Tuesday, February 23, 2010

2/23 Watchlist

Blue chips stocks (SPY) have retraced slightly from today's low, and long-term Treasury bonds (TLT) have broken out of the recent range.

SPY was trading 1.6% below the near-term high st Monday, at an area of support set in late January. If it can break down past that level, then the next support is from $108 to $106, or 1.7% below the current price.

TLT has traversed 1.4% low to high so far today. The higher price for these 20- and 30-year Treasuries mean an expectation of lower interest rates. The media narrative gives great credence to a disappointing consumer confidence survey released before the market open, and in the case of TLT, I suspect that's a valid analysis.



TLT, at $90.33, is trading a resistance level set last week, and a break above that allows the price play up to $92, the peak of the next resistance level. The high of the last three months was $96.73, in late November.

High-yield corportate bonds (JNK) fell to 1.5% below yesterday's near-term high. The exchange-traded fund is trading at $38.50, and will encounter support between $37.90 and $37. JNK is influenced by interest rates, but even more by expectations of corporations defaulting on their debt. The price decline shows a growth of pessimism regarding the business outlook going forward.

Here's a rundown of my current Watchlist:

Macd bull signal:
  • AOD, analysis. No price move yet.
  • WFC, Analysis. Retraced over all of yesterday's rise and more, ending amid the support level identified in the earlier analysis.


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Money flow index overbought:
  • AKS, analysis. Fell to 5.9% below Friday's high.
  • CSCO, analysis. Fell to 2.6% below Monday's high, before retracing a bit.
  • POT, analysis. Retraced slightly from today's low.
  • SBUX, analysis. Continued to fall down to support, to 4.2% below Friday's high.
  • SMH, analyses 1, 2. Retraced slightly from today's low.
  • TXN, analyses 1, 2. Retraced slightly from today's low.
Three of my holdings are also on the Watchlist. I own AOD outright for the dividends, and if the bull signal plays out, it rebounds to my profit. AKS remains profitable within its iron condor range.

WFC is an iron condor that will show maximum profit at expiry between $27 and $29. Today's downward move, which halted at support, leaves it within the max profit zone. The range for the iron condor was chosen with that support level in mind.

In other holdings, GCI at $14.73 is trading slightly in the money for the $15-strike March covered call I sold. The basis, adjusted for the premium, is $14.24, so I'm still profitable.

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Topics:
S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, Treasury bonds, high-yield corporate junk bonds, AK Steel, Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend fund, Cisco networking, Gannett newspapers media, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Starbucks coffee, Semiconductor HOLDR, Texas Instruments semiconductors, Wells Fargo bank financial.

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