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Mid-September 2012 Sector Rotation Update

Let’s take a moment to update the current Sector Rotation chart to see which sectors may require our trading attention, and what the broader money flow suggests. Here’s the broader perspective of performance year-to-date: From StockCharts, we see the AMEX Sector SPDR ETFs with respect to absolute performance from January to present (mid-September 2012). We…

Assessing Which ETFs Moved the Most after QE3 Announcement

It may be helpful to spend some time this weekend studying which stocks and ETFs moved the most (higher and lower) after Thursday’s QE3 policy announcement. Let’s take a quick look at which major ETFs moved the most on the day QE3 was announced. Here’s a “Bubble Chart” from FinViz which emphasizes percentage movement of…

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Following the Breakout in Gold into Key Level

We’ve been anticipating a breakout in gold prices, and the last few weeks have delivered the likely upside break into the initial target. Let’s update the Daily and Weekly chart and note the key level that price may be breaking again to the upside. Here’s the bigger picture Weekly Update: On the Weekly Structure, price…

Charting Presidential Stock Performance from Carter to Obama

With the 2012 Presidential Campaign now in full swing, I thought it would be interesting to observe prior performance of the stock market under the different presidential administrations from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama. The charts below all begin and end on January 20th as the starting and ending day of a presidential term for…

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Scanning for Stocks Most Extended from 200d SMA to End August

Which stocks in the S&P 500 are most over and under-extended from their 200 day Simple Moving Averages?  And how might we use this information for potential upcoming trades? Let’s take a look at the new scan results at the end of August 2012 and find out. Here’s the Top 5 Stocks Most Over-Extended S&P…

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A Second Example of Bull Bias Shift from Failed Retracement

Following up from my educational update on August 20th, the very same situation unfolded on August 22 with an even more powerful outcome. Let’s take a moment to see what happened and what we can learn from this similar situation: Please reference the prior “Example of Playing Popped Stops from a Failed Retracement” update from…

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An Example of Playing Popped Stops from Failed Retracements

As traders, sometimes we learn more from failed trades than successful ones, underscoring how important it is to review your trades for as much information as possible. I wanted to highlight a great example of how to switch gears and adapt when price does something unexpected, which can lead to profitable trades in the new…

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SP500 Again Riding the Sigma Bands in August

There’s an interesting chart phenomenon I’ve covered in the past and the S&P 500 is currently repeating the pattern. Let’s take a look at the updated Sigma Band (Bollinger Band) chart for the S&P 500 and take a look at two recent examples of a similar pattern to monitor. Here’s the current S&P 500: What…