Tuesday, May 4, 2010

5/4 Morningline: Holdings

An abbreviated look at my holdings this morning.

Everything is down -- no surprise, given the pervasive downwardness of stocks this morning.

So, for thoughtful and experienced traders who prefer a lone wolf approach to running with the pack, the basic question is: Panic now, or panic later?


May options:

  • CIEN, down 4.1%, is trading in Friday's range, so it's not yet a breakdown.
  • QQQQ, down 2.4%, has broken down below the 20-day moving average and is trading at a level last seen in early April.
  • GE, down 1.8%, is sticking just below the ma20, within Friday's range. No breakdown here.
  • UNP, down 1.3%, same as GE.
I'll note that May options have 16 days until expiry, so I'll need to either sell or adjust pretty quick.

The CIEN, GE and UNP are candidates for adjustment, although that costs money. 

QQQQ is a different story, since the breakdown was so severe. I'll need to assess whether to take the loss to buy a protective put. (Although that's like locking the meadhall once thieves have stolen all your fine Mountain Meadows Mead.)

(Not a product placement; I just love this Westwood, Calif. craft mead-maker's products.)

The Investor's Guide to Active Asset Allocation: Using Technical Analysis and ETFs to Trade the Markets

Martin Pring's detailed deconstruction of the economic cycle: What sorts stocks to look for at each stage of the recovery. A masterful analysis.



Abbreviations:
psar - Parabolic Stop and Reverse
adx - Average Directional Index
pps - Person's Proprietary Signal
ma20 - 20-day moving average
macd - Moving Average Convergence-Divergence
mfi - Money Flow Index
sto - Fast Stochastic


About the glance: The colors indicate the state of each signal.

  • trend: Determined by the 5-day moving average, green for up, red for down, yellow for sideways
  • adx: orange for above 30-up, blue for 20-down, purple for in the middle. Red is most prone to whipsaws
  • psar, pps, macd: green for bull mode, red for bear
  • sto: green for overbought, red for oversold, yellow for the neutral zone.


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