February 2006 Archives

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart:

Below is a chart of IFN for Dennis who wrote:

I’m new to all this so please forgive if necessary. I’ve been investigating several ways to play the emerging Indian market.

One of the ways would be to enter long a closed-end fund, ticker IFN. Problem is that this closed-end fund is trading at a >20% premium over the NAV of the fund (and index) it is based upon. Even still, today it (nearly) touched its all-time high (of about a month ago) of 49.95. My feeling is that, based on the chart, it should be good for a 5-8 point pop if it breaks through its all-time high. Plus, President Bush is supposed to visit India in early March, which should attract some attention to the future possibilities.

I remember Cramer hyping South American stocks last year ahead of Bush's visit. I can't recall how that short term "hype" trade worked out though. Despite the "Bush effect' the trend is obvious up and the stock is threatening to breakout to new all-time highs. Given that, it's tough to argue against being long. My one concern is the volume action. I like to see stocks making and/or approaching new highs on strong volume. If it does make a new high on low volume that could be a sign of a head-fake in the making..

Here's the chart:

Erik wrote:

Could you please take a look at MET for me and tell me what you think. This is a high volume slow mover but I think it could be ready for a big push upward. It looks to me like it's been hovering around it's 50 moving average building strength with steady volume. Does candlestick analysis tell you anything.

Candlesticks are mainly used for identifying potential reversals. They're not telling me anything about MET right now, in the short or long term. The short term (daily) chart is a tough read. I see nothing but chop/consolidation. On Balance Volume has me a little concerned about the recent bounce off of the 50-day moving average though. But there's nothing in the chart that would make me take any action right now -- either getting in or out.

Here's the daily chart:

If I didn't know better I'd think that somebody wanted oil to stay above $60. ;-)

Potential swing trades:

Well this was a fitting end to another choppy month. The indices appeared to be on the verge of breaking out yesterday but tonight they're all well within their trading ranges. Even the Dow, which was leading the way, has slipped back under 11,000 and back into its old range. We had distribution days (higher volume selling) across the board today. It would be easy to blame the increased volume on Google but that wouldn't explain the distribution in the S&P 500 nor the Dow. I won't make too much of the distribution day though -- the overall technical picture is still pretty good (if you're a bull). I'm just looking forward to more range-bound trading in March. (not!)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and Google:

All I can say is "wow!" Here are some of the comments from George Reyes who spoke at a Merrill Lynch conference (from Briefing.com):

10:45 Google CFO:'A Lot' Of Growth Ahead,But Rate Is 'Question' - DJ (GOOG) 351.20 -41.79:
10:43 Google CFO Says 'I'm Not Turning Bearish At All' - DJ (GOOG) 354.96 -38.03:
10:43 Google: CFO says slowing growth won't be "precipitous" - Bloomberg (GOOG) 349.88 -40.90:
10:42 Google CFO: Slowing Growth Is 'Law Of Large Numbers' - DJ (GOOG) 348.00 44.99:
10:41 Google CFO:Local, Mobile Pdts Offer 'A Lot Of Opportunity' - DJ (GOOG) 349.00 -43.99:
10:38 Google CFO: Still 'Headroom' Left In Keyword-Ad Pricing - DJ (GOOG) 347.00 -45.99:
10:37 Google slips below 200-day sma at 340.71 (GOOG) 339.31 -51.07:
10:32 Google CFO: will have to find "other ways" to boost rev - DJ (GOOG) 357.41 -32.96:
10:31 Google CFO: Growth slowing, and now largely organic - DJ (GOOG) 362.75 -27.62:
10:31 Google drops hard on volume (GOOG) 364.00 -26.38:

And just when it looked like the Barron's story was terribly timed. Here's the 5-minute chart of the action:

Looks like a flat opening this morning. Of course I'm expecting the bulls to try to push the market to new highs today, with it being month-end mark-up time. So I'll be watching the action around yesterday's highs like a hawk (assuming the market gets there).

Potential swing trades:

After seeing the disastrous 'earnings' (losses) from Shanda Interactive (SNDA for the 'home gamers'). I went back to look at my January 10th read of the chart. I'm glad my friend took my advice to stay out b/c just as I feared, it's got stopped cold by its 50-day moving average -- the very next day after my post. But I'd forgotten that Cramer was partly responsible for the pop it had on the 10th. On January 9th he said:

WOW, MY EMAIL HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL. I RECOMMENDED THIS DOWN AND OUT CHINESE PLAY AT 16.00. I DIDNT' LIKE IT AT 40; I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT 30; AT 20, YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT. I WAIT UNTIL IT GOES TO 16, AND BECAUSE IT HASN'T MOVED YET, PEOPLE ARE MAD AT ME. HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! THIS STOCK'S DONE GOING DOWN. I SAY IT SEES 20.00 BEFORE IT SEES 15.00. DO A 'MON-BACK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES.

I guess Mr. "do your homework" either did his wrong or maybe the excitement of the lightning round made him forget all that helpful fundamental analysis he supposedly did on SNDA. 20 before 15? The trend would tell you that wasn't a wise bet to make. This is a great example of the chart telling you everything you needed to know -- although the fundamental story is pretty damn bad too. The company switches from a paid to a for-free, ad-based model and the earnings swing from a 38 cent/share profit to a net loss of 94 cents a share. How do you miss that in your fuzzy fundie analysis?

I wonder if he'll be wearing 'SNDA' on his forehead tonight or if he'll throw good money after bad and double down. Me... I still wouldn't tough it.

It looks like the 3 month long consolidation may finally be ending. The S&P 500 traded at a new 2006 high today but sellers stepped in and pushed it back under the January closing high. The Nasdaq's also within striking distance of its 2006 high. The month-end markup crew should have no problem pushing the indices to new highs tomorrow. ;-)

Here are charts of the S&P, Nasdaq, QQQQ and the BKX:

The QQQQ is gapping up this morning but it's still about 10 cents away from its 50-day moving average. That moving average has marked the high for the day each of the last two sessions. The Qs have not closed above the 50 DMA for all of February, so that level bears watching.

Potential swing trades:

Henry wanted a chart of Whole Foods:

What do you think of WFMI? I see some divergences in the MACD, Force Index, and Elder Ray indicators. They all have an upwards slope making higher lows while WFMI is making lower lows. It recently also bounced off support in the 61.50 area. You think its a good bet for a bullish reversal?

I don't use any of those indicators but if those have worked for you in the past and you see so many bullish divergences then the course of action seems clear to me -- "buy, buy, buy" as Cramer would say.

However, based on my rules and what I see in the chart I would not be looking to buy WFMI just yet. I'd like to see it back above its 200-day moving average before I even thought about buying it. I'd also like to see it make at least one higher-high -- right now that means above the February 16th high. I always want to look at price itself before any indicators that are derived from price.

Here's the chart: