{"id":4752,"date":"2011-08-11T07:28:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T12:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4752"},"modified":"2011-08-11T07:28:48","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T12:28:48","slug":"before-the-open-aug-11-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4752","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 11)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bearish bias. Only China moved more than 1% (it gained 1.3%). Europe is currently mostly down. Belgium, Norway and London are down more than 1%; France, Germany and Amsterdam are down more than 2%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market, but stating this doesn’t tell the whole story. S&P futures have gone from being up 25 in the middle of the night to being up about 7 two hours before the open to being down 16. Lots of movement. <\/span>
\nThe movement we’ve been having lately can only be compared to the financial crisis. The S&P typically moves 10-15 points per day and 20-30 per week. Nowadays a 20-30 point move at any random time of the day is normal. This is great for day trading, but if you’re looking for lower risk set ups that come with favorable risk\/rewards, they’re hard to come by. Instead of risking 1 point to make 5, in many cases you have to be willing to risk more to make more. The risk\/rewards are the same but because of the volatility, intraday noise can stop you out before the chart has a chance to fully play out.<\/span>
\nMy stance remains the same. I do not think what we’ve seen over the last couple weeks is a pullback within an uptrend; instead it’s the beginning stages of a downtrend. As much as stocks have fallen, I think there’s more to go on the downside. I hope I’m wrong because it’s easier to make money on the upside (a stock can only drop 100%, but it can rally several 100%), but I gotta trade in the direction of the trend and right now that is down. More after the open.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nyesterday’s sector performance<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n