Daily Commentary

First of all, today’s action came as a surprise to so many traders, myself included. Let’s look at some key facts to discover what may have changed due to today’s action: First, the DIA (Dow Jones ETF) Daily: Price aggressively violated its 20 and 50 period moving average, giving no respect to these levels. Recall…

How were your trading results for the first quarter? The S&P lost 10% last quarter (and year to date), and the following chart shows the returns in Q1 for the major US Market Indexes: That was actually the worst quarter in five years! How did the market begin the 2nd quarter? So far (intraday), the…

Microsoft Corp (MSFT) may be building a potential chart formation base (or platform) of consolidation and may attempt a rally from current levels. A positive momentum divergence is forming as the swings narrow and the price stabilizes around the $27.00 level. Recall that price alternates between range expansion and contraction, and the expansion has been…

The intraday index action today provided some ideal opportunities within the price structure that could have led to profits. Let’s check out the Dow Jones: First, the day started out with a relatively small overnight gap, and the first play of the day was to fade the gap back to yesterday’s close. Once that downside…

The Dow Jones Index this morning (along with the S&P 500) formed an ideal ‘gap fade’ play which then set up a positive momentum divergence. Let’s see the chart and figure out how we could have taken advantage of this situation. The overall structure is in a strong downtrend, but the most recent price swings…

While radio listeners and investors are anxiously awaiting word from the FCC on the approval for the recent proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), I thought it would be prudent to look at the charts briefly to see where these stocks have travelled and what may be in store….

Friday’s action in the US Indexes represented a typical “Trend Day Down,” which provides opportunities for excellent profits with minimal risk. How do we trade trend days? Let’s look at the DIA (Dow Jones ETF) as a proxy to see some opportunities: First, I must say that this was not a ‘classic’ trend day because…

According to the New York Times article today, the Treasury Department is proposing that the Federal Reserve receive bold new powers to stabilize potentially shaky financial markets. Edmond Andrews reports that “The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing…

The US Dollar Index continued its downtrend recently, by failing to overcome resistance via the 20 day moving average. The 20 period moving average (especially along with the 50 period moving average) has provided a barrier that is too significant for the ‘dollar bulls’ to overcome with any lasting success. The recent rise (counter-trend swing)…

Today’s intraday price swings were smooth, pronounced, and stable. It was an ideal day to be an intraday ‘swing’ trader. By ‘swing’ trader, I mean simply trying to capture the market’s most probable sustained price action in one direction until that direction is reversed by the opposing force. The trend was down overall, but there…