Thursday: No Trade

All that glitters is not gold. Far from glittering, gold and its companion metal silver are covered with a disgusting green scale that smells bad and attracts flies. Or so the markets suggest.

Among Wednesday's breakouts, only two survivors of my initial screening had nothing to do with the gold or silver industry, and they accounted for the two bull signals.

The remaining six symbols, the bear signals, were all in the two precious metals, an immoderate reaction to Fed Chairman Bernanke's restrained and measured comments on when monetary stimulus might be slowed.

(See last night's post, "Thursday's Prospects", for details.)

In any case, I'm not trading the metals today because they have moved in direct response to news, and, emulating Chairman Ben, I shall also show restraint and not, yet again, quote a certain London financier's dictum on canons, trumpets and trading.

The two bull signals to survive initial screening are DEG and NKTR.

DEG failed confirmation. It gapped down today from above the 20-day channel to near the lower boundary, one of the more pointed failures that I've seen. However, it trades only 42,000 shares a day, on average, and that degree of illiquidity brings with it a high degree of volatility.

NKTR has remained well above its breakout level after gapping up sharply on Wednesday. It is a development stage pharmaceutical company and moved after reporting positive test results on a new drug. The move was based on news ... cannons ... trumpets ...

That empties the list. And then there were none.

Oh, and about those cannons and trumpets...

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/cannonsandtrumpets.asp

References

My trading rules can be read here. And the classic Turtle Trading rules on which my rules are based can be read here.

Disclaimer

Tim Bovee, Private Trader tracks the analysis and 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.