Thursday, September 2, 2010

9/3 Almanac

On Friday, Sept. 3: Employment. All U.S. markets are closed Monday for Labor Day.

There are 15 days before the September options expire, 43 the October and 78 the November.

On the jump, market stats, econ reports, and the trading calendar . . .

Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session up 3% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 1.8% low to high in a net move up of 1.6%.

The day's extremes: Open $108.72, high $109.49, low $108.49, close $109.47.

SPY traded entirely within the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $108.98-$109.98.

In total, 2.6 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 18% fewer than on the prior trading day.


Econ reports:

Monthly employment numbers are released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. This report is a market mover, one of the most important. A greater than expected rise in the number of jobs would suggest that a recovery is taking hold. Fewer than expected would suggest greater likelihood that the recession is closing in on a second dip.

Small fry: The Institute for supply Managements index of non-manufacturing activity. This tracks stuff like communications, transportation, farming, mining, retail. At 10 a.m.


Trading Calendar:

By my rules, at this point in the cycle I can trade September calendar and vertical spreads. Also, November straddles and single calls or puts. Shares, of course, are good anytime.

Good trading!

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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