1/21 Watchlist: Don't Panic Yet. It's All Good.

Blue chip stocks tumbled as much as 2.1 percent from today's open to the low (so far), on a bear signal from Person's Proprietary Signal. The so-called fear index (VIX) rose 18.8 percent on a bull signal.
The news coverage no doubt will be apocalypic. But, it is important to note that the S&P500 (represented here by SPY, the exchange-traded fund) remain in a bullish price pattern.

The bull price pattern is a series of high highs and higher lowers. The market never moves in a straight line for long periods of time. As J.P. Morgan said when asked what the market would do: "It will fluctuate." That's no less  true today than in his day.

1/15 Watchlist: The Blue Chip Bears

Blue chip stocks (SPY) are showing a bear signal and have dropped 1.3 percent from the opening price. The price has stalled at very near term resistance. This comes amid falling interest rates on 20- and 30-year Treasury bonds, and falling prices for gold and oil.

In terms of other technical analysis on the blue chips, the stochastic has crossed below the 80-line, a bearish signal. The macd remains in bullish territory. The price was approaching the upper Bollinger band, and the bands were widening, which can be taken as signaling continuation of the upward trend.

The blue chips have been in a strong upward trend since March. This signal is countertrend, and not a trade for me. Especially with so many mixed signals.

Here's what's interesting among high-volume . . .

1/13 Watchlist: Junk bears; Showdown at the Baidu gap

Corporate junk bonds (JNK) are showing a pps bear flag; the macd and stochastic remain in bull territory.

Otherwise, little movement in the indicators, currencies or holdings.

Here's who's going where among the indicators since this morning: Blue chips up, volatility (fear) down, Treasury long bonds down, gold up, oil down.

And here's what's interesting among the high-volume . . .

12/22 Watchlist

No new signals on the indicators, currencies or holdings. Every issue's volume is low.

The pre-close scan, through the end of December, will cover only high-volume etfs (5 million shares and higher in volume), excluding those that are contrarian and those that multiply the underlying. The list will be smaller than usual because of lower volume in the holiday week.

Just for the exercise, today I'll be looking at several technical tools: The Persons proprietary signal (pps), which is my usual tool of choice, but also the price piercing the 20-day moving average (ma20), piercing the 200-day moving average (ma200), 20-day and 200-day moving average crossovers (ma cross), money-flow index (mfi) moves into overbought or oversold territory, the moving average convergence-divergence (macd) and the slow stocastic (sto).

• XLF (financials), macd and ma20, bull
• EWJ (Japan markets), macd confirming sto, bear
• SLV (silver), mfi oversold, bull
• XLU (utilities), macd confirming sto, bear
• USO (oil), macd, bull
  
• XLE (energy), sto confirming macd, bull
• DIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average), ma20, bull

So, out of 30 etfs, no pps signals, a couple of 20-day moving average piercings, a sto, an mfi and five macd signals.

The macd is one of the more sensitive indicators -- this is known. The pps is said by its developer to give earlier valid signals than the others. If that's the case, then today's signals must be whipsaws. I'll continue the multi-track for awhile and we shall see.

Nothing here I would want to trade.