Today on the Marketbeat - The Calm before the Storm ?

Market #'s @ Close:

DOW:   -19.59 to 10,831.07

S&P:    -3.68 to 1,161.06

NASDAQ: -12.93 to 2,069.40

RUS2K:  -8 to 672

TSX/S&P:-38 to 11,714

VIX:    +0.42 to 39.81

Internals:

NYSE

BREATH: 1.1/1 Neg

TRIN: 1.01

A/D LINE: -

NASDAQ

BREATH: 3/1 Neg

TRIN: 1.73

A/D LINE: -

Core Sector List: 10/6 to the Bears

Chart of /ES Futures (Click to enlarge):

The Calm before the storm ?

Today was a fairly quiet market day. The markets gaped down and continued that move until 11am when it hit S1, and then switched gears and filled the gap. That was probably the best setup play for the day (gap fill). After that it chopped into the close, most likely due to no one wanting to get in before the Congress vote tonight. 

Under the hood the internals were essentially slightly bearish all day long, the breaths never went green and the TICK essentially traded in the noise zone all day. The core sector list capped this chop day with a reading of 10/6 at the close (however it was 9/7 most of the day). 

News for Day: 

-W.Buffet buys a $3Billion dollar stake in General Electric (Ticker symbol: GE) at the set price of $22.50. Stock traded around $25 intra-day but closed around 24.

-Washington Mutual (WM) has changed its ticker to WAMUQ / Lehman Bros = LEHMQ

Unusual Options Activity:

BNI (nov puts) / UNP (Oct puts) / KEY / FDO / MOS / LVLT / RSG / CSX (oct 45 puts)

Stocks in Scope: GLD / 

Food 4 Thought:

- Setting up order templates on TOS - 

When trading, the less you have to think about your setups the more time you can spend watching the numbers. Also having a setup that is made before you even enter the trade can help eliminate emotions when trading. A good way to do this is find a certain setup that you use, for example we will use an entry with 1 Target and 1 stop. 

ex:  Going long the YM @ 10900 

Step 1) click the the ASK price, and place it to your trigger = 10900

Step 2) under the order click advanced order, then 1st Trig OCO

Step 3) Place your stop, and then your target to the upside. 

Now this once filled will have your target and stop which are triggered by the entry order. Also if your target is hit, the stop is canceled so you don't have to worry bout being stopped back into a play. 

Now you can save this setup by clicking the little disk next to the delete button and give it a name. This will put this order setup so that all you need to do is right click on the bid or ask and put in the order. Now all you have to do is set the parameters and you have an order that saves you time, and emotional trauma

_______________________________________________

Important Disclaimer! This website is for entertainment purposes only. Equities, Futures, Options, and Currency Trading have large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the futures and options markets. Absolutely do not trade with money you can't afford to lose. This website is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell equities, futures or options. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed in this website. The past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results. Absolutely consult your Registered Financial Adviser and your Risk Trading Plan before ever investing or trading any financial instrument!