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Quiet Friday helped maintain indices breakouts

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Friday's action in the indices didn't do a whole lot, but what it did do was help carry last week's breakouts through the weekend. The breakouts were fairly modest and overhead resistance in the shape of 200-day MAs is still a concern for some indices, but last week's action is favorable for bulls. Tech indices were the primary driver last week with the Nasdaq clearing declining resistance with a decent looking breakout on higher volume accumulation; better still is the sharp advance in on-balance-volume - a sign of sustained interest from Big Money to participate in this rally. The Nasdaq does enjoy a relative performance advantage against the S&P, the question is whether it can sustain it.  It still has the 200-day MA to overcome but momentum and short term traders may still be able to eke out a trade on a test of this key long term moving average.

Bullish Accumulation

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A good day for bulls delivered a breakout in the Dow Jones Industrials Index and across the board accumulation for other indices Action in the Dow Jones Index delivered not just a break of declining resistance but a close above the 200-day MA. Technicals are net positive but not yet overbought.

And so the Shorts dance continues...

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It seems every market gain is soon followed by a loss (and a potential shorting opportunity), but each time shorts are left hung out to dry. Will this time be different? Probably not, but whipsaw trades remain a key risk after a bounce like the one we have seen. Of the low hanging fruit, we have a Dow Jones Index which has reversed off resistance (and 200-day MA), albeit with a small bullish hammer (the significance of which is reduced as the index is overbought on near term stochastics - but not on an intermediate time frame). The 50-day MA is available to use as support, and relative performance is positive versus the Nasdaq 100. While action suggests this will break through its 200-day MA, the short position has a small edge until proven otherwise.

Friday's Gains Squeeze Shorts But Don't Follow Through

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There wasn't a whole lot to Friday except that any shorts will have been squeezed by the morning gap. Luckily for them, there wasn't any follow through but there was higher volume accumulation; suggesting there are more bulls than bears - even after a +10% gain from lows.  Should markets undercut the nascent swing low from last Wednesday then there is still a good chance buyers will step in to defend the December low. The S&P didn't do a whole lot outside of the morning gap but neither was there any real change in supporting technicals. Assume bulls have control unless there is a close below 2,600.

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