Before the Open (Feb 2)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China and Hong Kong rallied 2%. Australia, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan gained more than 1%. Europe is currently mixed. There are no 1% movers. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and Copper are down. Gold and silver are flat.
Yesterday the Nas and Russell made higher highs while the Dow and S&P did not. The divergence means little on a very short term basis but can’t persist for long if the trend is to continue.
As the market grinds higher, I’m finding myself having less and less to talk about because nothing seems to effect the price action. When indicators get ignored, the character of the market is changing…that’s what been happening. Overbought is staying overbought, and those who guess tops or are in denial and aren’t long aren’t happy right now. Sometimes you gotta lower your guard and not think too much.
Here’s the 5-min SPX chart I posted two days ago. The red median line set is proving to be significant, so until it stops working, I’ll continue to watch for the price action to turn at the lines or at sliding parallels.

I’ll have more to say after the open. Right now I’m drawing a blank.
Employment numbers come out tomorrow before the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Feb 2)”

    1. looks like uncle ben handled himself well today, essentially in his modest polite professorial way-
      – we the fed are here to help pump it up
      – you congress are a bunch of bleeping bleep heads, stop the political grand stand nonsense
      – it doesnt matter if they were red or blue, the prior admins bleeped us up, theres bills to pay and there is only one way out, now suck on our big QE, its getting bigger.
      of course, congress needs to validate its existence and will exercise its political due process – get ready for a pullback.

  8. many stocks are forming good basing patterns, cup of a c&h, rounding base, flat base etc. look for a pullback to enter on fundamentally & technically strong stocks.
    in the mean time you can short term swing trade and if the pattern fails you know what to do.
    best of luck

    1. An example is HAIN
      broke out of its handle on monday. blasting off today. wait for the pull back.
      look at the wkly chart –
      formed and broke out of a mjr flag in late oct.
      formed the cup into dec
      formed the handle into jan.
      there are more.
      put in the work, think for yourself, avoid the day trading talk & music video shows, i really care about you charlatans and other bleep heads. find serious hard working traders of similar profile and work collaboratively.
      also shun the smug the fed is bad or the mrkt is manipulated mrkt dilettante idiots. like the useless slacker in the office who complains about the management, they go no where and only eat up your time and focus. or if youre a sucker and paying for that nonsense, you know what to do right away.
      the essential pt is to make money, keep it and compound it.

  9. well Raymond ,imo u have to look at all things and motives
    esp the internals
    if the strong stocks fail can the weak take over
    it gets to a liquidity problem of sum gain–if the mutuals or the invisable hand stop buying
    will the hedgies take over
    seems to me this go nowhere market world wide is doomed for failure—BIGTIME
    imo this is a distribution –roll over –rounding top
    why is the ftse–dax n225 -spx-dji all being held a current levels –now for weeks
    dont be folled into being a bull or bear—-be a daytrader
    markets dont have to go up to make money
    best money is on the downside

    1. Best way to make money is on the side of the trend.
      Some trade math, basic arithmetic really –
      A stock rises from 10 to 20, 100% gain
      The stock drops from 20 to 10, 50% gain
      Pay attention to the %, thats where the big money is.
      There are a few more basic trader math to consider and master.
      I do day trade, but only for protection, opportunistic profits. The big money is in the swing, the longer swings.

    2. as for reading hidden motives and true intent. none of us dumb money (retail traders) will ever know the truth. what we can do is look at historical mrkt and stock behavior and play the odds. its good to be a little paranoid, but too much means we have not done our homework, are not confident. when you feel the cajones suck up into their pockets, its time to stand aside.
      some stuff that is out on the net is pure myth or sales bs for suckers to pay for the ‘magic sauce’ of trading. others have persistent and validated performance. the shrewd and successful trader is able to get past the crowd bs and his / her own bs and determine with decisive focus what works and what does not and when it does and when it does not.
      😉

      1. i follow the hedgies–market makers—-they sure leave foot prints
        not the long only mutuals that are always fond on the wrong side in disbeleif
        when a down comes

  10. the VIX will tell us when to short the market as the markets are really run by the market maker hedgie big banks—follow their footprints
    yeilds to bonds-currencies to shares

    1. Brian – I’ve been out all day on appointments and just got back. I’m entering a breakeven stop at 1328 into the close. If not filled, I’ll stay short into tomorrow’s open.

  13. another trade to consider BOIL ultra long UNG nat gas. thin but the vol in ung will support the move. closed 2nd pull on KOLD ultra short UNG today.
    but do your own dd.
    it would be nice for someone else to share their trades / ideas.

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