The market got bad, then it got real bad. Sub prime problems have moved into the prime and corporate lending arena. A threat to prime lending would slow down large corporate buyouts as the necessary funding will become too expensive (and difficult) to obtain. The markets have been fueled over the last 18 months by the large M&A activity. A slow down of the M&A will only add to the already uneasy market. That is what happened Friday.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
The Day (and week) that Was - July 28th 2007
Posted by Fp80 at 7/28/2007 08:55:00 PM 3 comments
Labels: Market Summary
Updating Charts
Posted by Fp80 at 7/28/2007 05:38:00 PM 0 comments
The Day that Was
Had some computer repairs to do tonight. I will post the full "Day that Was" on Saturday.
The market action in the last 30 minutes was very 'gloom and doom' appearing. The smart money sat back all day and just did nothing. They let some of the stocks work their way up a bit and then they swooped down and took all the gains away. There is some genuine fear in the markets now. Fear that is going beyond just a simple market correction. I will post the charts and give my full analysis tomorrow (Saturday).
Good night Rebels...
p.s.: Thank you for the many nice comments and the emails I have received regarding my analysis of the markets. If I can help someone from losing money in the markets then I did a good job. If I help someone make money in the markets then I did an even better job.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/28/2007 01:25:00 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 27, 2007
A bad ending...
We saw some buying attempts throughout the day but each time it was shot down. At the end of the day bears just took over and there were no bulls in sight. On the DOW we closed right at support. Talk about cutting it close. That is "too" close for comfort.
I guess the statement from President Bush and his economic advisers this morning did nothing to boost the market. In my view their appearance probably hurt it. Just the fact that they made the dramatic effort this morning to say how great everything is was enough for the big money folks to take away that things may be worse. Big money is smart, they can't be fooled.
A full analysis of the charts tonight.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/27/2007 04:03:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Market Summary
Market Update
The bounce this morning has faded quick. May still see some buyers step in before the day ends to take home what they believe is some bargains.
Recall the charts I posted last night. Those support levels must hold!
Posted by Fp80 at 7/27/2007 12:14:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Market update
A bounce back swing trade idea
Posted by Fp80 at 7/27/2007 09:03:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: ABB
Pre Market - July 27th 2007
We had the GDP numbers a few minutes ago. Normally the numbers we got would move the market into the positive direction. But so far the futures are not reacting. Futures are down fairly large this morning.
At 9AM the US Government's financial team will be appearing on CNBC to answer questions and make some statements. Will they say anything to settle the market? In my opinion whenever the Government feels the need put their talking heads in front of a camera then things must be worse then they want us to know.. I am sure that President Bush's financial team will talk the talk and tell us how great everything is. For the small investor/trader community may be influenced by whatever they will say. However the big money (hedge funds,etc) know the real story. They read the charts and see what is happening. Charts are the x-ray into companies and the economy. I strongly believe that chart analysis is a "leading" indicator of events to come. So if the Government's talking heads talk up the economy take it with a bit of skepticism and believe your own analysis of the markets.
I think we will have some early buying today that will be followed by mid day selling and then the day will end with some last minute buying. That is how I see what may happen today. With the indices at a support region there will be the early buying from those playing the bounce. But there is still a lot of fear out there and any upward movement will be cashed in and send it back down. The end of the day will be key. If we end higher than where we open then we are on our way to a recovery (albeit short term). If we end lower than confidence will be lower going into next week.
I say short term recovery because we are back down inside the trading range we were in a couple weeks ago. Now that we are back "in the box" we are going to bounce around in there until something makes us break back up or fall out of the box and it gets worse.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/27/2007 08:37:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Pre Market Summary
Thursday, July 26, 2007
The Day that Was - July 26th 2007
And what a day is was indeed... I have some very interesting market analysis tonight. Be sure to check out all of the charts in this post!
In the pre market we had earnings from more home builders and as expected the results were terrible. Perhaps even worse than some were expecting. But one thing that stood out was that the housing problems appears to be spreading into the commercial construction now. This was further reinforced when the Durable Goods data was released this morning. It was showing capital expenditures had declined whereas business spending was concerned.
Then we also had today the growing fear that the sub prime (and now the prime) lending issues could erode some of the big M & A activity. Large company buyouts, mergers, etc. would be impacted by more problems in the lending sector. And today a lot of companies that are already in a takeover (but not yet finalized) pulled back some as investors were growing fearful that the money needed to make the acquisition may not be there now. This may be more fear than reality but it is still worth mentioning as it is important. Once private equity and/or other companies can't secure the assets they need to do take overs, mergers, and acquisitions then the bull market will then be running on only 3 legs.
These events sent the market into an outright selling frenzy. At the end of the day all three of the major indices recovered some but in my view this was not all bargain hunters stepping in to start buying. It was a lot of shorts covering at the end of the day to take their profits. When the major indicators today showed the panic selling was underway hedge funds and other very large money movers started shorting just about anything with downside room. And these hedge funds that shorted large amounts of money today made a good deal of cash today when in the last hour they started covering and banking their profits. Remember that on just about any down day that at 3pm you will see a bounce. The last hour is when shorts start covering and bargain hunters come in for the kill. Today I feel it was more short covering than bargain hunters.
So that is what got the selling started. Early in the morning RebelTrader swing trade NightHawk Radiology (NHWK) gaped up at the open (last night they released good earnings) but I quickly saw what was looking like heavy profit taking and the price was going to fall through the floor. So I sold my entire NHWK position. That swing trade provided me a 5% gain today. Later I added to my position on FEEC when it broke above the next buy point. Because of the market conditions today I raised my stop level to $1.60 so that if FEEC fell back too much I would exit the trade at break even. And that is what happened. FEEC is still good, I will re-enter when the time is right.
That leaves only one currently open swing trade and that is WWAT. And that is sitting today at a 16% gain.
Ok, now I'm going to move on to some in depth analysis of the market in general. Some of the things I'm going to say in the next few paragraphs may be a surprise. What I mean by that is some of my analysis goes against some of the talking heads on TV. But I call them like I see them and I feel we still have trouble ahead of us. There are some significant resistance levels that need to be overcome in order for me to believe that the tech sector is 'hot' as some are saying. I'll start off with that. The chart shown here is the "SOX" as we call it. It is the Semiconductor Index. Look at the chart and observe that currently we are right up against a resistance level. If the overall market continues to be weak then this resistance level will be strong and the index will turn around (and the tech stocks with it). If however the index is able to "break through" the resistance then I will be bullish on tech. But until it does tech remains questionable and I will trade it with extra caution.
This chart is the NYSE index of new highs - new lows ($NYHL). Look at this chart carefully. I have indicated where the bear market was and the current bull market is. But what I want you to notice is the blue trend line drawn above the new highs. See how over the past 3 years the trend has been declining. This tells me the economy is declining and taking companies with it as reflected in the decline of new highs over the past 3 years. Some interesting things to ponder.
Now I am not saying that we are on the verge of an outright bear market. But I am saying that we are at a difficult time and finding good swing trades will be tough. But I will do my best to find them for you. There is always money to be made... finding the right plays at the right time is what I am here to help teach you how to do.
Good night Rebels!
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 09:15:00 PM 7 comments
Labels: FEEC, Market Summary, NHWK, Technical analysis, Trading Education, WWAT
Market Update
There is nothing at all escaping the blood bath today. Even Apple is falling back and losing it's ability to hold onto the gains it obtained last night in after hours.
Some key support levels have been broken to the downside and this had increased the selling as investors were watching the key levels to hold. When they failed they put on their parachutes and jumped.
Tonight I'll do a sector analysis and post my results here.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 02:09:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Market update
FEEC - Update
Even with the market in a near meltdown today my swing trade on FEEC has reached the next buy point. I'm adding the remaining 1/2 of my swing trade at $1.67.
The original entry price was $1.56.
I will use $1.60 as my stop loss for FEEC. In this market I will not risk any large loss.
The market meltdown today seems to be leaving the OTC stocks untouched.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 12:05:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: FEEC
Trading collars are now in effect at the NYSE
Housing, banking, brokers, construction suppliers all sinking hard this morning.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 11:10:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Market update
NHWK
I'm selling NightHawk Radiology (NHWK). It has gapped up on good earnings but it looks like it will fade with the rest of the market. Selling at $21.06
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 09:34:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: NHWK
Durable Goods data
I said in my earlier post that construction problems were now spreading into the commercial sector. The durable goods data confirms this as capital expenditures has declined.
Keep your stops in place on any trades you have active. Remember, good traders and investors will always put a tourniquet on a loss. Never let a trade take you more than 8% in the red. 8% is the absolute maximum. Personally I try to limit my losses on a swing trade to no more than 4% (and sometimes even less depending on where support levels are).
Please.... never invest or trade on hope. That will erase your money. You invest and trade with a plan and that plan is to ALWAYS limit your losses. When a trade or investment does not work out you sell and move on. Don't keep holding it and think it will get better. What if it does not get better.. then you have an investment that starts out at a loss of say 10%... you say "no problem" it will turn around, then your down to a 25% loss. Now you say I can't sell here because it is too big of a loss to sell here. I'll just hold on and one day it will come back. Then your investment is down 50%. Never tell yourself I will hold and wait for a turnaround. Because you don't know if it will. Don't trade/invest on hope... Always have a plan and get out before your losses get bad. No matter how much you like a company or their products you never let that influence your investing smarts. If you go red you cut the loss and limit the risk to your capital.
So many investors fail because they fall in love with companies and think the companies will never do them wrong. Or they let their investment brokers tell them to keep holding on to a bad investment. Just like financial advisers were telling investors during the Enron collapse. Listen to your own logic and discipline, it is your money... not theirs.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 08:45:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Discipline, Market update, Trading Education
Pre Market - July 26th 2007
Home builders taking us down hard this morning. More home builders have reported earnings this morning and the construction sector just keeps getting worse. Revenues from home and commercial construction companies just keeps showing more gloomy data on the sector. We all know that the home construction is weak but the earnings results are showing some erosion in the commercial markets as well. Housing, construction materials, banks, mortgage lenders all suffering big and looks like even more drops in these areas are yet to come.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/26/2007 08:01:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Pre Market Summary
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
WWAT - Update
Breaking news.. I just received notification from my SEC Form 4 filing service that another large insider purchase has just been declared.
10% owner of WWAT (Quercus Trust) has purchased another $2,390,000 worth of shares.
Another good sign for the current WWAT swing trade. Someone sure has a lot of confidence in WWAT going forward.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 11:11:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: WWAT
The Day that Was - July 25th 2007
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 11:00:00 PM 0 comments
Apple - lowers forward guidance!
Tells of only 270K iPhones sold. And lowers earnings guidance for Q4
Will be interesting when trading resumes ..
It defies logic.. they guide significantly lower for Q4 but they trade higher.. Have I landed on Mars or what here??
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 04:50:00 PM 3 comments
Labels: AAPL
Western digital (WDC)
I'm selling WDC here now at $22.81.
The market is once again in the red and I feel it is getting weaker as the day goes on. WDC reports earnings after the market closes and I have a gain on WDC and I want to bank it. Holding through earnings adds an element of risk that I usually do not like to take.
As you get to know my trading style more and more you will see why I generally sell before earnings. There could be a good earnings and the stock will go up afterwards, but it could also go down. I have a gain right now. And a gain is a winner. Selling to lock in the gain.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 01:22:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: WDC
Early Market Gains fade to a loss
This is why I said last night I was not recommending taking on any new trades today. Had I entered a new swing trade this morning on what was looking like a bounce quickly faded back down to a loss. Today is not the kind of day for entering a new swing trade. Volatility is really up there again this morning and best to sit one out and just guard what trades are already open.
I will be selling WDC before the end of the day to avoid a potential loss when they report earnings. WDC could report good numbers but I am seeing way too much "sell the news" now with the market being questionable. People are taking the gains of a good earnings report and cashing out on the spike. WDC is a gain in the RebelTrader portfolio and I want to keep it that way. Can always come back in at a later date if it presents itself as another swing opportunity.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 11:37:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: Market update, WDC
Market can't keep it up...
The opening gains this morning are fading fast. Initial reaction on a reaction? Just does not look good. Confidence in the broad markets remains weak.
I don't need to worry about GRP anymore. GRP hit my stop point and my trade closed automatically. So that takes care of that.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 10:39:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: GRP
Grant Pridecco (GRP)
Current swing trade GRP is set to report earnings after the market closes today. Normally I would sell any swing trade before earnings are released to limit risk. I am currently calculating the downside risk if I were to hold through earnings. I am expecting GRP to report in line or better than expectations based on previous press releases and business updates from the company. And that the energy sector has been good over the previous few months and this should be reflected in this quarter.
Before the day is done I will post an update on my GRP position and if I will sell or hold before earnings.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 09:47:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: GRP
Secure Computing (SCUR)
SCUR reports their earnings tomorrow. I am still liking the chart pattern setup. The stock is poised to break through a trend line and when it will signal a new trend. The stock is trading up a bit ahead of the earnings but I am going to wait until after earnings to see where it goes. Then I will look at a possible entry.
SCUR Live Chart
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 09:42:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: SCUR
Web site updates
While the web site is being updated and worked on you might see some sections missing. This is only temporary and as the pieces come together I hope you will enjoy the results.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 08:33:00 AM 0 comments
Pre Market - July 25th 2007
Good Morning Rebels...
Futures are up this morning as a reaction bounce from yesterdays huge selling event. The question is just how strong will the reaction be? Can it overcome the sentiment that the financial and housing sectors just seem to keep getting worse? Yesterdays reaction to the news of problems spreading into the prime lending arena is a signal in my view that the anxiety levels in the market is extremely high and if this financial and housing woes continue to get worse than the market is going to go past just the occasional panic attack and will develop into a full blown depression. We have to trade with caution...
At 10am we will have existing home sales data released. Watch for more volatility in the market today. And of course we have a big show today when Apple releases their earnings. I said last night that my view is a red apple will be the result. Don't go shorting Apple on my view of this. Apple is too risky to trade in either direction here. I would wait until after Apple releases their data before deciding if you want to own Apple for a long term trade. If you buy ahead of earnings you are gambling and I leave gambling for Vegas.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 08:10:00 AM 0 comments
Please excuse the mess...
Posted by Fp80 at 7/25/2007 01:09:00 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Day that Was - July 24th 2007
Ouch... That is going to leave a mark!
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 09:48:00 PM 1 comments
Labels: AAPL, ALGN, Market Summary
Market Update
The intensity of the selling is huge here. Trading curbs have been put in place on the NYSE.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 03:36:00 PM 1 comments
Labels: Market update
CountryWide (CFC) conference call
The company executives in speaking of the housing situation said the following:
They are "seeing home price depreciation at levels not seen since the Great Depression"
This what has the market selling even faster now and essentially has the mortgage industry on the brink of a collapse in the view of some on the Street.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 02:39:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Market update
Market Update
There is not much one can say. We are down and down pretty hard. Selling pressure has been getting higher as the day advances. The conference call with CountryWide Mortgage (CFC) is gloomy. They are saying how bad the housing situation is. And said that home prices are falling.
This is not something the market wanted to hear.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 02:34:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Market update
ALGN - UPDATE
ALGN reports earnings tomorrow morning before the market opens. Today ALGN is having a pre earnings run. I'm selling into the strength and capture the 7.5% gains. Closing ALGN at $26.87.
Don't want to expose the gains to a possible earnings release with bad news. Selling into strength is the best thing to do as a swing trader.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 10:55:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: ALGN
Housing & Financial/Mortgage hit hard
Seeing Mortgage, banks, and building materials being hit hard. The news from CountryWide (CFC) this morning sent a big message on the housing market and financial lending health.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 09:51:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Market update
BIG - UPDATE
BIG has hit the stop. This market pullback is nasty. BIG closed at $28.20
I was getting tired of waiting for BIG to make its move. So getting stopped out is not such a bad thing..
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 09:42:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: BIG
Apple now selling hard
Was holding $140 but that has failed and now down to $137.50
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 09:08:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: AAPL
SONS - Update
Yesterday I said to watch SONS. The stock is setting itself up for a buy point crossing. I am cautious of entering any new positions today with the market volatility that I expect to be high today.
I expect to see a lot of companies pulling back today.
SONS live chart
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 09:02:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: SONS
Changes to the RebelTrader Site
Soon you will see the web site change to a 3 column style. This will allow me to shorten the length of the page and hopefully reduce the time needed to load my web site. It will also better able me to make it more organized.
This change is in the works.. I hope all will like it.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 08:54:00 AM 0 comments
Pre Market - July 24th 2007
Good Morning Rebels,
The big news this morning is earnings. The biggest one that will impact the markets today is from CountryWide (CFC). They missed earnings and cut their forward guidance. CFC is in the mortgage business so this is one more knife in the back of the financial sector. I see mortgage lenders and big banks having a down day today.
AT&T (T) reported this morning and they beat estimates but in the view of the investors it was "not enough". AT&T is trading lower in pre market. It is my view that investors were looking for bigger iPhone talk in their earnings. I don't think AT&T gave the investment community a good feeling about how the iPhone is working out for them. And on that note, this morning CIBC analyst has conducted a study to analyze how the iPhone sales have been doing. Their findings were that most stores had a good inventory and the demand for the iPhone is in a significant decline. Their analysts visited Apple stores and observed that most visitors were not looking at the iPhone and the demand was "thin at best". This news is causing Apple (AAPL) to sell off this morning in pre market. I said last week that $140.00 may be the short term top for Apple, and I did say "$140 give or take a little". Apple traded up to $ 145 but could not hold it and closed down to $143.70. In pre market Apple is trading down to $140.22. Is this the end of the Apple iPhone hype? To some investors it is and is why we are seeing the pull back in pre market. With Apple releasing their earnings this week Apple will be one of the most volatile stocks on the day of their earnings. Grab some pop corn and watch the trading on Apple on that day.. it will be a wild show.
I will be closing the ALGN swing trade today. They release earnings tomorrow morning and I'm not risking the gains to a potential earnings miss.
Futures are down and I see a volatile trading day today.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/24/2007 08:32:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: AAPL, ALGN, Pre Market Summary
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Day that Was - July 23rd 2007
The financial sector finally had some upward moves. That in addition to some good earnings pre market helped the market move into the green zone today. The DOW maintained the gain for most of the day however the S&P and the Nasdaq gave up some the of gains from the peak of the day around mid day. But at least it was an up day on all three of the major indices.
Also in the pre market was the news of the merger of Transocean (RIG) and Global SantaFe (GSF). A deal worth $53 Billion.
Today was just a taste of what is yet to come this week with many companies releasing their earnings. It will indeed be a busy week with companies reporting.
RebelTrader swing trades:
FEEC closed at $1.65, which is a gain of 5.7% from the entry price just this past Friday. When FEEC moves over $1.65 I will enter the second 1/2 of my swing trade.
WWAT continues to be a good mover. Closed today at $2.45 which is 33% up from my original entry point.
WDC closed up today at $22.89 and this swing trade stands at 12.3% gain from the original entry price.
NHWK closed up today at $21.36 and this swing trade is currently a 10.1% gain from the entry price.
I closed the AKS swing trade today because earnings are due tomorrow but the main reason is that there has been some recent earnings from other companies in this sector that had bearish outlook on the metals sector. I did not want to risk holding AKS through the earnings and possibly being exposed to bearish outlook from the company. AKS was closed at a break even (less than 1.0% gain).
The Rebeltrader portfolio continues to rack up good gains. Tomorrow I will continue to work on the new watch list items and more trade ideas.
"May the Bulls be with you" (yes, I'm a Star Wars fan!)
Posted by Fp80 at 7/23/2007 11:00:00 PM 2 comments
Labels: AKS, FEEC, NHWK, Performance, Pre Market Summary, WDC, WWAT
*** AKS - UPDATE
I'm closing the swing trade on AKS here now. Closing trade at $38.69. There is some bearish sentiment in the metals industry of late and AKS will provide their earnings release tomorrow. I don't want to risk a possible negative surprise from AKS should they have any bad news on the sector as a whole. They could release good earnings numbers but any comment on the sector being weak will send AKS down as well as other steel/metal sector stocks.
Closing AKS here is the smart thing to do. It would have been nice if it was able to have a good run up to this point but I'll take the small gain anytime as opposed to risking it to a loss should their earnings have anything negative in it.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/23/2007 02:55:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: AKS
Market Update
At lunch time the markets were in good shape. Even the financial sector was showing some signs of life!
The sectors doing poorly are housing, and Oil services/suppliers due to the drop in crude oil price today. Coal and Natural gas also down today.
Most of the other sectors are in the green at this time.
The big movers today in the Rebeltrader swing trades is WWAT, WDC, NHWK.
FEEC is pulling back on low volume so I have no worries about that. Does not need to jump up overnight (even though we would like all our plays to do that :)
I am patiently giving BIG some room to make a move. However if there is no significant movement by the middle of the week I will close the trade. Too many other moving stocks to play to just let this one sit and collect dust while it waits for the market to stop bouncing it around.
The Rebeltrader portfolio is making a nice gain today so far.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/23/2007 12:50:00 PM 1 comments
Update
RebelTrader plays WWAT,WDC,BIG,NHWK, AKS all trading up. I expect to see GRP trading up soon.
WWAT already working on new highs again. NHWK running up quickly again this morning. Some good gains for the RebelTrader portfolio again.
Posted by Fp80 at 7/23/2007 09:52:00 AM 0 comments
Watch SONS
Posted by Fp80 at 7/23/2007 09:33:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: SONS
A new week and a big week...
Posted by Fp80 at 7/23/2007 07:47:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: APKT, BIG, GRP, Pre Market Summary