Before the Open (Aug 13)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up – there were a couple 1% winners. Europe is currently down across the board. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively small gap down open for the cash market.
Between Wednesday’s gap down and sell off and Thursday’s gap down and rally, the charts are a mess. I looked at hundreds yesterday and found almost none that are tradable from a chart pattern standpoint. Support and resistance are not obvious, so I don’t see what I’d consider to be high probability set ups. We’ll have to wait a day or two for the charts to reset themselves.
At the end of last week I said no more swing trades for me. It was time to play good defense and day trade until the coast was more clear. I’m still in that mode. I have no problem sitting and waiting for “my pitch” – even if that means waiting a few days or a week. Jesse Livermore said it was the waiting that made him the money. He wasn’t talking about getting in a position and waiting for it to show him a profit. He was talking about waiting for the ideal time to enter the market. If you plan on being in this business for a while, there’s nothing wrong with waiting. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings Reports
this week’s Economic Numbers

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Aug 13)”

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention Leavitt Brothers: Blog -- Topsy.com

  2. Some Livermore books (see Amazon):
    The 1st book below is the most detailed as to his trading methods and includes pages of his actual stock price records. William O’Neal (of IBD) trading rules are almost identical. Livermore started trading in 1891.
    One key takeaway is to scan the new highs/new lows each day (stockcharts scans).
    1.
    How to Trade In Stocks by Jesse L. Livermore (Paperback – Feb 17, 2006)
    —————————————————————————————————————————
    2.
    Jesse Livermore: World’s Greatest Stock Trader by Richard Smitten (Paperback – Sep 14, 2001)
    ———————————————————————————————-
    3.
    Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Wiley Investment Classics) by Edwin Lefèvre, and Roger Lowenstein (Paperback – Jan 17, 2006)

  3. As Neal says, the VIX has given some pretty good signals the past few days. Aug 6 it was down, up, down while market went up, down, up. Aug 12 it spiked up and then came down making some nice trades on longs – ex NFLX, PCLN, POT. Look at NFLX – it does have a tradable uptrend in progress. But you are absolutely right about trends.
    The VIX has gapped up Aug 10, 11, and 12. The big gap up on the VIX Aug 10 and the big gap down on the market
    were not easily tradable. NFLX is an exception that proves the rule, and SOH makes a lot of sense.

  4. Somebody check out those bollinger bands, please.
    Whenever they ‘tighten’ or ‘constrict’ that means
    the market is getting ready to break out to
    the upside or downside. HW

  7. “Jesse Livermore said it was the waiting that made him the money. He wasn’t talking about getting in a position and waiting for it to show him a profit. He was talking about waiting for the ideal time to enter the market. If you plan on being in this business for a while, there’s nothing wrong with waiting.”
    So hard to do. That is why Livermore hired Mathematicians and psychologists.

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