August 2003 Archives

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)

Some Investor's Business Daily/William O'Neil/How to Make Money in Stocks fans may want to check out the IBD MeetUp. I just discovered that one is going on tonight. I won't be able to make that one, but I may try to check it out next time around. Here's what's on the agenda:

• Anyone interested in how to determine the right pivot price?


• Learn how others are using investors.com and Daily Graphs Online to time their buys and sells.


• Alternative entry points to maximize profits on the cup w/handle strategy.

If you're wondering what MeetUp is, see the 'About MeetUp' page.

MaoXian has done a Q&A series entitled 'Trading for Dummies'. It may be a good review during this dull market.

Update: Just in case anyone is taking the title of that Q&A series too seriously, MaoXian has this to say: "I want to make clear that I'm not being condescending calling that series 'Trading for Dummies' since its main function is to keep this Dummy (I'm the #1 Dummy!)trading on the straight and narrow."

Here are some more blogs that contain trading and/or stock market information. This is a continuation of the list I made back in May. These have been on my blogroll for a while, but I thought I'd highlight them here.

• The Capital Spectator


• The Learning Curve


• Stable Value


• Stingy Investor


• The Gagalac Style - Charles has merged his stock blog, It's All About the Benjamins, into this blog. If you like, you can filter the stock market commentary via his archives by category.

Note: Here is a more comprehensive, continually updated list of stock market/trading blogs.

It was a pretty listless day today. Volume was extremely light and the indices closed near unchanged levels. About the only thing of interest was the S&P 500 bouncing off of its 50-day moving average. Given that this is a vacation week for many I doubt we'll see much action unless some news breaks.

We certainly had an action packed day on Friday. The market was already flashing signs of a reversal, based on all the bearish candlesticks I mentioned Thursday night. It looks like Intel's news may have provided the spark to exhaust this latest rally attempt. We had a textbook one-day reversal on Friday, and all the major indices made bearish engulfing patterns.

I've been keeping a close watch on the S&P 500 and marvelling at how it just would not participate in last week's rally. The weekly chart illustrates how flat the S&P 500 has been since June. Note how many bearish candlesticks (spinning tops, doji, and hanging men) there are since June and that we haven't had a weekly close over 1,000:

It's also worth noting that the financials have been lagging considerably. They really fell apart on Friday -- not what the bulls want to see.

Intel just lit a fire under the futures this morning. The NASDAQ futures have jumped from -2 to +19 after Intel raised their third quarter guidance. Should be a wild one today.

The market is still in full bull mode, but the trading got really choppy today. Even after the alleged trading error in the morning, the market couldn't manage to ramp even after the white hot August Philadelphia Fed index was released at noon. Yet the NASDAQ managed to make a new 52-week closing high and it took out the June intraday high. Briefing.com has been saying that momentum players would be 'gunning for shorts' in this dull late August market and that seems to be what's going on. The NASDAQ keeps lurching higher while the S&P and Dow have been basically flat for the last 3 days. It'll be interesting to see what happens when that strategy stops working. Bottom line is that we're still in overbought territory and a good number of shooting stars, doji and spinning tops were created today.

Isn't it odd how we only hear about these trading errors when they cause the market to drop? From Briefing.com:

11:29 ET Dow quickly rebounds 25 pts; Goldman Sachs futures desk error blamed for intraday rollover

11:23 ET Market tank blamed on erroneous trade by Goldman Sachs -- rumor

11:21 ET Dow plunges 40 pts in just 5 min

Surely these types of errors happen on the buy side, but I can't remember ever hearing about one.

The market continues to hold on to its gains of the last week very well. It certainly feels like there's a ton of support just underneath current levels. The S&P 500 seems to be drawn to the 1,000 level like it's a magnet. The Dow is acting similarly with 9,400. We're still short-term overbought territory though, so I can't get too excited about the upside from here unless we cool off a bit.

On a different note -- I was just looking at the S&P 600 and the Value Line Index, and was very surprised to see that they both are near all-time highs. Both of these indices are saying 'what bear market?' and 'what bubble?'.

It looks like the ever-lasting trading ranges on the indices might finally be resolved. The Dow and SOX launched out of their ranges to notch new 52-week highs. Meanwhile the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are approaching the upper bounds of their ranges. About the only thing lacking today was volume, which was below average. I'd expect a move like the Dow had to come on explosive volume, but it is the middle of August... So the question now is will these moves have any follow-through. I should also point out that the VIX got crushed today and closed at levels not seen since April 2002. The VXN got hit even worse today and is now at 1998(!) levels.

Update: I just got emailed this article, Dow Breakout Might Not Mushroom, which makes some excellent points about this current move. (thanks Duru)