Tuesday, December 15, 2009
ENTANGLING: UNFAVORABLE MARKET CONDITIONS
RANGE COUNTER: 24 DAYS
Home, home on the range
Where the bulls and the bears wrestle each day
Where seldom is heard an encouraging word
And the charts are not working all day.
(Sing to the tune of “Home on the Range”)
Range counter is at 24 days now as market sells off at resistance. I have mentioned several times that the market is acting rather peculiar the last few weeks. For one we have new highs being registered for some ETFs (DIA, SPY), yet the futures are still stuck in a range. We have numerous stocks that are trying to break out yet retreat (IBM for example). Key leadership sectors such as the transports are breaking out, yet other key leadership groups such as the financials and energy are struggling to have an up day. Yesterday the huge move down in Exxon did not help the major averages and today Best Buy did not help with its roughly 10% drop. Concern has crept back into this market as the fear of future interest rate hikes has created uncertainty. The only real strength is the market is in the healthcare sector. All of this concern when the market is at its high. Many traders I talk to have closed the books for the year and are not doing much trading, if at all. May be what is causing the range to continue. Not much selling but not much buying either. This is where traders have to be extra careful. Even though my crosshair has triggered numerous trades to the upside and some have worked there are just as many that have not; hence, my warning to trade small or not at all. Stay tuned until tomorrow when we visit the range counter again. Until then its…Home, home on the range…
