Tuesday Wraps

I’m still holding SYMC and WFC and both actually went up today. I managed to salvage most of my losses on ORCL this morning – I expected a small downside – not that steep drop but, as always with a mature company, the first drop is an overshoot and if you jump on board and double or triple up you can usually get out without losing your shirt – and that’s what I did. I wouldn’t do that for some no-name but I seldom play immature companies just for that reason – I really want to know how the trading community reacts to bad news or, as in this case, good news.

I jumped out on the rebound at .25 and only lost a 100 bucks in all. Considering I was a grand down at the start – not bad. I then took a solemn vow – I will never play ORCL again – this is the second time that it was traded out from under me for no good reason. It is now on my white board under the word “Never” along with 20 or 30 others that I will not play - mostly because they are empty pieces of junk that misbehave.

(start sermon)
Warning! Warning! Warning! If you try this on your next dump job and you lose don't blame me - it is not an approved method of trading. Never, never, never double up a losing position - Never! (end sermon)

In case you think I have forgotten my day trading skills I took a small position in MAMA off a new method that I have been testing. It seems to work but I’m going to tell you that the risk factor is high and you need to move quickly. I have found this to be an effective play in every time frame from 4 minutes through 15. Look at the chart below.



You can see what the new set-up is – if the first time increment encompasses all three of the EMA’s that I use then I buy it on the next open. I keep my mental stop at the EMA 21. Now I don’t know if this will work with other moving averages because I’m happy with it working with the three I use all the time. Interestingly, MAMA also had a classic set-up a bit later in the morning – but I was already in the trade.

If you don’t think this occurs very often – take a look here at WFC – also today.



And here is a counter-gap trade I wish I could have taken but I was back on the shopping detail this afternoon. I give you HANS.



Finally – I thought the markets had a good chance to go up today because the first hour PC ratio opened above yesterday’s first hour open and closed below yesterday’s first hour close. That was despite the fact that the FTSI 100 was down all day. As I mentioned yesterday - these are rules of thumb and not hard and fast "must be's".

Of course a lot of stocks did go up today – the up/down ratio is back at 45% but the new 20 day lows are still 200 more than the new 20 day highs and that is a good thing. The VIX is back at 5% below its 10 day moving average but the good news is that every major index we follow and GS finished the last hour with a strong red candle – there was a ton of selling going on. All of this leads me to believe that we will probably go up tomorrow. But as you know a good trader doesn’t care about the direction of the market because a good trader can make money regardless.

I’m giving Mr. Magic a pass for today since the market finished mixed which leaves him at 37 – 29. For tomorrow --- tails – bear in the air - - oh, who believes in magic anyway?