Weekly Digest - Week of 01/03/11

Market Performance



Sector Performance

 Market continued higher this week, as if anyone is surprised.  The week began strong as the market opened the month and new year up about 1%.  Volume has come back into the market as people return from vacation.  The market also gained strength on Wednesday with strong ADP employment numbers.  The rest of the week was filled with weakness as the market gave back gains.  The S&P is now trapped in a range 1262 - 1278 and we will watch the week ahead for a break of these levels.  Technology and healthcare came out strong with basic materials and consumer goods dragging behind.  This continues to show that there is always a bull and bear market somewhere.  Market continues to push up without much correction which we will address in our Weekly Forecast. 

Our trading this week has been strong now that volume is backing up the price action.  Monday we went long on Dean Foods (DF) which we closed Friday for a 9% gain.  We also went short on CoinStar (CSTR) on Wednesday as we were looking for a gap-fill plus a hedge in the market.  Unfortunately the cards wern't right in this trade as we were stopped out on Thursday for a 5% loss.  On Friday we went long in Cisco (CSCO) looking for another gap-fill play.  We will continue to hold this into next week since it hasn't moved yet.

Stay tuned for our Weekly Forecast and chart analysis on CSCO

Weekly Digest - Week of 12/27/10

Market Performance

Sector Performance

2010 has finally come to an end wrapping up what has been an eventful and exciting year.  The markets have now ended positive 5 out of the last 6 weeks.  Like last week we saw little volume going into this week which was expected from the holidays.  Market didn't see much movement across any day, except a hard sell off at the close of today.  As you can see in the sectors we didn't have much movement except in basic materials, but everything else remained basically flat. 

I tried to keep trading light this week because I knew volume would be low.  My NFLX puts expired worthless today which will free up my money/maintenance to resume trading in the new year.  I went ahead and went long into NVDA this morning on a strong break of resistance.  NVDA finished the day strong at its high, so we will see what happens with it next week.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy new year.  I know I am looking forward to get trading back to normal come Monday.  We will see you in 2011!

Weekly Digest - Week of 12/20/10

Market Performance

Sector Performance

Another week over = another week moving higher.  At least that has been the attitude of the market for the last 4 weeks in a row.  This week the S&P moved up over 1% and claimed some very important price levels.  Monday started out by taking over the 1246 level which we've had some resistance at.  Market has seen a decrease in volume this week with the holidays around the corner and a short week this week.  Dip buying has still been strong and the bears are still feeling the pain.

Trading was light for me this week as I wasn't to eager to open new positions with light volume and the holiday season.  CX saw a great breakout during the week so I went ahead and closed that for a 7% gain.  I also closed SYK for a 1.5% gain after it was showing some weakness.  Instead of going long or letting my  money just sit there I decided to short NFLX puts.  This gave me a worry free way to utilize my money over the holiday season.

Weekly Digest - Week of 12/13/10

Market Performance

Sector Performance

Another up week for the markets making it 3 out of 4 weeks to be positive.  Market moved up for most of the week having their big down day on Wednesday.  Markets quickly recovered and continued to push higher for the rest of the week.  Bulls firmly held the 1227 price level and are now aimed at the 1246 level.  Market is currently finding some resistance at this level, but is consolidating nicely here.  Poor bears are still feeling the pains of only small moves in their favor before the market turns back around.  As we can see it wasn't a bull week for everyone as the Financial sector took the biggest hit.  This goes to show that this market has a place for everyone.

Took a position in CX this week with a break of their inverse head and shoulders and downward channel.  Still in this position as it is consolidating near the breakout level.  Also still in SYK from last week since it has been showing good strength the last couple of days.

Weekly Digest - Week of 12/06/10

Market Performance

Sector Performance

Sorry for the late post in the Weekly Digest and Trading Tools, but this week was a killer week for me.  The market continued to churn higher as we saw our best gains in the Nasdaq and Financial sector.  The Dow spent most of the week trading in the red and finally catching up on Friday.  Bulls spent most of the week trying to claim the 1227 level.  Bulls were in for a scare on Tuesday as the market gaped higher and quickly sold off below the 1227 level.  Luckily for them they continued to push the market higher.

Being busy this week didn't stop me from trading.  Closed out my LOW position on Tuesday for a good profit.  Bought and sold APOG this week for another quick profit.  Lost some money on a bad day trade of LULU.  My stop-loss was to tight and got taken out before the run up.  I also covered my NFLX put on Friday after they made a huge jump.

Stay tuned for the Weekly Forecast later today...

Weekly Digest - Week of 11/29/10

Market Performance

Sector Performance

Markets saw a lot of movement last week as the bulls finally claimed the 1200 price level.  Week started with some weakness losing approximately -1% between Monday and Tuesday.  Market moved a bit quicker than I expected, as I thought that weakness would happen during the whole week and not just the first two days.  Bears never broke the 1173 level and that is when the bulls took over.  Market action resembled the market on 9/1/10 as the bears were trying to break through 1043 level.  Bears couldn't break through the 1043 level and the market went up three days in a row then moved to a two month rally. 

Currency pairs found a lot of movement as they went down and hit support and quickly bounced back to resistance.  Their movement should be interesting in the upcoming week. 

Market has moved from undecided to back in the bulls favor as long as they hold the 1200 level.

This week I entered into LOW long position which I still currently hold. I also sold NFLX 180 puts which I closed out on Friday for an easy profit.  Will hold LOW until I can see some weakness come out of it. 

Weekly Digest - Week of 11/22/10

Even though we had a short holiday week we did see a lot of price action going on.  The market saw a nice sell of on Tuesday with a -1.43% drop on Korea and Irish debt fears.  Again, the market quickly paired its loses on Wednesday with a gain of +1.49%.  S&P500 tried again to capture the 1200 price level but ended up just short of it.  Saw a lot of breaking down in the currency pairs and market overnight and going into Friday.  Market held true to the sell off and continued to fall on Friday.

S&P500 and Dow Jones finished the week down just shy of 1% while the Nasdaq finished positive.  Technology saw a lot of strength this week with AAPL, NFLX, AMZN all generating big up days. 

Trading has been relatively light for me this week.  Sold of Massey Energy at the beginning of the week when they announced they will be sold and shares jumped 5%.  Had a couple of day trades for a small loss.

Next week should continue to be an interesting week...Stay tuned for the Market Forecast

Weekly Digest - Week of 11/14/10

I continue to try to improve this blog by bringing more regular updates, and here is a new one.  Weekly Digest will come on Fridays following the market and it will just be a basic recap of the week for the market, my portfolio, and other "going-ons".

Along with the Weekly Digest I have the Traders Toolbox and the Weekly Forcast.   The Traders Toolbox will happen every Thursday and will cover necessary tools traders use.  I will also use that segment to bring more information on technical analysis.

The Weekly Forcast is posted over the weekend and will deal with the week ahead of us.  I analyze the market and pose a possible direction it will move.

I will also start posting morning updates, giving a brief look ahead for that day.  Best thing for a trader to be is prepared and I want to make sure everyone and myself is prepared.

So here is this weeks Weekly Digest:

As you can see we didn't have much movement throughout the week and finished mostly flat.  S&P500 and Dow Jones finished slightly up over last week and the Nasdaq finished flat.  The little movement from week to week didn't stop the market from being very volatile this week.  Monday was a slight down day followed by a big sell off with -1.6% on Tuesday.  Market spent the rest of the week moving its way back to positive territory.

This is the first week we saw POMO every day of the week as the Fed continues its mission with the QE2.  We saw the biggest IPO released this week with GM coming back to the market.  As most people found out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be as it sold of throughout the day.  We have also come to the end of our earnings reports for the S&P500, so that should level out the market a bit in upcoming weeks.

As for my portfolio, I am still majority long and added Massey Energy, MEE, on Monday.  Massey Energy had a rough start on Tuesday but quickly recovered towards the end of the week.  Will continue to hold Massey into next week.