StockCharts users can create intraday P&F charts to shorten their time horizon and identify key levels to watch. The chart below is a 60-minute P&F chart with 10 points per box and a classic 3-box reversal. After plunging to 3790 in mid August, the Nasdaq 100... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, September 8, 2015 As we've seen often of late, the U.S. equity markets surged at the open but failed to add to those opening gains until the final 90 minutes of trading. At that point, buying resumed and all of our major indices... READ MORE
Breadth was exceptionally strong the last two weeks and the broad market indices are on the verge of a bullish breadth thrust. Despite a couple big down days last week, AD Percent for the major index ETFs put in four strong readings in the last nine trading days. Note that... READ MORE
As part of a comment on Friday's DecisionPoint Alert, I was asked to review the DecisionPoint sentiment charts. Significant market tops and bottoms are normally accompanied by extremes of sentiment in one direction, and that is a strong indication that the market is about to head in the... READ MORE
EMERGING MARKETS BOUNCE OFF CHART SUPPORT... Within the exception of Japan, global stocks are bouncing nicely today. It started in Asia with a rebound in Chinese stocks. That gave a much needed boost to emerging markets. And it may be coming just in time. The monthly bars in Chart 1... READ MORE
Market Recap for Friday, September 4, 2015 Volatility remains the key for traders. A Volatility Index (VIX) in the 20s and 30s suggests that we not only could wake up to anything, but that we also should expect to see wild swings both higher and lower during the trading day.... READ MORE
Click here for the recording QQQ Shows Relative Strength as Pennant Takes Shape There are two narratives at work in the stock market and these are reflected on the charts for QQQ, SPY and IWM. First, we have a big support break in August and this break down is medium-term... READ MORE
Hello Fellow ChartWatchers! We have lots to talk about since our last newsletter! For those of you who have been watching the "ChartWatchers LIVE" webinar, you know that for almost three months prior to the recent market collapse on August 19th, we had been expressing concerns over the... READ MORE
In the last two weeks I observed something I don't recall ever seeing before. Two market indicators, that I never fail to review at the end of every trading day, are the Climactic Volume Indicator (CVI) and the UP and DOWN Participation Indexes (PI). The CVI is based... READ MORE
One of the warnings that I wrote about over the summer was the drop in the percent of NYSE stocks trading over their 200-day average. I pointed out over the summer (before the August plunge) that a stock market couldn't maintain an uptrend while two-thirds of its stocks... READ MORE
We've all heard that famous quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address. It's a saying that has had staying power for over 80 years. And it's something that rings true today in the current and volatile market environment. It starts with... READ MORE
Moving averages are lagging overlays by definition as we use historical data to determine their position on a price chart. But many traders use moving averages as support during periods of trending prices. Personally, my favorite is the 20 period EMA. Obviously, it can't guarantee us support in... READ MORE
There are plenty of technical analysts calling for the beginning of a bear market after the past couple weeks of heavy volume selling. I'm certainly open to that possibility as I always respect price support breakdowns with accelerating volume. But the story behind the scenes isn't... READ MORE
Bonds are outperforming stocks as money flows into relative safety and shuns risk. Overall, relative strength in bonds reflects risk aversion in the financial markets. Relative strength in bonds also indicates that investors should prefer bonds over stocks right now. Like all market dynamics, it is subject to change, but... READ MORE
Take a look at the DecisionPoint Scoreboard for last week. (You'll find the Scoreboards in the DecisionPoint Chart Gallery. The link is on the homepage). If you've read any of my articles this week, you'll know that the new Long-Term Trend Model (LTTM) 50/... READ MORE
I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours! What were you thinking? We are talking journals here. During periods of extreme market volatility – such as we presently have – no action can be the right action to achieve your long term goals. Understand that periodic corrections are to be... READ MORE
A chart is worth a thousand words. So let’s study some charts. We continue our discussion of Distribution and review some additional examples. Our goal is chart reading mastery. The ability to see changing price conditions, in real time, is an important long term goal. This takes time, practice... READ MORE
Oversold Bounces Fall Short The overall trend remains down for the major index ETFs (QQQ, SPY and IWM). Trading turned volatile with the mid August breakdowns, but the breakdowns remain and these are the dominant feature on most stock-related charts. Current volatility makes it hard to determine what will happen... READ MORE
Market Recap for Thursday, September 3, 2015 First, if you're available, be sure to join me at noon EST today for my Trading Places LIVE webinar. It's free and you can register HERE. Also, you can "subscribe" to my blog and have this morning... READ MORE
Every day, we publish a complete Market/Sector Summary in the DP Reports Blog. Not many are aware of its usefulness or even its existence! I publish an excerpt from that report every day in the DecisionPoint Alert day's analysis blog. Something very interesting has been happening on... READ MORE
One week ago activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed that a group he belongs to owns nearly an 8.5% stake in Freeport-McMoran (FCX). Rumors suggest Icahn may seek representation on FCX's board of directors and is calling for changes in some of the Company's business practices.... READ MORE
BANKS BOUNCE OFF CHART SUPPORT... I've explained in previous messages that I lean toward the view that the stock market is in the midst of an overdue correction. It's been four years since the market saw a correction of more than 10%. That's much... READ MORE
What do VIX Extremes Tell Us? Even though it can be difficult to trade based on extremes, note that the volatility indices are at extremes that suggest plenty of fear and this could foreshadow a bounce. The first chart shows daily closing values for the S&P 500 Volatility... READ MORE
Market Recap for Wednesday, September 2, 2015 The bulls did not crumble on Wednesday. After a big gap down on Tuesday with the market closing at or near its lows of the day, there was the opportunity for the bears of another serious gap lower and rout on Wednesday, but... READ MORE
This article takes a look at the relative rotation of the members of the Dow Jones Industrials ($INDU) index. On the relative rotation graph below all members are plotted against $INDU. I will highlight and discuss some of the charts that show up on the RRG as "worth having... READ MORE
This is just a quick and dirty note regarding today's strength in airline stocks. The table below shows eight airline stocks, the Airline ETF (JETS) and the DJ US Airline Index ($DJUSAR). Notice that the StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) for two stocks is above 90 (JBLU and ALK)... READ MORE
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? ... There's a debate in professional circles as to whether the stock market is in a correction or a bear market. It makes a difference. Let's define what they are. A stock market "correction" is a drop of more than... READ MORE
Selling pressure was quite intense on Tuesday as some 497 stocks in the S&P 500 declined on the day. This means there were only three winners on the day: CableVision (CVC), American Airlines (AAL) and Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL), which is going to be acquired by Merck. Cablevision, which is... READ MORE
Market Recap for Tuesday, September 1, 2015 Off of the significant rally last week, a topping island cluster reversal pattern printed and was confirmed on Tuesday's open. This pattern, by itself, is simply a short-term reversing pattern and does not suggest a bear market is at hand. Now... READ MORE
We had two VERY important signal changes today! Both the S&P 500 and S&P 100 generated Long-Term Trend Model SELL signals. This is very serious, especially given that the Dow Industrials already received a LT SELL signal on August 21st. I've gotten many emails... READ MORE
* Right shoulder rally is a work in progress. * Dollar Index showing some technical cracks. * Gold breaks out against stocks. Last week I pointed out that the S&P 500 ($SPX), along with several other averages, had experienced a bullish exhaustion day. That fact, along with an excessively high reading... READ MORE
Stock futures are sharply lower on Tuesday morning and this means the oversold bounce is failing below the support break for the major index ETFs, sector ETFs and most industry group ETFs. Stocks became very oversold in mid August and then rebounded with sharp rallies last week. The deeper the... READ MORE
Market Recap for Monday, August 31, 2015 Technical sellers returned on Monday as our major indices approached key resistance areas. The NASDAQ, in particular, had penetrated into its 4800-4900 resistance area and the bulls were initially rebuffed there. Eight of the nine sectors fell on Monday with energy the only... READ MORE
Stocks were hit hard in mid August with the S&P 500 and many stocks plunging below their spring-summer lows. This means stocks that held their summer lows are by definition showing relative chart strength because they did not break a key level. The chart below shows CVR Refining... READ MORE
S&P 500 STALLS WELL BELOW SUPPORT BREAK... Chart 1 shows the S&P 500 with a big support break at 2040 and some serious volatility over the last two weeks. Notice that the index fell over 10% and then bounced with a 5+ percent surge back to... READ MORE
My good friend George Schade, the lawyer, the excellent technical analyst, the market historian, the superb researcher, and the one who has dampened a few of my brusque writings into less offensive prose has given me permission to reproduce an article he wrote in 2011 about an indicator I had... READ MORE
Monday, August 31, 2015 Market Recap for Friday, August 28, 2015 Global markets were mixed on Friday, although most of the action here in the U.S. was positive, albeit on lighter Friday volume. Commodities were particularly strong, especially crude oil ($WTIC) and gold ($GOLD), but both have been long-term... READ MORE
Facebook (FB), like so many internet stocks, performs its best during the month of September. There's not much of a sample size with FB since it went public just a little more than 3 years ago. However, during its last 3 Septembers, FB has averaged gaining 15.7%... READ MORE
In the last two weeks the stock market put on quite a show. Many months of sideways boredom was finally ended with a dramatic breakdown and a scary drop of -14.4% (intraday for SPY) from the all-time high in July. From that low, SPY then rebounded nearly +10%. On... READ MORE
In 1965 Wham-O came out with the Super Ball. About the size of a plum, this hard rubber ball was simply amazing. When dropped on a solid surface it was advertised to bounce back 92%. When slammed down it could be made to bounce over a two story building. For... READ MORE