Bulls can't seem to catch a break, but there is strength to be found in this market. First it was Campbell soup, now its General Mills ( GIS ). Nice break of near term resistance to set up a challenge of $50.92 resistance. This follows an earlier MACD trigger 'buy'. Its 2.7% yield is not to be sneezed at either. General Mills, Inc. produces packaged consumer foods in the United State and internationally. It offers ready-to-eat cereals; dry packaged dinner mixes, Mexican foods and dinner kits, soups and ingredients, canned and frozen vegetables, meal starters, and refrigerated barbeque products; dry packaged specialty potatoes, instant mashed potatoes, salad, and salad topping; and shelf-stable microwave meals and packaged meals. Trade Ideas If you would like to try a full version of the Trade-Ideas software, follow this link for a free 7-day trial.

Not surprisngly, it was down week all round for the various stock picks. Unfortunately, the biggest loss ever in the 33 week-on-week comparisons went to Jim Cramer ; his -12.28% loss killed what had been a reasonably strong performance of late for Jimbo. Is this the curse of the Guru? There are four more days to find out. Although no stock pick set were profitable, stocks drawn from the Trade Ideas scan only finished the week down -0.38% , closing well above the market ETF loss of -2.24% and my newsletter picks of -3.30% . Only two stocks were profitable on the week, both of which were drawn from my Trade Ideas scan; LTD and IT . The average performance can be found in the chart in the right-hand-margin, but I have listed the average return and standard error for each of the performance parameters below: Fallond Stock Newsletter : Average weekly return: 0.23%. Standard error: 0.66% Trade Ideas Scan : Average weekly return: 0.75% . Standard error: 0.40% Jim Cramer : Average weekl

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Another volatile day for the markets as indices struggled to gain a foothold from their freefall. The SOX took the brunt of the selling, but each day of downside brings the markets closer to a more compelling bottom. June should see a summer bottom in place - good enough for a 3-4 month rally. The next rally will entertain talk of a return to the secular bearish decline (lower highs), a double top (equal, to new 52-week highs), or business "as usual" (a chugging rally). But buying opportunities for the nimble should present themselves very soon. Until then use now as a time to look for pockets of strength, build a watch list of stocks (it will be short!) and see how they ride out the next few days. Stocks which sit 1-2% from major support are probably worth a long-side pop while allowing for minimal risk on capital. I have implemented such a strategy in my Collective 2 portfolio with three long-side positions entered last week. I will be looking to add more over time. One s

Tech averages were the key winners from Friday's buying. The NASDAQ and NASDAQ 100 closed on bullish piercing patterns helped by sizable gains in the semiconductor index. The latter index was able to retrace the last three days of losses, although a retest of 474 looks favored before further gains can develop, Overhead resistance at the 200-day MA will likely fuel supply selling on Monday in this index. Volatility had a very strong week and the lackluster action in the 14-22 range from late 2004 looks set to end. An increase in volatility is typically associated with fear (selling), but buying opportunities will present themselves even if this price retreat develops into a more formal downtrend. Large caps [ Dow / S&P ] were a mixed bag; the Dow churned on heavy volume, but the S&P was able to close with a positive test of the 200-day MA. The Dow darling of CNBC looks to have lost much of its gloss as buyers failed to bid up this index in line with the tech averag

Friday's selection covered 1 hour and 35 minutes of the Trade Ideas scan. Heavy volume gains from Friday didn't really spill over to the Trade Ideas selection, which brings into question the strength of Friday's buying. The two most frequent stocks on the list were BCO and PCAR at 5 a piece. BCO looks best positioned to gain with its gentle pullback to the 20-day MA, stop can go on a loss of Thursday's lows. Trade Ideas If you would like to try a full version of the Trade-Ideas software, follow this link for a free 7-day trial.

Still fishing for a bottom using tight stops on oversold stocks. Gartner Inc, ( IT ), announced the price for its secondary offering at $14.75 . This news, unfortunately, reversed the gains from yesterday and pushed prices below support of the gap (where my raised stop was). The play closed for a small loss of -$195 on a 750 share lot ( -1.8% ). I have replaced this stock in the portfolio with another. My one other position is up +$1,179 since its addition on May 17th.