BMY Watch

The pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) has moved to bull phase on the macd, a posture confirmed by Person's Proprietary Signal but not by the parabolic sar.

	trend	adx	psar	pps	macd	macd trend	sto	sto trend
BMY $23.32

At 2:10 p.m. Eastern

BMY the past four days has recovered slightly from a 17.8% slide that carried from price from a high of $27.07 on March 29 to a low of $22.24 on May 25. During that bearish period the macd at one point showed a single-day whipsaw.

The pps/psar discrepancy aside, it should be noted that the price has yet to show a decisive breakout. The $23.30 to $23.50 level has been acting as significant resistance for the near term, and a break above would increase my confidence that the signal is credible.

The average directional index, which measures the strength of trends, is at 43, a very high level that suggests signals will have a noticeable effect on price. (It's not unusual to see stocks that show signals and the price goes nowhere, a sheer waste of trading time.)

Reversal Levels

• $25.93, +11.2%
• $25.70, +10.2%
• $23.47, +0.6%
• $23.32 <== You are here.
• $22.24, -4.6%

Over the longer term, BMY's stock was hit hard by the credit crisis and subsequent recession. It peaked at around $32 in July 2007, declined to $16 in October 2008, traded more or less sideways into last summer before pushing above the range in a double-high rise, followed by the most recent decline back into the post-crisis trading range. That's a long way of saying that this stock is not an occasion for bullish optimism over the long haul. However, for shorter-term swings, it's fair game.

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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
• 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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Tim Bovee, Private Trader tracks the trades of a private trader for his own accounts. Nothing in this blog constitutes a recommendation to buy or sell stocks, options or any other financial instrument. The only purpose of this blog is to provide education and entertainment. No trader is ever 100 percent successful in his or her trades. Trading in the stock and option markets is risky and uncertain. Each trader must make trading decision decisions for his or her own account, and take responsibility for the consequences.