There are many sources that DecisionPoint uses to develop the DP Sentiment charts. You'll find two of them in the free DecisionPoint Gallery: American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment and Rydex Asset Ratio. I'm going to review the AAII, National Association of Active Investment Managers... READ MORE
Be careful where you sit. I shared a table at Starbucks last week with two investors who became very animated and energized when I disclosed that I was a full-time stock investor. What a coincidence, they said, so were they. They retired in 2004 and bought large positions in the... READ MORE
S&P 500 SPDR LOSES MOMENTUM... Link for today's video. Before getting too bearish on the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), chartists should keep in mind that this broad index ETF is trading above its rising 200-day SMA, the 50-day SMA is above the 200-day and... READ MORE
I generally spend a lot of time writing and talking about areas of the market showing strength. The reason? I'm a momentum trader and we're in the midst of a six year bull market. When I trade a stock, I typically would like to see immediate... READ MORE
Stocks chopped around on Thursday and the major index ETFs ended the day with little change. The Dow Diamonds (DIA) was up .06% and the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) was down .12%, twice as much as DIA, but still a fraction. Consumer discretionary and finance led, while energy... READ MORE
The DecisionPoint Scoreboard had an important signal change on the OEX. The DecisionPoint Trend Models have already triggered short-term Neutral and SELL signals on all four of the indexes we follow in our Scoreboard, but today, the OEX added an Intermediate-Term Trend Model (ITTM) Neutral signal. You'll note... READ MORE
The stock market looks ahead and based on the latest breakout in home construction stocks ($DJUSHB), apparently traders like what they see on the horizon. The 10 year treasury yield ($TNX) held key support and is bouncing. Proceeds from the sale of treasuries seems to be finding a "home&... READ MORE
Stocks started the day under selling pressure as the S&P 500 fell around 1.5% in the first hour trading. The buyers then stepped in and pushed the index above its prior close for a small gain. The big hammer candlestick formed as a result. While this intraday... READ MORE
The major stock indices were hit with selling pressure on Wednesday, but two sectors and a few stocks bucked the selling and moved higher. How can we find these? Chartists can use the Sector MarketCarpet to easily spot the gainers because they are green and stick out like a sore... READ MORE
DOW GETS DEATH CROSS AS S&P 500 BREAKS 200-DAY... The major index ETFs were down in early trading on Wednesday with the finance, technology and consumer discretionary sectors leading the way lower. It is quite negative to see these key sectors leading on the way down. The Dow... READ MORE
There have been more and more areas of the U.S. stock market that are showing signs of slowing momentum to the upside and it's begun taking a toll on several of those areas. Over the past six months, healthcare (XLV) and consumer discretionary (XLY) have outperformed. But... READ MORE
Over the decades I have collected lists of rules, guidelines, steps, etc. written by various individuals for various reasons. Most of them were created by folks after they had spent decades in the business and were sharing some things they not only learned over that time, but also strongly believed.... READ MORE
Easy come, easy go. Stocks surged on Monday and then gave it back on Tuesday. Most sectors and industry groups were hit with selling pressure on Tuesday. Some interest-rate sensitive groups bucked the selling pressure as the 20+ YR T-Bond ETF (TLT) surged and the 10-YR Treasury Yield ($TNX) fell.... READ MORE
Market action has been volatile but sideways. It's killing our shorter-term indicators and timing models. The DecisionPoint Trend Model generates BUY/SELL/Neutral signals based on the position of the 5/20/50/200-EMAs. When the EMAs have a thin margin between each other, the STTM, and even... READ MORE
REVIEW OF MAJOR INDEX ETFS (QQQ,SPY,IJR,MDY)... Click here for the webinar recording. The large-cap index ETFs continue to be tossed and turned within trading ranges, while the small and mid cap index ETFs remain in corrective mode. Chart 1 shows the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY)... READ MORE
Stocks rallied with a broad advance that lifted most boats. The sectors and industry groups that were hit the hardest over the last few months got the biggest bounces. These include energy, materials, mining, gold and steel. Elsewhere, the EW Consumer Discretionary ETF (RCD) surged 1.5% and held support.... READ MORE
* Momentum indicators for commodities are turning up. * The Dollar Index has violated a small down trend line. The major averages have moved sideways over the last 12-months or so but under the surface a few sectors have managed to gain in price and some have lost considerable ground. Chart 1... READ MORE
The Semiconductor SPDR (XSD) has been one of the weakest industry group ETFs within the technology sector over the last two months, and Texas Instruments (TXN) has been one of the weakest stocks in the group. That might be changing. The middle window on the chart below shows TXN relative... READ MORE
SMALL-CAP ETF TESTS SUPPORT AGAIN... Link for today's video. I noted that the "average" stock is in correction mode in last week's Market Message and also showed the short-term downtrends in the small-cap, mid-cap and equal-weight ETFs. These short-term downtrends remain in play, but... READ MORE
Stocks were hit with selling pressure last week, but it was not that intense. QQQ lost 1.5%, SPY declined 1.2% and IWM was down 2.5%. Small-caps remain relatively weak and continue to lead on the way down. Also note that the Equal-Weight S&P 500 ETF... READ MORE
I have been reading with much interest how the potential slowdown in China will be the next reason why the S&P 500 will tumble. But by changing a few chart settings here at StockCharts.com, you can quickly visualize the correlation between the Chinese stock market and our... READ MORE
The Chinese stock market made news recently, dropping nearly -40% from its June top to a low in early July. With that market having bounced off the crash low, many are saying that the decline is over, but I think that assessment is premature. First of all, the advance prior... READ MORE
Harvey Baraban is a Wall Street insider. As the former CEO of Baraban Securities, he managed 1,500 brokers and trained over 30,000 men and women for certification as full-service stockbrokers. In the 1970s, he partnered with billionaire investor Gerald Tsai who was famous for starting the first publicly-sold... READ MORE
A trend is like a house on a foundation of wood. When the house is new the foundation is strong. Over time termites burrow in and infest the foundation. The house looks structurally sound even though the termites have compromised its underpinnings. Unexpectedly, one day the foundation gives way and... READ MORE
AVERAGE STOCK IS CORRECTING... Link for today's video. As its names suggest, the Equal-Weight S&P 500 ETF (RSP) tells us what is happening to the average stock in the S&P 500. This is opposed to the S&P 500 SPDR, which is weighted... READ MORE
I know many of you prefer the increased safety and diversification of ETFs over trading individual stocks. For some of you, it may simply be that you don't have time to watch over a portfolio of stocks, nor do you have the time and/or inclination to spend... READ MORE
Stocks were hit with selling pressure on Thursday with QQQ leading the way lower. Actually, the Nasdaq 100 Equal-Weight ETF (QQEW) led with a 2% decline because selling pressure in the technology sector was quite broad. Healthcare and consumer discretionary, which have been leaders, also came under selling pressure. The... READ MORE
This week the $SPX has been flip-flopping more than a sleazy politician. The Short-Term Trend Model (STTM) went from a BUY on Monday to Neutral on Tuesday to a BUY on Wednesday and today to a SELL signal. Ugh. There was a difference today. The STTM SELL signal on the... READ MORE
QQQ BREAKS SMALL WEDGE... Weakness in techs and small-caps weighed on the market Thursday. Chart 1 shows the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) falling over 1% with a sharp decline late Thursday afternoon. The ETF is still in an uptrend overall, but today's decline broke wedge support for a... READ MORE
In evaluating the likelihood of sustainable market rallies, one key relationship revolves around how consumer discretionary (XLY) stocks are performing vs. their consumer staples (XLP) counterparts. The reason is fairly simple. Consumer discretionary companies sell products that people WANT while consumer staples companies sell products that people NEED. If the... READ MORE
Stocks caught an early bid and even held their gains to close positive. There was no follow through to the morning pop so traders can read into this as they please. The bears will point to no follow through, while the bulls will point to the ability to hold gains.... READ MORE
* Special K continues to point to lower stock prices. * Dollar looks set to break out on the upside. * Euro and yen denominated commodities at new lows. The market continues to move sideways, but under the surface things continue to deteriorate. For example, Chart 1 features a cumulative line derived from... READ MORE
One of the subjects covered in this blog on a regular basis is the relative rotation (sector rotation) in the US equity market. The data, ticker symbols, that I use for the analysis are the nine ETFs from the SPDRS family, provided by State Street Global advisors. SPDR actually stands... READ MORE
The S&P 1500 can be divided into the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400 and the S&P SmallCap 600. These three ETFs can be further divided into their growth and value components to create six different index styles (small-growth, small-value, mid-growth, mid-value, large-growth,... READ MORE
I've said many times before and I'll continue to repeat it - we must do our homework and then show the necessary patience and discipline to allow trades to set up for us. Part of doing homework is accumulating a number of stocks that are in... READ MORE
Stocks were all mixed up with no place to go on Tuesday. The Nasdaq 100 Equal-Weight ETF (QQEW), which treats Apple as a mere mortal, managed a small gain to lead the major index ETFs. The rest were down fractionally. The sectors were mixed with fractional gains and fractional losses.... READ MORE
I'm sorry I simply couldn't resist the pun. Tom and Greg always seem to be having all the fun with their "punny" headlines so it's my turn. Apple could be entering correction mode. The question is whether it is only a short-term... READ MORE
SECTOR STALEMATE DEFINES TRADING RANGE... Click here for the Webinar recording. The S&P 500 and SPY are stuck in trading ranges because sector performance is split. Chartists can even see the market split at the industry group level as well. Looking at six-month performance for the 100+ Dow... READ MORE
Let the choppiness begin. Or rather, let the choppiness continue. Stocks started flat, moved lower around noon and then bounced in the final hour. The major index ETFs still finished down on the day, but the declines were fractional and they managed to close off their lows. Even so, note... READ MORE
Stocks were mostly lower in afternoon trading, but a few airlines bucked the trend with gains and big moves in their StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR). The table below shows the SCTRs for large-caps and the table is sorted by "change". Just click the column heading to sort. Notice... READ MORE