Good evening StockBandits!
Overseas selling pressure tied to continued nuclear meltdown concerns in Japan left the US futures deep underwater this morning ahead of the opening bell. Stocks gapped down significantly, with the NAZ down some 82 points right after the bell. From there, we saw a steady recovery attempt take place throughout the remainder of the session, allowing the market to chip away at the morning gap and fill more than half of it.
Today’s move constitutes a technical breakdown, as we just closed decisively beneath short-term support zones which the market had been contending with yesterday. We’ve also set new pullback lows on both an intraday and closing basis, so this is not a bullish technical setup. At the same time, today’s rebound from the opening lows shows that stocks had become a bit short-term oversold, which makes this a very tricky spot for embracing even a short-term bias in either direction. As a result, I’m sticking with only short-term setups heading into tomorrow, because this market is so headline-driven right now and all those headlines are coming out of the Middle East or Japan. That makes for a very ‘gappy’ environment, which adds considerable risk for swing trading. I’ll take some swings as they come along, but tonight I’m all cash and intend to keep my exposure limited at best until things on either the technical or geopolitical front settle down – and they will.
Many of the bases which had been building on the charts of individual stocks were negated today with wide-ranging bars and closes outside the trading ranges. Those mixed signals offer little of value to us as traders, so it’s imperative right now to stick with clean setups – even if they’re limited. Those will allow us to be decisive with entries and exits, and otherwise avoid the noise that we’re seeing right now.
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!
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Video Stocks Discussed: AN, SVVS, LULU, FWLT
Swing Trading Candidates:
NONE TONIGHT
[table “4” 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.
