Technical Picture - Bears Own It

The breach of the ORL which coincided with the daily trendline set up the perfect storm. Broad based selling on heavy volume (institutional) into midday. The 50 DMA held as support, but still we closed near the lows. We aren't too oversold just yet, but soon. Oh, and we've given back the entire YTD gains.

GOOG earnings AH didn't impress, stock is down 30 pts.


SPY trade - Lower high is the tell. Breach of trendline is the trade.



H&S patterns for GLD and USD (inverse).


The VIX volatility index made a sharp move higher.

Technical Picture - Distribution Day

Significant downside pressure in early trade gave way to stabilization and a retracement in the afternoon. Another distribution day, the third in the past week and a half. IBD will be changing its current outlook from "Market in confirmed uptrend" to "Uptrend under pressure" tonight.

After retracing 38% of the Nov.-Dec. rally, the $USD spiked this week for a retest of the rally highs.



Stocks gapped wide and swooned. Gold stocks gapped and attempted to stabilize, giving traders a chance to enter a trade.

ABX gapped below S2 on the daily pivots as depicted in the 5 min. chart above. I've recently decided to plot daily pivots on the lower timeframe and weekly pivots on the higher timeframe (15 min.) so that I have wider perspective as far as potential targets. Of course, things don't always work out as perfectly as the ABX trade. But, the weekly pivot is stable over the course of the week which is helpful when reviewing charts the night before.

Technical Picture - Offset

Despite the lack of positive catalysts, the markets recaptured all of Friday's losses and managed 52 week closing highs. However, volume was lighter, so this is not an accumulation day. Last week we had two distribution days each for the S&P and the NASDAQ.

AAPL was a big winner today after it announced that January 27th was the day of its much anticipated special event.

Biotechs and healthcare stocks rallied in anticipation of an upset in Mass.

The greenback managed to move higher as well.

Overnight weakness in S&P futures capitulated on Citi earnings in pre-market, then formed an inverse H&S bottom. When the markets opened, buyers were eager to buy the pullback, shorts got squeezed and prices thrust higher.

Swing Trade Aborted - Amazon.com, Inc. (Public, NASDAQ:AMZN)

The AMZN swing trade was aborted in early trade. Weak retail sales data threatened a retest of the lows so I bailed with a profit rather than wait to be stopped out.

On the daily, I'm hoping for a breach of support so that more shorts get triggered, followed by bargain hunters piling in, leading to a short squeeze.

Today is OPEX. Early indications - JPM selling off on earnings, INTC giving back most of yesterday's AH gains - imply weakness.

Technical Picture - Markets Bounce Back

Broad based buying brought back stocks after yesterday's losses.


AMZN came within 15 cents of the December low and bounced. Before attempting to catch a falling knife, we wait for a base to form. The daily pivot S1 held as support and we entered long off of the 5 min. timeframe. Closed the day trade at R1 and hanging on to swing trade with BE stop.



HCPG had many similar setups with lots of triggers.

Technical Picture - Distribution Day

Yesterday was a distribution day which helped neutralize the overbought posture.


Last week, AMZN looked like a symmetrical triangle. Now it looks more like a descending triangle is forming. Still, we should bounce on the second test of support à la Turtle Soup.

Day Trades - Trade-Ideas Scanner

Two trades using the Trade-Ideas Scanner - ETN and ECL. CAT, an HCPG pick from last week also printed but I missed the entry.

Settings:

• Min. price $20.00;
• Min. daily volume 750,000
• Min. up days 1
• Min. volatility $0.05
• Min. up from the close $0.50

Look for stocks with multiple prints on the scanner. Wait for consolidation. Make sure they meet user defined setup requirements.

Also traded CMI on Friday and FAS on Thursday.