Today on the Marketbeat: 400pt Rally....No comment

Closing #"s

DOW: +418 to 8,996

S&P: +35 to 942

NASDAQ: +75 to 1,703

RUS2K: +29 to 531

TSX/S&P: -23 to 9,300

VIX: -1.84 to 67.38

Internals: 

Core Sector List: 14/2 To the Bulls

-NYSE-

Breadth: 3.5/1 Positive

Trin: 0.77

A/D Line: +1235

-NASDAQ-

Breadth: 6/1 Positive

Trin: 0.32

A/D Line: +1236

Today on the Marketbeat: 400pt Rally....No comment

Today was a prime example of how into expiration we generally witness some bullish action, especially towards the day of expiration. The Dow and S&P500 both closed up about 4% today (Dow up 418, S&P up 35), however this is only half of the tale of the ticker. If you were to look at the intra-day price action (which we all know I do) you would notice that the low of the day today was 8190 on the YM, and the high/close was 9006, this amounts to a intraday swing in the broad exchanges or about 820 pts roughly. That is huge bullish action in the midst of a strong bear market. As we are most likely to see more bearish selling probably tomorrow or early next week, this is still good bullish action. 

What gave this bull rally the juice to run was of course the internals. The NYSE and NASDAQ breadth ripped out of a double helix day towards 3pm and didn't look back. The A/D lines for both he NYSE and NQ also put in respectable gains today, while the TICK pushed above zero for a good part of the after noon. The Trin(s) paved the downward trend pointing to possible bullish action. All these combined with a sharp eye on the Futures and one could see a slightly choppy, but bullish rally none the less. 

The real question is how do we take what we saw today, and this week and use it to move forward? The answer is as always, let the market show its hand and play off what we see. 

Starting From Scratch:

Today I like to take some time to discuss weekend homework. I have found myself personally slacking on my weekend studies since we are in such a volatile market right now. I justify myself in doing a lil bit of market homework on the weekend, usually Sunday night, listen to some videos, and calculate my pivots. However, there is no excuse for being unprepared. The fact of the matter is we do not know when the market will rebound, could be months, or weeks. So a healthy weekend routine is critical to staying on top of your game. 

Here are some changes to my weekend routine I plan on making this weekend.

1) Number 1, I will start working on weekend watch lists, now the source of your tickers doesn't matter, what matters is the personal homework you perform on each lead you get. 

2) Secondly, I will make sure that all that can be done ahead of time, is done before Sunday (ie: Pivots [can be plotted Friday night, notes on week also can be completed Friday) these are issues that don't necessarily take a lot of time out of your day, but they defiantly take your mind off the present. 

3) Next I'd like to take some time to develop an idea of what could go on in the coming week. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not in the business of predicting trends, bottoms, tops....What I mean is using technical analysis, I plan on getting a picture of what could happen, giving me outlooks for bullish or bearish swings. This way I have plans for both ways, as to help not getting married to a side.

4) Lastly, during the early weekend, when I am calm, composed and able minded, Id like to set aside at least 1h during the whole weekend to learn about something new. For instance this weekend I plan on working on my Forex trading, developing plays, methods and trading plans for it. This is something that will help any trader as in the world of Finance there's a saying.."You don't know, what you don't know" so there is always room for learning. 

One other thing that I will do is listen to different media feeds on the coming week, my Two favorite feeds are both free to receive and offer great advice. 1) is The Marketcast, which is provided by Investools and is available on Podcast through Itunes for free, just search Marketcast in the Itunes store under podcast. 2) Is the Shadowtraders Sunday video, this has been a bit of a saving grace for me when I find the time to watch it. It isn't long, usually no more than 10 minutes. And what they do is run down quickly what happened the week prior and discuss possibilities for the next week. Very key. 

Once again I hope that these ideas can help, and maybe offer a bit of insight different from yours. 

Today on the Marketbeat: The Itsy-Bitsy Spyder gets washed out....agian

Market #'s @ Closing:

DOW: -735 to 8,577

S&P: -79 to 918 

NASDAQ: -128 to 1,650

RUS2K: -42 to 512

TSX/S&P: - 616 to 9,339

VIX: +13.56 to 68.69

Internals:

Core Sector List:  16/0 to the Bears

NYSE

Breadth: 50/1 Neg

Trin: 4.08

A/D Line: -2512

NASDAQ

Breadth: 40/1 Neg

Trin: 6.74

A/D Line: -1262

Another day, yet another drop down to lows. Today's price action is perfect for anyone owning puts or is short the market. We saw the market gap down and leave that gap unfilled, with the bears growling the whole way down. An interesting point of interest is that with a Fibonacci retirement on the SPY 10-day, hourly chart from the recent highs and the lows, today's action brought us right below the 61% fibo line. This could speak volumes for tomorrows price action. We could be in for a little short covering then a big slide down. 

See SPY 10Day Chart (Click to enlarge)

Under the hood we saw internals act very accordingly to the price action, wit the breadth closing at the highs for the day, around 40 and 50 to one negative, which is huge. The A/D lines have shown negative strength alongside the TICK spending most of the day below the 0 mark. All these signs point to more negative action, so if we see a pop tomorrow, be cautious and remember sell into strength in a bear market. 

Starting From Scratch:

Today I'd like to discuss the internals a bit. If your a intraday trader, internals are probably some of the most important things to watch, other than price action and volume. In fact thats what the internals measure, price action and volume. Having tools that show the trader what is going on behind the scenes can give an experienced trader a heads up on potential swings. 

The internals I use on a daily base are chartable on the TOS (Think or Swim - Click here to go to their site). Im pretty sure they are plotable on other services. 

Ive attached a Thumbnail of my internal setup, Click the thumbnail to enlarge and see in detail

These are how they are plotted on TOS charts

1) I set up my grid charts for 3 x 2 (3 across, 2 down) giving me 6 box charts to work with. 

2) The first two boxes I place /YM (Mini Down Future) and /ES (E-mini S&P Future)

3) The rest of the boxes are as follows on my chart - next to the ES is the TICK ($TICK for charts). The Tick measures the Up/Down ratio of stocks on the NYSE exchange. one thing you might want to do is add price channel lines @ +/- 600/800/1000, when you see a 5min tick close at either +/- 1000 you can expect to see a turn around soon, depending on the bias of the day. 

4) The bottom row consists of the NYSE Breadth ($UVOL compared against $DVOL) which measures the sentiment of the volume, is there more negative volume than positive? this tool tells you.

5) The Trin ($TRIN) takes up the bottom middle box. This tool usually acts as a counter trend basis. When the market moves up it should be moving down. What to watch in this is not the levels, but the trends

6) Lastly I have the Advance decline graph. This measures the advancing issues compared to the Declining issues on the NYSE. This is the tool you might hear the Shadow trader call A/D Line. Again its used in the same manner as the Breadth, watching for convergences and levels. 

I hope this helps anyone who needs to add a lil under the hood action to their trading. If you have any questions don't be shy I can help you as much as I know. hit me up at Daizonend@gmail.com

Today on the Marketbeat: Gap Fills and Spills

Market #'s @ Close:

DOW: -76 to 9,310

S&P: -5 to 998

NASDAQ: -65 to 1,779

RUS2K: -16 to 554

TSX/S&P: +890 to 9,955

VIX: +0.5

Internals:

Core Sector List: 11/5 Bear - weak: software, home, internet

NYSE:

BREADTH: 1/1

TRIN: .75

A/D LINE: 

NASDAQ:

BREADTH: 5.1/1

TRIN: 3.03

A/D LINE:

Today on the Marketbeat: Gap Fills and Spills

Today's price action was nothing like yesterdays blow out rally, that saw the market melt upwards in a large fashion. However, today's action was not as bearish as the weeks that have passed, and is still a welcome change to the triple digit losses we saw for what seemed to be forever. Now, this is not to say that the woodshed season is over, but the market seems to have found some bulls out there to catch some bids. As I thought, the market gaped up again today from the strength of yesterdays rally spilling into today's action, as well as all the Treasuries being open today. However that gap was quickly shorted and filled before 11. After that, the market just stalled out and it wasn't until a quick break of the daily pivot point that the market swinged back up closing very close to yesterdays close

Under the hood, Internals painted a beautiful picture for any day trader looking for some intra day plays. The Breadth switched leaders a couple times of the day ending wit the bears up but near parody, however on the NASDAQ breadth, it was more bearish (closing around 5/1 negative). The core sector list came in at 11 to 5 for the bears. 

Today Id like to start a new section of my blog for newer students. Its called Starting from Scratch. And what I wanna do is go over ideas that can help a new trader, or give a little reminder for older traders. 

Today's idea is how to map pivot points: These lil suckers are perfect for day traders playing the indexes, or swing traders looking for the perfect entry/exit on their trades. Bottom line is they are influenced by price and they are not so much an indicator as they do not lag. 

Pivot Point = High + Low + Close(Settlement) /3

R3 = High + 2(Pivot - Low)

R2 = Pivot + (R1 - S1)

R1 = (2*Pivot) - Low

S1 = (2*Pivot) - High

S2 = Pivot - (R1 - S1)

S3 = Low - 2(Hi - Pivot)

Input these figures into Excel, and all you have to do is input the levels, using intra day data for the high and low, and for the settlement i suggest you use these two links for the proper #'s - 

http://www.cme.com/html.wrap/wrappedpages/end_of_day/daily_settlement_prices/es.html?h=1

http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page/0,3181,1560,00.html

As they are they official numbers, but Feel free to your the High and low from your charts if you wish, remember intra day numbers will give you more tight pivots as 24hr data can lead to large pivot gaps. 

Also for anyone having issues with the Shadow Trader feed, feel free to try this link 

ShadowTrader Live

Today on the Marketbeat - Bulls, Bears & Turkeys

Market #'s @ Close:

DOW: +948 to 9,387 11%

S&P: +91 to 990  11%

NASDAQ: +170 to 1,820

RUS2K: +38 to 561

TSX/S&P:  Closed

VIX: -15 to 54

Internals:

Core Sector List: 16/0 Bulls

NYSE

A/D Line: 2489

TRIN: -

BREADTH: 19/1 Positive

NASDAQ

A/D Line: 2147

TRIN: 0.22

BREADTH: 29/1 Positive

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As we celebrate Thanksgiving up here in the great white north, we have alot to be thankful for. For being around to trade another day after last weeks mega clear out sale on Wallstreet. Also for seeing some green on the board today as my stomach adjusts from all the Turkey ive ingested over the weekend. As you should already know, the markets jumped to a early start last night, gapping up big last night. Although it made most of the move pre-market (breakaway gap = professional move), it shouldnt of been too much of a shock with the massive oversold levels from last week that we would see a large spike up. The Vix continued to show that it is the king, dropping a bit off the highes put in last week, but not breaking the trendline yet. 

Chart of the VIX (Click to enlarge):

Under the hood, internals were for the first time in a lil while, in the green, with the breadths clear to the bulls, closing @  . The A/D line improved off the terrible lows of last week gaining _ ticks. While the tick was enjoying a day in the positive side, closing near . The only sign of possible weakness comign from the internals today was the core sector list, where the banking index and the _ index pulled into red territory during the day, showing sings that there is still weakness in key areas in this market.