Thursday's Finalists

Each of the three symbols that survived the first rounds of analysis confirmed their bull signals by continuing to trade beyond their 20-day price channels. (See "Thursday's Prospects".)

NFLX, which gapped up mightily after earnings were announced, comes under special rules for handling earnings and so won't be available for trading based on the breakout until Friday.

JAZZ is struck from further consideration because of an overly wide bid/ask spread.

That leaves HAL, which broke out a couple of days after earnings were published. HAL has ample liquidity and a narrow bid/ask spread, making it a good candidate for a trde under my preferences.

However, it is an oil field services company, which lives and dies by the price of oil. We all surely no what that price has been doing of late.

HAL has been in a major decline since it peaked at $74.33 on July 23, 2014, hitting a low point of $37.21 on Dec. 16, 2014, halving its price, and has been trending sideways since. The pattern, with differences of degree and timing, holds true for other fossil fuel majors, XOM and BP, and indeed for crude oil itself, USO.

Those facts alone are intriguing enough to merit an analysis, and add in the price-channel breakout, it's a no brainer. I'll post an analysis of HAL later today, treating it as a potential trade under my shorter-term rules.

-- Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, Jan. 22, 2015

References

My shorter-term trading rules can be read here. My longer-term trading rules can be read here. And the classic Turtle Trading rules on which my rules are based can be read here. My volatility trading rules can be read here.


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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 decisions for his or her own account, and take responsibility for the consequences.

License



All content on Tim Bovee, Private Trader by Timothy K. Bovee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Based on a work at www.timbovee.com.