Doji, spinning top, bearish harami…whatever you want to call it, we didn’t go anywhere fast today. As opposed to yesterday’s learning day, today didn’t tell us anything. The consolidation, profittaking, selling or whatever you want to call it was not severe and on lower volume. So we will need to keep watching for the market to say something to all us traders.
The Dow and the Nasdaq were up slightly while the other indexes were down slightly. The Dow chart shows that we are approaching a trendline drawn across recent highs. 
and the S&P is still looking to make a new high or being turned back at the double top.
The key to today was not to lose money. Nothing wrong with just sitting and watching. Cash is a position, especially when the markets are chop chop chopping away. SPPI popped in the morning so I was able to cash out early. CHIP didn’t do much so I’m still holding, but the chart is still showing possibilties.
And on a lighter note: Due to recent bailouts, budget cuts and the cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions and the continued decline of the U.S. economy and its dollar, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. heehee
Today was the day to learn which way this market will decide to go. We had a follow-thru of last week’s action to the upside in a very big way. First the indexes were up 2%+, the NYSE Advance/Decline volume was positive 17:1, and volume, although on the lean side, was still greater than last Friday’s volume.
Supposedly the exuse to move up big was that traders cheered G-20 promises of additional fiscal stimulus. Equity markets moved higher first across the Asia/Pacific markets and then in Europe after the central bankers and finance ministers agreed to “continue to provide support for the economy until the recovery is assured.” Who cares about all the unemployed, just keep pumping, or is that printing money until things are better.
My little double bottom I had on the VIX 15 minute chart didn’t materialize and continued down, reducing volatility and showing the markets to the upside. I didn’t trade much today nor twitter much, as I was moderating the Hit & Run Candlesticks trading room. But I did take some half profits on half positions in CHIP and SPPI, which I have been nursing for a week. Here’s hoping that both positions continue to the upside.
The Dow made new highs today::
But the S&P500 did not confirm that:
so either the S&P gets repelled by the double top or confirms a break thru to new highs. We’ll see on Tuesday how that works out. Lookout for “Turnaraound Tuesday” though. 
Futures are really blah tonite and working on a 2 point range. Thought they would be a bit more excited than that, but the night is young. See you on the field tomorrow….good luck. 
It was a pretty boring day today…didn’t do much trading…only watched charts and markets between breakfast and lunch, then bought a few shares of TZA near the market highs in the late afternoon.
Half the stocks I was watching, PPHM and PSUN did crappy, and the other half, ZIXI and SPPI did alright, but I didn’t get into any of them. With tomorrow’s employment reports, the beginning of the day should be wild. It’s how the markets react, say by 10AM that should give us some idea on what will be happening the rest of the day…and maybe into next week.
It took a couple days, but all the short positions I had been nursing finally paid off 
Patience works….as long as your unrealized losses are bearable. I got out of everything except for a remaining small position in TZA. And although I got out of all my QQQQ and DIA puts, I will look to get back in on every run up.
Browsing through some charts, I found a few that I thought I’d watch on Thursday: SPPI PSUN ZIXI PPHM. They’ve each had a nice run-up and have pulled back, so I’m looking for them to take off again. Individual stocks have there on reasons for going up even though the indexes or market as a whole may be going down. It works to hedge your bets so to speak, and you may even have multi-winners with longs and shorts.
We’ve got some market making news the next 2 days: Thursday has the weekly new and continuing unemployment claims, while Friday has the monthly Non-farm payroll and unemployment rate….which is always an exciting morning
I’m still looking for more downside, so I’ll be ready with TZA BGZ and QQQQ puts. Be careful out there…in this wacky environment you just never know.
