Good evening StockBandits!
The first week of trading is in the books, and while the overall market didn’t do a whole lot, there were some opportunities out there. Tuesday’s gap higher was held for the most part, although it really wasn’t added to as the week progressed. In fact, the SPY finished 5c lower on Friday than where it opened Tuesday, highlighting the lack of overall market movement during the week.
That lateral price movement post-gap brings forth the debate of whether we should read weakness or strength into the price action. Bulls can claim that the market held its ground, which is healthy digestion, and I can’t argue with that logic. Bears, on the other hand, claim that the lack of follow through is a concern. Either way, I suspect it won’t be long before we see either a failure of the move or some continuation to confirm it.
On the trading front, I took a look back at the trades I made last week via video (link here in case you missed it) and it was definitely a mixed bag. Swings did not fare well at all, while there were some very nice day trades which offset them. Going forward, I still plan to trade both timeframes as well as both directions in order to participate as much as possible in whatever moves come along.
The overall market is showing some signs of accumulation, but we’re still shy of some important levels in a few of the indexes, so it’s difficult to fully embrace a bullish stance until we see stocks exhibit more widespread strength and punch through some of those levels. Regardless, there will be individual stocks on the move, and it’s our job as traders to identify and capitalize on those moves.
I’ll cover my game plan for tomorrow in the video, and as always, feel free to share your own thoughts, trade ideas, and questions down below in the comments section.
Here is tonight’s video:
The Bandit Broadcast Video – Click to Watch!
Video Stocks Discussed: XME, BTU, STLD, OVTI, ACI, SOHU, GMCR, WLT, MGM
Swing Trading Candidates:
MGM turned higher a couple weeks ago and has been acting well with some high-volume advances and some light-volume rest phases. This stock looks bent on testing the October high, so I’m watching this bullish consolidation for a continuation move. I’ll get long if it clears $11.30 for the next leg higher. As with all swing trades, my stop and target levels for this stock are on the Hit List here inside the Hideout.
[table “197” not found /]
The Hit List is a separate post which contains discussion on open positions and swing trade stops and targets, so be sure to check it for further details on swing trades.
