Short Opportunity II

The first chance for a short play got burned but there is a second one on offer for the S&P.

The S&P tagged channel resistance and while today's reversal off resistance didn't amount to a big percentage loss it did register as a distribution day. There wasn't any significant technical change so if this short does evolve it will do so with risk measured on a move above 2,717.

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Short Opportunity Negated

Well, that didn't last long.

The shorting opportunities which offered themselves yesterday didn't last the morning; morning gaps held beyond the first half-hour of trading and bar a small sell-off into the close markets finished higher and above key moving averages and trading channels.

The Dow created a breakout which now offers a potential long play. Stops go on a loss of 24,600. Technicals finished with a new long 'buy' trigger in Stochastics.

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Shorting Opportunities?

The indices are edging higher but the presence of 50-day MAs and/or channel resistance overhead does offer an opportunity for shorts to take a position. Market action does appear to be favouring bearish wedges with prices moving towards an apex on declining volume. The current apathy will break and how it does will define the direction of the next market phase.

Today's action in the S&P left the index pinned to its 50-day MA. The tight intraday range offers a low-risk short play with a stop above the 50-day MA and an entry on the break of the ascending support line

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Tentative Breakouts Fail To Hang On

Markets had started Friday above the marked consolidations I had drawn on the charts but subsequently ended the week still inside these trading ranges. As a two-day pattern, Friday's close finished as a bearish engulfing pattern across markets which means I'll be looking for a break of newly drawn ascending support (of the last 8 days) in these indices.

The S&P still has a MACD and On-Balance-Volume  trigger 'buy' signals but Friday's high (and the high of the bearish engulfing pattern) was the 50-day MA. Sidelined bulls will want to see a convincing break of the 50-day MA, and probably the downward channel before committing. Bears have the easier play - helped by the strong relative underperformance of the index against its peers. Short the loss of Friday's low with a stop above 2,680.

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