The current price, $65.77, is a higher high after a higher low set on Jan. 29. The analysis of an uptrend would be stronger once the stock exceeds the high of $67.16 set on Jan. 14. Today's rise was a response to analyst comments.
  • I'm ignoring some signals arising from a counter-trend, like LEAP, or area-of-congestion, like EBAY and STI.


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Topics:
S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, Treasury bonds, high-yield corporate junk bonds, emerging markets, gold, precious metals, oil, petroleum, Wells Fargo, Xerox, MGM Mirage, Home Depot, U.S. Bancorp, Macys, Research in Motion, Leap Wireless International, eBay, SunTrust Banks, CVS, pharmacies, drugs, Electronic Arts games, Moodys bond rating, Palm smartphone Pixi Pri.

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