Friday, October 5, 2012

IWM / SRTY

The IWM is starting to fall apart as I suspected it would, I may enter a position in SRTY for a quick trade if the conditions are right and we have enough time in the day left for the conditions to be right.

I'll show you what I'll be looking for, but it really has most to do with SRTY having a big enough base to make the trade worthwhile, otherwise it's just a likely head fake move in IWM out of the range and back in to it.

 Remember the strong volatility in the IWM intraday chart from earlier? We have a decent looking 1 min positive divergence that should send the IWM up intraday, it really doesn't matter if it makes a new high or falls short, it's more about time and lateral or consolidation trade to allow SRTY to put together a stronger base to move from.

 IWM 2 min leading negative , the 1 min positive isn't seen here because it's not strong enough to be seen here, it's more or less intraday movement.

 The 3 min chart is seeing the deterioration from the 2 min migrate over and this is now leading negative and also was relative negative at the IWM's intraday highs today.

 That weakness is migrating to the 5 min chart.

 Remember the first market update of the day, the IWM 10 min is what I was interested in? I'd like to see the negative divergences of the intraday charts to move to the 10 min, that would suggest a bigger move worth taking a shot at.

SRTY-3x short the IWM
 The 1 min chart saw a lot of fast moving strength build in at its lows today, obviously I don't want to chase this, I want it to come down a bit and build a stronger positive divergence, that's where I'd be interested in a quick trade here.

 The migration of the positive divergence from the 1 min SRTY chart is now on the 2 min

 and  the 5 min

And also the 10 min, but unless it pulls back offering a better entry/less risk and most importantly, a stronger positive divergence and base to move from, then it's just more of a sugar rush move.

If you are interested, you might set some price alerts for a pullback, we still have plenty of time in the day.

AAPL Update

 AAPL 1 min chart since yesterday's afternoon rally attempt which failed, also the current 1 min divergence although 3C hasn't turned up yet, I suspect it will and the divergence will be put in for some intraday strength to build.

 The 60 min chart, it was several days ago I posted about the probability of symmetry in AAPL, although a sloppy formation, it's tighter than usual as I suspected because of the parabolic move up through 2012 which should reverse with a "U" shape daily pattern, that means this H&S price pattern needs to be tighter. We have what looks like 3 left shoulders, possibly 2 and we already have 2 right shoulders as AAPL approaches the neckline which is probably why 3C is starting to show a positive divergence/support in the area. I'd really like to re-enter the short in AAPL at the top of a shoulder, not on a break below the neckline, there's less risk at the top of a shoulder and a better entry.

 The 2 min chart coming off the last shoulder's top, negative at the top, a positive divergence yesterday in to the afternoon and I already showed how that move failed with a negative divergence. In contrast, this current 2 min "possible" positive divergence is quite small, I suspect AAPL will spend some time today chopping laterally to allow the divergence to build for what I think will be 1 more shoulder.

 The trend in the 3 min chart is exactly what you'd expect to see in a price formation like this, it starts out not so bad and becomes progressively worse as you can see it has by the time the head is formed.

And finally a 15 min chart which has some influence with the two right shoulders, this chart looks stronger than it probably is as they had to through in quite a bit of support to halt that slide from the top of the head, but it's also strong enough that I would think the probability is for at least 1 more shoulder, hopefully it's a bit bigger and gives us a bit more time to work with.

Futures update


I like to see this, the S&P futures 3C signal has been accurate for them, the NASDAQ futures 3C signal has been accurate for it, the QQQ is saw a negative divergence and fell, guess why... AAPL. There are some initial intraday signs AAPL is going to make an intraday move up as the 1 min is now positive and moving toward the 2 min chart. As I mentioned last night, I did think AAPL would see some weakness, but Ido not think it's done with its move ultimately and where I'd like to re-enter the short position that was closed.

 ES-S&P mini futures are perfectly in line between price and 3C, not really doing much though since the NFP.

 On the other hand, 3C was negative on the NASDAQ futures and they have fallen below the pre-NFP levels.

 Here's the intraday dip in the QQQ, you may recall the negative divergence intraday at the intraday highs for the QQ before they fell.

 Here's the QQQ 1 min relative (weaker divergence) positive divergence.

The 2 min chart is starting to move toward a relative positive as well with AAPL, I do wonder though if this 3 min chart will be able to go positive, if not then I'd probably be looking at a quick TECS trade.

IBM Follow Up

Since starting a short position in IBM (about 1/3 of a normal size position so that I can add on price strength, underlying 3C weakness), the position in only down -0.24%, about a quarter of a percent. I still haven't quite seen the move that I'd like to add in to, but we may be coming close and the underlying action remains encouraging.

 This is Don Worden's Moneystream, I have profound respect for the man as he was the first to create money flow indicators, everything that followed from OBV to MoneyFlow all originated with his work on Tick Volume which he sold to Wall Street decades ago. Although MoneyStream gives reliable signals, they tend to be short on details and not well suited for intraday timeframes, but we can see a double top in IBM's price action with a leading negative MoneyStream signal (red box) that is also relative negative between the two tops (red arrow). I like to use MS once in a while to confirm what I'm seeing in 3C.

 Here's the double top-not textbook, but they never are. In Technical Analysis a well formed double top sees a lower second top than the first, that's nearly 100 years old and gets manipulated by Wall St. as technical traders do the same thing they've been doing for 100 years with patterns like this. The more common double top, like the double bottom sees a false breakout on the second top that creates a bull trap. There are reasons for this such as the breakout opening up supply which can be shorted by institutional money in size without raising any suspicions and they can do it at a better price. Also when the top fails, the bulls who are trapped at a loss start selling adding o supply and downside momentum, this is why head fake moves have so much momentum initially as they snowball.

There was a perfectly formed Bull Flag in September so I expected that to break to the upside and now we are lingering at the top's resistance, a break above on continued negative signals is where I'd like to add, the same way we entered all of the core short positions.

 On a 30 min chart since the breakout from the bull flag, another bullish price pattern has formed, it's sort of like a bull flag, except instead of a flag, it's more of a bullish ascending triangle, a break above this is where I'm interested in adding to IBM.

 On a shorter term 2 min chart, the trend of 3C during the formation of this bullish price pattern has been a leading negative divergence, some traders will buy the price pattern in anticipation, but most will wait for confirmation of a breakout.

 The 3 min chart has a bit more history and the trend there is negative at the flag portion of the daily bull flag seen at the dates of the white box, the more recent ascending triangle is seen at the dates of the yellow box and again we have a leading negative divergence during the formation of the price pattern.

 The 15 min chart shows the entire first bull flag as it went leading negative at the flag portion and has gone deeper leading negative at the recent triangle.

The 60 min chart probably shows the trend the best and is the most influential of these charts except maybe the daily, IBM was trading in line or with 3C confirmation as it moved up until the bull flag was formed, that's the first place it went negative and leading negative. At the second smaller price pattern in effect now, the indicator has dropped to a new leading negative low.

I'd set some price alerts for a break out to the upside as it can happen quickly, I'll double check to see everything is still negative and look for the entry/add to.

Volatility-Market Update

There's some interesting volatility, apparently the NFP reaction isn't as simple as conventional wisdom. We're just coming out of the deceptive a.m. trade so things should get more interesting, but for now....

 IWM intraday 1 min seeing some deep volatile moves so far

 NASDAQ futures intraday still holding that negative divergence that has sent them off their highs and below the NFP knee-jerk pop.

 QQQ also seeing some very volatile 3C swings with a relative negative divergence at the recent highs.

SPY leading negative intraday on the 1 min, also what I'd call volatile.

USO Did as Expected

USO's story has been a little strange this week, but despite the "reasons" why USO is said to have acted the way it has, thus far 3C has been right on it. Last night I expected a pullback in USO today from the signals, however I also showed you some longer term signals that are still healthy and therefore I don't think USO/Oil is done on the upside, still holding ERX (Energy) and there may very well be a chance to pick up USO for at least a decent bounce move today.

 USO started accumulating Wednesday, it was knocked down in price if you recall on middle east news (the Syrian/Turkish skirmish/Iran inflation) at least that was the reason given, however earlier that day I had already mentioned USO would need to consolidate longer to get enough underlying support to make a move, accumulation continued at lower prices Wednesday and by yesterday USO had taken back all of Wednesday's decline/gap down to close near Tuesday's close. Yesterday there was negative divergences in USO as you can see and last night I suspected it would pullback, but a pullback and decline are two different things, I still think this is more likely a pullback which means we may be able to pick up some positions at a lower cost basis and risk for a continued move higher.

 USO from in line on the move up yesterday to a negative divergence on a 3 min chart.

 The more important 5 mi shows the positive divergence at the lows in USO and is in line with price.

The more important 10 and 15 min charts have a leading positive component to them and haven't seen any deterioration from the shorter timeframes, this is why I think USO can move higher.

I'd like to see the short term charts look more constructive, indicating some accumulation of the pullback, then I'd consider a USO long.

S&P and NASDAQ Futures

This is somewhat interesting as well, both saw a 4-5 a.m. EDT positive divergence this morning, the S%P futures are stuck in line with price, the NASDAQ 1 min futures don't look as good. The ES 5 min negative still remains in place as well.

 ES positive divergence this morning at the dip around 4-5 a.m. EDT. Thus far 3C price action is just in line, not much movement since the NFP.


The NASDAQ futures saw the same positive divergence at the same time this morning, but have a distinctly more negative look to them.

Opening Indications

Still very interesting, the only average to really confirm on the open was the IWM / Russell 2k, although the DIA was close as well as least on the 1 min.

To see how these charts develop today and in coming days is going to be fascinating, the minutes "may" have been more important than the policy action itself.

 DIA 1 min close enough for confirmation of the open...

 The damage however from yesterday was stronger than any opening move thus far so no confirmation there.

 The 5 min DIA damage from yesterday, note that almost all of the damage is after the 2 pm minutes were released.

 The IWM 1 min confirming perfectly on the open.

 Yet again though the 2 min chart didn't have enough underlying action to confirm.

The 10 min chart is in line in the IWM and therefore will be the one I'm most interested in today.


 QQQ 1 min didn't confirm the open.

 Nor id the 2 min that went negative on the afternoon failed rally attempt.

 The 10 min QQQ is starting to deteriorate, I'll be interested to see if this one keeps up as well.

 SPY 1 min with zero opening confirmation.

 2 min chart with damage starting around the 2 pm release yesterday of the minutes.

The 5 min chart in the SPY and ES futures were both negative.

Today could be very interesting as far as a totally new dynamic in the market.

GLD Drops

A bit fascinating, although not a huge move and way too early to tell if a new post-minures dynamic is in play, but Gold is probably the most sensitive QE asset out there and it drops on a good NFP print, "Good news is bad?"

We saw the negative divergences in both GLD and YG (gold mini futures yesterday...

 5 min chart of this a.m.'s open in GLD

 The daily chart with 2 previous failed breakout attempts or head fakes...

Yesterday's negative divergence in GLD...

And the 5 min 3C divergence in the YG-gold futures that continued through the night.

Still holding GLL.

NFP Beats

Non-Farm Payrolls came in just right, 114k on consensus of 115k , a slight beat that sends the unemployment rate to 7.8% on consensus of 8.2!?!?

Last month's 30 year low in the Labor Force Participation Rate bumped up from the 65.6 to 65.5.

Something is a little out of place, but that's not my concern, after all it is an election year.

 The initial knee jerk reaction is a 7+ point move higher in ES Futures, about the same as what we've seen since the close yesterday.

There was a small positive divergence at the 5 a.m. lows, everything else is about in line.

I know it would be a hard habit to break since for so long "Bad news was good news" was the line, but I do wonder after the F_O_M_C talked about their possible new yardstick for policy if we'll see a "Good news is bad" reversal?