Posts Tagged ‘APC’

Swing Trading Week in Review – November 5, 2010

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Swing Trading Blog – Swing Trading BOOT CAMP


Finally!!!

Swing Traders got the breakout they have been waiting for as the market traded to NEW HIGHS for the year this week.

As you would expect most of the sectors followed suit by rallying higher this week as well.

DIA

The sector ETF's making NEW HIGHS for the year this week were Agriculture ($DBA $MOO), Energy ($XLE), Real Estate ($IYR), Semiconductors ($SMH), Airlines ($FAA) and Technology ($XLK).

SIlver ($SLV) and Gold ($GLD) also rallied to NEW HIGHS as did the Gold Miners ($GDX).

Another interesting thing to take notice of is that there is finally some strength coming into the weakest sectors.

The Financials ($XLF $IYF) and the Hombuilders ($XHB) ETF's broke through key overhead resistance levels this week.

IYF XHB

The Broker/Dealer ETF ($IAI) also broke through the resistance in the $25-$27 area.

IAI

All of these ETF's broke through these prior resistance levels on BIG volume!

Follow through is the key but the amount of volume we saw at the end of last week in a hopefully a sign of good things to come.

In last weeks BLOG POST we told you that there were a TON of stocks pulling back nicely off of their most recent highs.

Hopefully you were able to get into some of these trades this week.

There were loads of what we call "text book" swing trades to take this week.

A few stocks with favorable risk/reward setups were $MEE, $EC, $ANN, $GS, $BBY, $SKS and $APC to name a few.

GS

$SPG ripped and even $F was a rock star this week!

F

There were some stocks that actually rolled over this week but with the market breaking out to new highs we have no need to focus on the SHORT side.

Although we will continue to watch BOTH sides of the market to determine overall strength and weakness just remember that CONTEXT is the KEY that allows you to take action.

CONTEXT tells us the market is way too strong to try to fight it but that being said it is also warning us NOT to chase it up at this point!

If for some reason you missed last weeks action BE PATIENT and wait for your trades to set up for you.

Sometimes it is hard to sit and wait when the market is moving up the way it is but often times that is the smartest thing to do.

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

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Posted in ETF Swing Trading, ETF Trading, Stock Market Update, Swing Trading, Swing Trading Blog, Swing Trading Chart Patterns, Swing Trading Charts | 1 Comment »

Swing Trading Week in Review – August 20, 2010

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

After the retrace back to the 50 Day SMA last week we saw the DJIA put in a bit of "bounce" to start out this week of trading.

DIA - DJIA ETF

After a nice GAP UP on Tuesday we saw the market stall on Wednesday as it failed to trade above Tuesday's HIGH.

Sellers jumped back into the market on Thursday and pushed the market lower to close the week in negative territory.

In last week's BLOG POST we posted about how we saw the market "transition" last Tuesday and Wednesday.

The type of price action transition we noticed had us looking for some SHORT Swing Trading setups coming into the start of this week.

As the market "bounced" to start the week we patiently waited for the WEAK stocks and ETF's to trigger a SHORT entry.

After posting about the "Inverted Head and Shoulders" chart pattenr in the Financial ETF (XLF) we followed up last week with a nice trade in the Inverse Financial ETF (FAZ).

 

This week FAZ setup yet another LONG trade entry as the weak Financial sector headed lower again.

FAZ - Inverse Financial ETF

Another sector ETF  that gave us a clue to look for SHORT trades was the Energy ETF (XLE).

After putting in a nice up move on Tuesday we watching as XLE reversed it's upward move and head straight down on Wednesday on INCREASED VOLUME.

This created a confirmed "lower high" a put our new down channel in place.

XLE - Energy ETF

This move in the ETF had us looking through the charts of individual stocks in this sector for possible SHORT trade setups Wednesday afternoon.

APC, SLB and CVX all had nice chart patterns with clearly defined risk levels in place.

This is a good example of how to use sector  ETF's to look for Swing Trading opportunities in stocks that a closely related or correlated to that sector.

The Oil Services ETF (OIH) had a nearly identical chart pattern.

OIH - Oil Servies ETF

DO, BHI and NBR we good candidates in this sector.

On the flip side of the coin we saw the GOLD and GOLD MINERS ETF's have a nice week to the UP side as their recent relative strength continues.

GDX - Gold Miners ETF

Stocks to watch in this sector going forward are AU, EGO, AEM, NEM, ABX, GG, and GG.

Also keep an eye on the Retail ETF (RTH) in the days to come.

We have noticed some strong BUYING in the some of the retail names this week.

This could be a sign of things to come but as always we need confirmation to declare the down trend has come to an end.

As we go into next week there are a few things that we have noticed that have us wondering whether or not this most recent down move has any legs.

We still have a TON of stocks that are holding up (showing relative strength) despite the selling we have witnessed the last two days of this week.

AKAM, MELI, INFA, MO, SNPS, and VRSN to name a few.

Although the DJIA and S&P have technically put in a "lower high" AND "lower low" the Nasdaq has only put in a "lower high" and has yet to confirm a "lower low".

No one knows for sure what we will do come Monday morning so as always be prepared for anything so that you can take the appropriate action when the market tells you it's true intentions.

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

P.S

Would like to learn more about how we locate our short term trades in stocks and ETF's?

If so feel free join us Friday, August 27th for our "Finding Swing Trading Opportunities in Today's Market" webinar.

You can register for this absolutely FREE Swing Trading webinar HERE.

 

 

 

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Swing Trading Week in Review- January 15,2010

Friday, January 15th, 2010

What a way to end the week!

The indexes all closed DOWN on HUGE VOLUME today…The Dow closed down -100.90 (-0.94%), while the S&P 500 lost -12.42 (-1.08%), and the Nasdaq finished down -28.75 (-1.24%).

Some of the strongest stocks (CREE, MRVL, DE, RIG, APC, X, CAT) followed suit also trading significantly lower on heavy volume.

We were able to lock in our profits from last weeks swing trades by being prepared for a move we somewhat anticipated.

So what were the clues?

Well take a look at this weeks price action.

After last weeks strong up move you have to expect a pullback in the market.

Monday and Tuesday saw they S&P and Nasdaq pullback a bit while the Dow held pretty steady.

Monday we did note that some of last weeks strongest ETF's (OIH, XLE, SLX) gapped up on Monday and then sold off to finish near their lows.

The strong stocks also pulled back a bit as expected.

Nothing too alarming but a clue to POSSIBLE things to come.

The next few days painted a different picture from the previous up move.

One of the things we noticed that really stood out on Wednesday and Thursday was the amount of stocks and ETF's that were pushing higher on DECREASING VOLUME!

Take a look at the chart patterns to see what we mean.

Here is XLF (Financial ETF)…

XLF - Swing Trading ETF

And the OIH (Oil Services ETF)…

OIH - Swing Trading ETF

And finally the SLX (Steel ETF)…

SLX_1152010

Now you can see how they all attempted to move higher on DECREASING volume.

Dominant moves (UP in this case) on LOWER VOLUME should turn on the CAUTION light for you.

If you pull up some of the individual stocks you will notice the same chart patterns.

Stocks like DO, RIG, APC, MEE, WFC, JPM and X all have similar stories.

Once we noticed the signals that PRICE ACTION and VOLUME gave us we were a little cautious getting overly LONG.

Now, no one can predict the future, and POSITIVE volume could have come back into the market the next day so we were prepared if that would have been the case.

We held our remaining LONG positions and actually added 2 more during this time however we DIDNT LOAD THE BOAT!

When todays (Friday) sell off happened we were well prepared.

We tightened up our stops on our LONG positions and when we were stopped out of some of them today we were able to hold on to our hard earned swing trading profits!

Now that being said the market could do an about face on Monday and head right back up.

But at least for now we locked in our profits and have no problem entering into new LONG positions if the market take off again.

When you see LOWER volume UP moves it means you need to start paying very close attention!

It does'nt mean to EXIT your positions or start shorting strong stocks in a strong market but it does tell you that things MAY, and I repeat MAY, change.

Once you see the warning sign it prepares you to TAKE ACTION if price action confirms the change (like it did today).

We like to see price action AND volume working together we we enter into our trades.

UP moves (in this case) on strong volume and pullbacks on lower volume.

When the two dont match up they are telling you something…WARNING WARNING…Sentiment MAY change here (even temporarily) so HEADS UP!

By learning to read and interpret price action, volume and chart patterns together you can see the "big picture", that way you are always prepared to take whatever action the market calls for.

Until Next week…Good Trading to You!

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Off to a good start for 2010

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

So the New Year started off with a bang!

The markets continued to show tremendous strength during the first trading week of 2010.

The Dow opened the the week at 10,430 and never looked back, closing up 1.8% at 10,618!

The S&P 500 was up 2.7% for the week and closed at 1144.

Some of the sectors were absolutely on fire!

Steel stocks were on a roll and stocks like X, AKS, STLD, and NUE all had a big  week.

SLX, the Market Vector Steel ETF, finished up almost 10% for the week.

Energy and Oil stocks also continued to rise with stocks like BHI, DO, RIG,and APC having great weeks.

OIH was up over 11% for the week while XLE finished up almost 6%.

The heavily watched financial and home builder sectors also show some very nice upside moves.

The home builders had some great swing trade set ups.

XHB closed up over 7% for the week after breaking out from a nice pattern on the daily chart.

PHM, LEN, DHI and MTH all finished the week up nicely.

Swing traders should have capitalized on the financials as GS, JPM , and WFC all had BIG weeks after breaking their respective DOWN TREND lines.

Casinos, Airlines and Solar stocks also had a great week

Some of the other sectors, however did not fare very well during this strong week in the market.

The retail sector had a weak showing with a few exceptions like RL and BBBY.

The Real Estate sector also had a weak showing with IYR only up a tad over break even for the week.

There were plenty of opportunities for Swing Traders to profit from last weeks action and we hope you were able to do just that!

We look forward to see what next week brings and Good Trading to you!

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