Monday's gains helped push the week-on-week performance for the market ETFs. Other than my newsletter picks ( -0.19% ) there were modest gains for Jim ( +0.87% ) and the market ETFs ( +0.82% ). Jim's performance was skewed by the strong performance of Lear ( LEA ); it closed the week up +22.34% . Removing Lear from his picks would have seen him down an average of -2.20% per trade. The Trade Ideas scan returned a respectable +0.23% on a 63% win percentage. Worst individual performer was Jim's Corning ( GLW ); it finished the week down -7.18% . If you would like to try a full version of the Trade-Ideas software, follow this link for a free 7-day trial. If you would like to subscribe to my newsletter you can do so by ordering monthly, 6-month, or annual membership from the 'Quantity' box in the right-hand-margin. If you would like to see Jim's picks you can tune into his TV show, or get them from Madd Money or Mad Money Recap . SPONSORED BY:-

Earnings kept the rally bubbling, sweeping markets higher after days of quiet action. The Trade Ideas scan saw a reasonable broad swathe of buying with no one stock or ETF coming to the fore. Coverage of 8 stocks took 5 minutes ; a little longer than what could have been expected for a day such as it was. On the frequency table, IShares S&P Latin America 40 Index ( ILF ) was the most prevalent at 24 appearances over the day. A small handle allows for a 'buy' on a break of resistance with a stop on the flip side. Long term, look for a projected target move of the larger base, which should be enough to challenge $212. The investment seeks investment results that correspond closely to the performance, before fees and expenses, of the S&P Latin America 40 index. The fund invests at least 90% of assets in an aggregate sample of securities that reflect the predominant characteristics of its sector index. It invests in American Depository Receipts, rather than directly holdin

A relatively boring week with markets retaining bullish rising channels (August-October). Where weakness crept in was a MACD 'sell' trigger in the NASDAQ as other technicals remained firm - on-balance-volume in particular supports a solid accumulation trend. The other change came in the Dow as it lost some ground (in terms of relative strength) to the NASDAQ 100 . Volume climbed to register a distribution day/bearish churning on a "spinning top doji" (equal open/close with long tailed shadows - i.e. a large range between days high/lows and open/close). On-balance-volume in the Dow still favors accumulation, but its MACD trigger line is hugging tight bullish divergence support and is only a short tick away from generating a breakdown. The semiconductor index lost the 50-day MA as support, but held former bull flag resistance as support. The bearish divergence in the MACD trigger line deepened as intermediate term slow stochastics [39,1] dropped into bearish market

The Dow hit the magical 12K. Tech indices are challenging May highs. Small caps continue to improve. How do things look for next week? Joe Reed noted RSI fast approaching 70 in the Dow; a previous marker for tops in 2000 and more recently in May 2006: His opinion is posted to the following chart. If he wants to claim "Near 100% Perfect Indicators" he would need to be more decisive than he is here... Top - Yes or No, Joe? Rodney Gorchinsky has gone with shorting a number of Dow components. He had this to say: Oct 20/06 4:30pm: At the close, we shorted: EMC, STX, AMD, MMM, CAT, HD, WMT, FRE, TGT and PFE in the NYMT Fund. The Zenit website has all the numbers you need to know (prices and shares). Thank you for your kind emails and valued votes. Have a great weekend. Noon: We will be playing 12,020 as a major resistance and 11,750 as a major support on all time cycles, as well as the necessity for the Architects to close at an attractive neutral level on option expiration day.

It's tough running a small business. The 18 things which kill startups (from TraderMike 's linkfest) made for interesting reading. But, Peter Cochrane has a to do list of his own to help small business get off the ground (I like the last two the best): The in/beginning: >Identify and quantify an opportunity >Identify the customer and market >Search out the competition and assess the risk >Dig deep and try to understand every aspect >Locate suitable technology >Assemble a good team >Engineer a solution/prototype and check it out with a customer >Formulate a plan >Create a funding regime and raise the capital >Focus on getting the first $$ in the bank >Spend every $$ as if it were your last The out/exit: >Create a giant corporation >Create something a giant corporation will want to buy Any takers ;)

The indices are behaving in a quiet, low key manner. But many individual stocks are showing some nice bullish action. Looking through my various picks I was seeing a number of bullish piercing patterns at points of support. The Trade Ideas scan picked up the buying pace from yesterday; 8 picks covered a time span of 6 minutes . Outside the range of recent buying, but a marked improvement to Wednesday's 17 minutes . The two most frequent to appear on the list were: Dun and Bradstreet ( DNB ) at 33 times , and Beckman Coulter ( BEC ) at 26 appearances . Both are pulling away from recent consolidations; DNB in particular is coming off a tightly held range between $74 and $75. World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ), Beckman Coulter ( BEC ), Precision Castparts ( PCP ), and Aurizon Mines ( AZK ) have all enjoyed bullish crosses of their 50-day MA by the 20-day MA inside the last 2 months. Cup-and-handle action can best be seen in: WWE (buy break of $17.50; stop on loss of $16; projec

Other than the Dow it was another mixed day for the markets. The Dow made its trip above 12K but couldn't hold it by the close of business. Other markets closed down, but other than the semiconductor index, the degree of loss for these indices was low. A greater malaise was felt in the Trade Ideas scan; the 8 picks below covered a time span of 17 minutes . Buyers look to be turning their back on the markets. Of the 8 picks, four picks: Hrpt Properties ( HRP ), Prudential ( PRU ), Textron ( TXT ), and Arcadia ( KAD ) enjoyed bullish crosses of their 20-day and 50-day MAs. Gerber Scientific ( GRB ) was the only pick to endure a bearish cross of these averages. F & C Claymore ( FFC ) broke from a 7-month base with support at $20.50 and $20.80. Stops can go on a loss of the 50-day MA. Projected target of $22.50. Cox radio ( CXR ) has shaped a scrappy handle between $15 and $16. Projected target of $19. Similarly, Hrpt Properties ( HRP ) has shaped a scrappy handle in the $11.40 and