MO Watch

Tobacco-maker Altria Group Inc. (MO) has whipsawed into bull phase on Person's Proprietary Signal (pps) but remains locked in a sideways range.

	trend	adx	psar	pps	macd	macd trend	sto	sto zone
MO $22.79

On Tuesday on wrote an analysis of MO that concluded, "I would ... watch it closely for a reversal of signals and try to catch it on the bounce."

The correction that the signals pointed to never happened. The technical spectrum is now pointing toward a breakout to the upside.

And that may not happen, either.

I won't repeat my earlier analysis of this stock -- you can read it here -- except to say that it's a strongly uptrending stock, near term and longer term.

So far only the pps and the fast stochastic are in bull phase. However, the price has pushed strongly through the 20-day moving average -- a bull sign -- and is trading well above the 200-day moving average.

However, the volume is way, way down. That points to one reason to trust all signals the week before a holiday. Many traders are on vacation, fewer people are making the decisions about trades, it's a thinner market -- a perfect recipe for invalid signals.

On the Person's chart with weekly pivots, the price bounced off of the midline and is nearing the first upper pivot.

Person's Table

	pps	pps open	upper pivot	lower pivot
MO $22.79		$22.60 sep2	$22.86 +0.3%	$22.29 -2.2%

The trading range has been between $23 on the upside and $22.25 on the downside, and those are the key levels to watch, along with the moving averages.

Reversal Levels

• $22.99, +0.9% (range high)
• $22.86, +0.3% (20-day ma)
• $22.79 <== You are here.
• $22.26, -2.3% (range low)
• $20.64, -9.4% (200-day ma)

Bottom line: I like MO as a bull play above $23. But I would want to see that breakout, on higher volume, before opening a position.  

Disclaimer

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.

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.
• sto zone: green for bull phase, red for bear phase.