This a follow up to my initial test system for Trade Ideas Odds Maker . Brett Steenbarger wrote a good piece on whats good for the goose, is not necessarily good for the gander. The Odds Maker is a quick way to keep your system trading honest. It allows you to screen out systems inappropiate for the time frame your trading, or (more importantly), highlight when a system which worked under one set of market conditions, may not work under another. The system I am using is detailed in my original post . What I had omitted were the settings for the Odds Maker: When I had first ran the Odds Maker, the market conditions covering the test period for the software looked like this: and the Odds Maker reported this: The most recent test period for the Odds Maker is as follow: and the Odds Maker output was: For the record, holding to the next day's open worked well the first time I ran the Odds Maker. Now, there is less of a difference between a sell "at the close" and a sell &quo

A solid consumer staple for the months ahead, and the most frequent stock to appear on my Trade Ideas scan at 31 times. Colgate-Palmolive ( CL ) is well placed to push through $62.45 resistance. A move to $64 would trigger an ascending triple top breakout, bringing into range its point-n-figure chart target of $73. More importantly, it would complete a 6-year cup-and-handle pattern, dating back to 2000 highs of $63.45. Jim Cramer was another to promote this stock earlier in the month (you can decide if this is a good, or bad thing!). The 2.1% yield is an added bonus. Colgate-Palmolive Company engages in the manufacture and marketing of consumer products worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Oral, Personal, and Home Care; and Pet Nutrition. Oral, Personal, and Home Care segment provides oral care products, which include toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouth rinses, dental floss, and pharmaceutical products; personal care products that consist of shower gels, shampoos, condi

A weak, positive day, to close the week. Wednesday's break of support for the NASDAQ and NASDAQ 100 was not challenged. Neither was the Dow able to regain the support it lost on Thursday. Although, the S&P was able to close the week along July-September support. The trouble also spilled over into the Russell 2000 , where it reversed its break of May-September resistance, and its break of the 200-day MA, to close below May-September resistance. The Russell 2000 finished the week just above the 50-day MA, but has left behind what looks to be a bull trap. Similarly, the semiconductor index reversed what had been a nice. mini-breakout, only to close on the 20-day MA. The index remains vulnerable to further weakness as the drop triggered a 'sell' in its MACD trigger line - reversing the 'buy' trigger from July. The individual markets all seem to point to further weakness. But, each has done enough from July to at least offset what could have been a

It was a funny week for the markets, it all started brightly - but ended with a whimper. What did the Stockcharts.com public listers have to say about it (if you are interested in my own public list, it can be found here )? Joe Reed gives a good overlay of the Nasdaq Summation Index and the Nasdaq - I don't know if he promoted this at the time of the actual bottom, and not some three months after as he has done now - because it is a nice chart (but of meaningless use now). However, Joe's AMEX chart is of much greater use now; it is interesting to see how he uses Full Stochastics to mark support buy signals, but not sell signals(?) Unlike previous support buys for the index (which occurred when Full stochastics were oversold), this one doesn't look likely to hold since Full stochastics are overbought, and on a 'sell' trigger, as the index tests the 2004-2006 support line. Also note the big bearish divergence in the RSI. Long time AMEX bulls should watch this support

There is a data error in my Collective2 portfolio. ICLR should have executed at the stop price ($67.72), but the system is showing it as a still open position (based on Stockcharts.com data for the day). The trade has closed at breakeven ( +$30 , or so) for a 150 share lot. Collective2 ICLR

Excellent market summary by Brian Shannon (for Wednesday - Friday's update is available at the Alphatrends website). Alphatrends

The next couple of weeks could see a test of 50-day MAs as occurred in early August. Given that, I have switched bearish on the Ticker Sense Blogger poll - due to be posted next week. Let the market work off some of its overbought conditions before considering new buying opportunities. Market weakness was reflected in the Trade Ideas scan; 8 picks covered a time span of 31 minutes . Dominating the last hour of trading was Brookdale Senior Living ( BKD ), featuring 20 times over the course of the day. ACE was the dominant stock on the day, featuring 29 times on the scan. RICK suffered a bearish cross of its 20-day and 50-day MAs. BKD , DKS , TMX and ACE have all made bullish crosses of their 20-day and 50-day MAs within the last 2 months. In terms of chart strength, Telefonos de Mexico ( TMX ) looks best placed to gain. Support at $23.50. Resistance at $25.00. A push to $26 will trigger a double top breakout and negate the (current) bearish price target of $9.00. Trade Idea