Today just about all the action happened in the pre-market and the first hour of trading. At the open the indices tested the lows from earlier in the week and quickly rallied back to fill in the opening gaps. If you missed the open you might think today was a rather dull day. While that was an impressive stand by the bulls the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq still couldn’t muster enough strength to close above their lower Bollinger Bands. Let’s see if the bulls can build upon today’s successful test of support.
Here’s the Nasdaq chart:
I decided to show the SPY chart today instead of $SPX since SPY shows the opening gap.
The SPY chart also shows that the S&P closed well above the open. The $SPX chart below shows the opposite which is certainly NOT what happened. This is why you can’t do proper candlestick analysis with charts of indices which contain NYSE stocks. The staggered opens usually create a false opening price on the index charts.
Likewise, here’s DIA instead of the actual Dow chart:
And finally, the Russell 2000:
No changes
| Trend | Nasdaq | S&P 500 | Russell 2000 |
| Primary | Up | Up | Up |
| Intermediate | Down | Down | Down |
| Short-term | Down | Down | Down |
(+) Indicates an upward reclassification today
(-) Indicates a downward reclassification today
Lat Indicates a Lateral trend
{ 12 comments }
First article listed below this: “Managing Account Growth” – is this ‘TraderMike humor’ today? We need some good laughs, thanks.
:d
Finally some charts that explain the last two days.
Thanks, TM
Z-STOCK
google “z-stock esrx”, to find my link.
Mike,
What % of people who try daytrading for a living succeed? I lost my job today, have been studying the markets for quite some time, and feel I could do it. . But, there is always someone on the other side of the clicker thinking they are smarting than you when you make a trade. . Just curious, do you trade for a living??
Yes I do trade for a living. I don’t know what percentage of traders succeed but it’s probably pretty small, not unlike many other start up businesses
thanks Mike, could you tell me what “fade the gap” means. .I hear you use it from time to time.
Thanks, Kevin
Mike,
I’m pretty new at this. Where does one go to get the basics such as reading reading candlestick charts. I need the foundation before I can “build up.”
Kevin — fade means to go against. So fading the gap means buying a gap down and shorting a gap up. You exit the trade when the gap closes or, of course, when you get stopped out at a predetermined loss. The details of the gap fades I do are in John Carter’s book.
DeltaChi,
The first result of a Google search for “learn candlestick charts” looks like a good place to start. StockChart.com has a good tutorial as well. After you’ve read those and if you want to go deeper, the best way, IMHO, is to read Steve Nison’s book, ‘Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques’
Thank you. I’ve been on this blog for a matter of hours and I’m addicted. I just keep clicking to the next link of every one of your pages. I can’t wait to get past the “kid in a candy store” feeling that has overcome me and just go back and actually read and study all the wealth of info you have and your links have. This is just what I was looking for! Thanks for what you do here!
you’re welcome
Thanks for the posts, Mike. Things kind of calmed down toward the end of the week, but I don’t think the fireworks are over yet. After everyone is lulled back to sleep, I think the bears will come out of hibernation again.
Regards,
Dirk:)>-
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