Wednesday, July 18, 2012

EBAY Strong Earnings-Maybe a Leak

I received this email at 3:51

"I'm just going by chart on this one, I think they will beat and stock should gap up.  What's 3c showing?"


"I'm not sure what the correct version is for 3C/EBAY, I don't have notes, but 2/3 versions show something bullish happened recently."


EBAY is up about 6% in after hours. For those of you using 3C, when I look for earnings leaks, I tell you to look for something strange jumping off the chart. EBAY had just such an event.


 First EBAY is acting different than the market recently on a pullback, I think this is part of what our member noticed, after all if you are going to accumulate on a leak you know will push the stock higher, you want the best price entry.



The divergence for the pullback is there, whether that is naturally occurring or not, I have no idea, but the 1 day spike to a huge leading positive divergence on a 60 min chart is not normal, there was huge, very fast accumulation in to lower prices, this is something that stands out on a chart as a leak considering it would normally take 3-4 days to get that kind of 60 min chart movement, even with good accumulation.

The Market Hates Uncertainty

If we didn't have enough already, you probably already saw these stories, but they certainly add to it in a bad way.



Updated Context

Another growing signal as all risk assets outside of stocks are flat.

Note how flat the ES Model is vs. ES, it seems like it's just sticking out there like a thin twig ready to snap.

Adding UVXY $6 Aug Calls

Other Indications of a pullback

Besides sector rotation seeing defensive sectors rotate in today despite the move up, Credit and Yields have been excellent leading indicators for reversals and they are on the right time frame.

 High Yield Credit continued divergence with the SPX

Yields also with a continued SPX divergence

These have been excellent signals in the past for quick reversals.

Just to give you some perspective

This is why I think this is the area to go ahead and lock in those short trades in to price strength for at least a short term move down, maybe more.

 SPY 2 min

 3 min

 5 min

15 min

Good confirmation, good migration through timeframes and we still have price strength.

USO Follow Up

USO charts...

 USO 2 min

 USO 3 min

 USO 5 min

USO 15 min, long relative negative divergence.

Selling July $32 USO Call

I'm closing this July $32 as expiration is near and I'm not liking the looks of USO.

Market Update

As suspected early this morning, this move too would be faded. The 1 min charts in many of the averages seemed to be in confirmation or close to it for today, but the damage had already been done on the longer term intraday charts which deteriorated even more today. It's almost like a very thin facade of strength wall papering over some serious rot.

 DIA 1 min

 DIA 3 min

 IWM 1 min

 IWM 3 min

 QQQ 1 min

 QQQ 2 min

 SPY 1 min

SPY 2 min


BIDU Update

I'm still looking to continue building a long position in BIDU, at the last transaction, I had BIDU at about 40% of a normal position size and have been remaining patient waiting for better prices to add to that position with better signals.

I didn't add anything in BIDU today and it looks to me that the typical formation I would normally assume (a broader base) seems to be what BIDU is up to.

Here are the short term charts suggesting BIDU pullback a bit and a longer term chart suggesting it is in fact building a broader base.

 1 min negative in to the run up today, it appears as if we may see a "W" type bottom base.

 The 5 min chart confirming the 1 min with a leading negative divergence suggesting a pullback, I would say at least to yesterday's lows.

The 15 min chart building a leading positive divergence in to this pullback in BIDU, this is what I have been waiting to see for some time.

AAPL Continues to look good for a short

I showed you AAPL earlier today, I still like it.

 2 min

 3 min

 15 min

30 min

Opening Straight Long Position in FAZ

This is the Equities model portfolio, I have a position in FAS as a hedge, that is at a 20+% gain (no leverage) that will be closed and FAZ added for a brief time (pullback short term trend).

So this will be a long position in FAZ stock, no leverage other than the ETF's, remember buying FAZ gives you short exposure to Financials.

ES Continues

It must have been over a week ago I showed a simple chart that you may or may not have noticed, it showed the 10 day average true range of the market over a day had doubled over the course of about a month or so, meaning intraday volatility has about doubled. Have you noticed the market (it's very obvious on ES charts) takes off either up or down right at 9:30 exactly and then that move tend to be faded in the other direction by the afternoon, this is all a meat grinder for the average trader.

Any way, here's the latest S&P E-mini Futures chart.

3C has hit a new leading negative low, note that ES was trading laterally during this, it's now starting to react.

NFLX -Letting the Trade Come to You.

I must say this once a week and you probably get tired of it, but as far as advantages the general public has over Wall Street, there are few, but there is one.

You can pick and chose your battles, you don't have to make long term commitments and have action constrained by the size of your position, you can be nimble and you can chose when and where to deploy capital and undo that choice just as fast.

Your advantage may be summed up as the ability to show patience, which can be difficult for many of us who are attracted to the stock market, but it is an edge, whether you have the discipline to use it effectively is up to you.

So along those lines, as we have stalked many trades, many that are still open and profitable on a long term basis, I present NFLX as a possible long trade that looks like it wants to come to us.

 It's difficult to say whether NFLX has formed a longer term "W" bottom going back to late 2011, but even the bottom at June 2012 looks to be a formidable base.

 This recent run up is the area we are concerned with and targeting for a pullback, I won't go through all of the intraday timeframes, suffice it to say the 15 min above and 30 min below suggest a decent pullback. Because of the positioning of longer term charts, I believe we will see positive divergences in to the pullback, this would make NFLX an interesting buy candidate on price weakness and 3C strength.

 30 min neg. divergence.

 The 60 min chart's leading positive divergence suggests NFLX has barely started the move up.

 As does the 4 hour, thus  buying a pullback could be a very interesting, low risk, high probability trade.

As for some target areas...
 The X-Over Screen suggests targets between $70-$75.

The Trend Channel suggests $77.50, however with a 30 min negative divergence, I would expect a deeper move. I think 3C should show us where and when positive divergences make NFLX a high probability long, I'd keep this one on your radar.


3C for ES continues deteriorating

This suggests the afternoon fade we have seen recently.

The mid term intraday charts like 2, 3, 5 and even some 15 min timeframes, have not been supportive of this move at all, thus it looks very hollow and the market closer to the next closest thing to a short term trend, the pullback.

Comparative Analysis of Financials

3C is named such as a simple reminder, "Compare, compare, compare". Sometimes you'll be surprised where you find solid correlations that help you figure out what the path of highest probability is.

Here I'm comparing XLF (Financials) vs. FAS (3x leveraged long Financials) which should look similar to XLF and the 3rd comparison is FAZ (3x leveraged short Financials), which should look like the mirror opposite of XLF and FAS.

What I've found is good confirmation between the 3 in multiple timeframes. It also appears that the divergences and the timeframes thy occur on support the view of the next trend being a short term pullback, however, XLF, like many of the averages, has the 15 min chart in an important area in which a short term pullback could turn in to something more dramatic tot he downside. The longer term charts which are not here because they don't quite apply yet, still suggest 1 move higher and likely a strong one before the Primary bear trend re-aserts itself and we move from shop to a more trending market.

 XLF intraday 1 min is pretty much in line, we are starting to see these 1 min charts fall apart as per the last post.

 XLF 2 min leading negative

 FAS 2 min leading negative

 FAZ 2 min leading positive

 XLF 3 min leading negative


 FAS 3 min leading negative

 FAZ 3 min leading positive

 XLF 5 min leading negative

 FAZ 5 min leading positive

 FAS 5 min leading negative (like XLF)

 XLF's 15 min chart is in a negative area already, however should it worsen, the near term outlook would likely have to be revised.

At 30 min XLF is largely in line and longer term doesn't look as bad, this suggests that there is still a trend up after a pullback and before the primary trend re-emerges.