#MarketTiming – tracks of the bear?

Posted on by diogenes227

Sometimes, as they say, it’s not a stock market, it’s a market of stocks:

(Click on the chart to see the full twitter thread)

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(Click on the chart to see the full twitter thread)

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$SPY – market tries to reverse Trump tariff sell-off

Posted on by diogenes227

MARKET TIMING SIGNALS FOR 5/6/2019.

Long-Term Breadth (NYSI): SELL FROM 5/6.
Short-Term Breadth (NYMO): SELL FROM 5/6.
Price: SELL FROM 5/6.
Nifty-50-Stock-List: 27 BUYS, 4 NEW BUYS, 13 OVERBOUGHT; 23 SELLS, 11 NEW SELLS, 5 OVERSOLD.
CNN MONEY’S “Fear and Greed” Index: 56, FALLING, GREED LEVEL.
Bellwether Stocks: 1 UP, 14 DOWN.

OF NOTE SPY OPTIONS DAY TRADES:
SPY CALLS, 5/6 288 UP 71%, 290 UP 120%, 291 up 190%. No put trades.

OF NOTE:
Fourteen of the bellwether stocks (AAPL, TSLA, NFLX, TWLO, AMD, NVDA, QCOM, GS, GOOGL, BABA, MSFT, FB, FSLR, AMZN) were up from the open although down on the day; and one (WYNN) was both down for the day and down more from its open.

WHAT:

The futures market sold off hard overnight on the news Trump threatened new tariffs on Chinese imports, then rebounded immediately at the open on the news that the Chinese negotiators planned to come to the U.S. to talk as planned anyway. The market was poised to go higher, prior to Trump’s announcement but the news cut short the buy signals across the board on Friday’s gains.

Can’t do anything about news, either positive or negative, except to go with the flow as it unfolds – in this case for day and swing traders it was a buy on today’s open and turned out to be quite a remarkable bounce back. Fourteen of the bellwether stocks were up from the open despite remaining down for the day. The $10K day trading system, had today’s 290 calls (in the money, ten minutes into the market) up 120% or the day, and just out of the money 291 call up 190%.

WHAT’S NEXT?

All technical signals I follow gave sell signals today for tomorrow open as the one-day blip up in long-term breadth ($NYSI) Friday retreated today on the tumble in short-term breadth ($NYMO); the price buy for today’s open, which racked up 4.5% on TQQQ and 3.7% on UPRO on the close, will be a sell on tomorrow’s open. In addition, CNN’s Fear and Greed Index dipped today while still at a greed level, and volatility surged (VIX), both negatives for the market.

Sell signals are sell signals but what’s next is tricky given the velocity of today’s rebound (see the candle on the SPY chart below), but it did not quite reverse completely and it may have used up immediate buying power to get to where it got on the close. If so, chances are it reverses again to the downside tomorrow. The key will be play the open, preferably with either calls or puts, while looking to lock in profits on today’s gains on TQQQ and UPRO and any of the bellwether stocks.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#MartketTiming – Swing Signals 4/10/19

Posted on by diogenes227

THE SIGNALS AS OF 4/9/19.

Long-Term Breadth (NYSI): BUY FROM 4/10.
Short-Term Breadth (NYMO): BUY FROM 4/10.
Price: BUY FROM 4/10.
Nifty-50-Stock-List: 21 BUYS, 5 NEW BUYS, 11 OVERBOUGHT; 29 SELLS, 3 NEW SELLS, 3 OVERSOLD.
CNN MONEY’S “Fear and Greed” Index: 70, FLAT, GREED LEVEL.
Bellwether Stocks: 14 UP, 1 DOWN.

OF NOTE, $10K Swing Trades, SPY OPTIONS:
SPY CALLS, 287, 288, 289 STRIKES FOR WEEKLY 4/12 EXPIRATION OR MONTHLY 4/18 EXPIRATION.

OF NOTE, $10K Swing Trade Stocks:
BUY ON OPEN 10/11: GS, MSFT, AMZN, FSLR, NVDA, WYNN,TWLO, TSLA. STOCK OPTIONS.


WHAT’S NEXT?

As was suggested the post below in regards to yesterday’s drop in the market and pull back in short-term breadth: “Most likely it’s a mere dip to the zero line on the NYMO.

And so it was.

With today’s pop (not so much on the Dow but worthwhile pretty much everywhere else), the NYMO and NYSI are once again positive.

Kind of get tired of saying it over and over again but as long as the NYMO and/or NYSI remain positive overall the usual play is to be long, take profits when the stocks give sell signals, and buy coming out of dips but have to say it since it happens over and over again.

Fourteen out of 15 bellwether stocks were up, 40 of the 50 stocks on my nifty-50 stock list gained, all eight of the 3xLeverage ETFs I follow — TQQQ, TNA, UPRO, SOXL, FAS, ERX, LABU, FNGU, up, up, up…

And most notably the NYMO put in another low above a low (see the chart below) so until further notice expect follow through – this is broad market run to the upside.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#MarketTiming Signals

Posted on by diogenes227

THE SIGNALS AS OF 4/8/19.
Long-Term Breadth (NYSI): BUY FROM 4/1.
Short-Term Breadth (NYMO): SELL FROM 4/8.
Price: BUY TQQQ FROM 4/1 UP 6.2%; UPRO FROM 4/1 UP 4.3%; TNA FROM 4/1 UP 5.4%
Nifty-50-Stock-List: 20 BUYS, 1 NEW BUY, 10 OVERBOUGHT; 30 SELLS, 7 NEW SELLS, 8 OVERSOLD.
CNN “Fear and Greed” Index: 74, GREED LEVEL.
Bellwether Stocks: 9 UP, 8 DOWN.

OF NOTE:
$10K Swing Trade SPY options: 282 APRIL IN-THE-MONEY CALL UP 59.2%; 284 APRIL AT-THE-MONEY CALL UP 75.2%.

See charts below.

$10K Swing Trade Stocks: WYNN is up 22.4% from 3/29; FSLR is up 8.4% from its price buy signal 3/29; AMD was a sell on today’s close up 8.2% from its price buy 4/1.

WHAT’S NEXT?
The SPY is up eight days in a row and the NYMO turned down today. Seen that many times before. There is a profit-taking dip coming…any day, any hour, any minute. But as long as the NYMO and/or NYSI remain positive overall the play is to be long, take profits when the stocks give sell signals, and buy coming out of dips.

However, for now, AAPL is up nine days in a row, which is reminiscent of previous runs in the bull market in which AAPL almost single-handed dragged the market indexes higher. It closed today at 200 and has a market-cap again approaching $1 trillion. The company has lots of cash and is no doubt buying back its stock again. That’s great for those who buy and hold but one day the buy-backs will end. A trillion dollar market-cap is not a jumping-in point to go much higher. On the last swoon, the stock dropped into the 140s, a great place to get back in after either taking profits shorting the stock above $200. For swing traders, doesn’t it seem obvious the selling or shorting opportunity knocks again?

(click on the charts for a larger view)

$SPY – six days up into a black candle

Posted on by diogenes227

Does the market pause here, pull back, or continue to rally?

My bias going into Friday is a pause, possibly going into a pull back.

But, thanks to SPY rising six days in a row, putting a black candle on the price chart and an inside day today (see the chart below), it’s going to be easy to see the next move, either up or down. Every black candle, which I simply define as a day in which the close is higher than the day before and lower than its open, is a clear sign of indecision in the market and an inside day is a further indication of indecision. The indecision obviously is resolved above the high or below the low of the black candle day. It’s that simple.

At the moment, the key numbers on SPY are 287.76 at the high and 285.75 at the low.

Of course it takes a down day to start a decline and SPY, at six days up, has not had one but the Nasdaq Comp, after five days up in a row, was down slightly today and there were eighteen sell signals today on my nifty-50 stock list, CNN’s Fear and Greed Index is overbought in the greed zone… All of which contribute to my bias.

On the other hand, long-term breadth (NYSI) continues to rise, short-term breadth (NYMO) also is positive so it’s likely, when and if it comes, the dip will be more of a pause than a deep pullback.

In the meantime, it might be time for swing traders to tighten stops to lock in profits. It’s been a good upside run this week with TQQQ up 3.8%, TNA, up 3.1% and UPRO up 2.5% at today’s close.

Among the bellwether stocks FB is up 4.9 %, FSLR up 3.9%; AAPL lagging but up 2.1% (watching for a short soon); remarkably WYNN is up 13.1% and AMD up 10.4% and GS up 4.2% and BAC up 4.5% at today’s close. All of these are four day trades from the market-timing buy signal on the open Monday.

(click on the chart for larger view)

$NFLX drives stock options to a 66.9% daily gain

Posted on by diogenes227

NFLX’s weekly in-the-money 360 call today rose 213% on its buy signal near the open.

As a result it drove the four stocks in a day-trading basket tracked here – AAPL FB, NFLX, TSLA – to an overall gain of 66.9% for the day.

This is a system that simply day trades the stocks’ weely calls and/or puts on the long side. As per this link:

#DayTrading Stock Options in the Fool’s Game

I’ve been setting the trades at a total of $10K per day — what I call the $10Kdaytrade on Twitter — allocating $2,500 to each of the four stocks. So today that was $6,690 for the $10K committed to the trade. Besides the spectacular NFLX move, the FB call was up 90% with $2,261 gain, the AAPL call was up $442, TSLA was up $415; there were also triggered trades in NFLX, AAPL and TSLA puts with small losses except for TSLA down $968.

I began applying the day-trading buy and sell triggers similar to those I use for day trades in SPY options on February 26th, about a month ago, trading the nearest weekly strike in the current week, and first introduced it here February 27th:


#Stock Options in the Fool’s Game

The system has been volatile (there were 20% and 30% losers on separate days last week) but so far so good overall. It is up 124% on $10K trades opened and closed each day.

So far this is just an experiment to see if day trading options on very liquid and popular stocks is viable. It is an attempt by going long on either the call or the put or sometimes both during the day to eliminate or at least mitigate the “greeks”, the complexity of fills on strategies like iron condors, and the margin requirements needed to short options. Obviously, this is not for those with their own trading rooms nor for hedgers, but for day traders with limited funds to trade, it suggests there are simpler ways to play the options game.

For an illustration of today’s movement in the calls in the stock basket discussed above see the charts below.

(click on the chart for a larger view_

#DayTrading $SPY and #Stockoptions…

Posted on by diogenes227

The contents of this blog entry was first posted here last November about trading SPY options on the long side. I have added “stock options” to the title above because the strategy basically works with weekly stock options.

There are so many options strategies in the stock market the head spins – a straddle, a strangle, a naked and/or a covered put and/or call, a calendar, a condor, an iron condor, an iron butterfly (isn’t that a rock band?) and any combination of any of these for hedging purposes, for capital appreciation or preservation, for gambling. Mind boggling.

But buying options… Buying options, just plain buying a call or a put, everyone will say is a “fool’s game.”

Regardless of whether a trader buys calls or puts on index ETFs like SPY or QQQ or IWM, or buys options on stocks, there are only three things that can happen – the option goes the trader’s way (good), or the option goes against the trader (bad), the option goes sideways with price decay over time (also bad).

Two out of the three possibilities for the option buyer are losers. What fool would want to play that game?

But is it really a fool’s game?

Doesn’t have to be. Not for day traders.

Let’s take SPY options as the prime example — very liquid across multiple strikes, tight spreads, hardly any time decay on a trade for only a day, a stop-loss is close by and immediate, and the profits, if there is a trend for the day, can be substantial, even rather astounding.

Also great for scalping on any time frame intraday.

The key, as always, is persistence, discipline, experience, and an entry signal the trader is comfortable with taking.

$SPY – the slow roll over?

Posted on by diogenes227

Given how sprightly the rally since December has been it’s hard to call a top. Actually it’s hard to call a top anytime but bear-market rallies are especially tricky.

Weeks ago it was suggested here this would be the rally to make everyone one believe the bull market has resumed, and it has been that kind of rally.

There is famous, familiar chart of investor emotions in the market (see below) that shows the various stages of market emotions from despair to euphoria and back again (see below). It’s worthwhile review that chart every so often and ask one’s self how am I feeling now. This is especially true for long-term holders and retirees who have their savings tied up in the market.

Looking at the chart below I would suggest we are at the “Return to Normal” stage. For any swing trader who played the upswing this has been a fantastic rally. For investors it’s been a big sigh of relief.

But… There are signs now that sigh may be about to become a gasp.

Long-term breadth, as measured by the McClellan Summation Index, the most important indicator of mass market psychology, turned bearish four days ago after several warnings from the declining highs on the McClellan Oscillator itself. My nifty-50 stock list has failed to get overbought since the rally’s kick-off’s first few days. While the indexes have worked higher, the stocks have rotated and paused and in some cases fallen under the surface (take a look at the rollover in the banking sector).

Weed stocks lead again (check out CRON up 87% on the YTD summation index run up or GWPH up 71%). While there’s a growth logic to the marijuana sector, that’s still just as crazy as the dot-com bubble of yesteryear.

Despite all those warnings until prices follow internals and drop with conviction (which could happen any day now, even tomorrow), and the VIX jumps back above 15 (it closed at 14.74 today), the sell off may not happen, and if the SPX, or in this case the SPY run up past the resistance at recent highs, it might go to all time highs before the bear market resumes.

Doubt that but we’ll see.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#DayTrading stock options in the “Fool’s Game”

Posted on by diogenes227

Let’s call this a “Fool’s Game” trilogy.

Three days experimenting with buying calls or puts (calls in this instance) according to the rules of the “Fool’s Game” suggested here for day trading SPY options on a lucky November 13th last year in this link: IS It A FOOL’S GAME?.

The basis of the entire strategy is the simplicity of going long calls or puts (what’s been called the “fool’s game”). The cost is clear since it is simply the cost of the option itself with no shorting margin requirements, no covered stock scenarios, no spreads or complicated attempts to calculate delta and neutralize theta and try to fill the four legs of iron condors both going in and trying to get, and no more god knows what else…

This is this simple: buy calls if you believe it’s going up, puts if you think it’s going down.

The results trading SPY options, either in the money or at the money on the nearest expiration — Monday, Wednesday, Friday. were astounding last year, and earlier this year (that system is currently experiencing its biggest draw down since I began tracking and trading it). Both because of the “astounding” and the “biggest draw down”, I decided to take a look at stocks using the same criteria as outlined in this link: DayTrading Stock Options two days ago.

The criteria for selecting AAPL, FB, BABA, NFLX and TSLA for the trades is noted in that link.

The first day of this experiment, Tuesday this week, netted 13.2% in trades that triggered in all five of those stocks (I highlighted TSLA on a chart in a post below), and netted 37% on trades is four of the stocks yesterday (see charts in the post below). FB options did not trigger a trade that day.

Very fine returns for the system, and much to be learned in its context.

Today (see the muddle of charts below), the trades in calls lost 8% on options traded on four of the stocks.

Still, a good three days overall.

But as I mentioned there was much to learned in context – a logical intraday stop on the NFLX trade (the first blue candle as seen on the NFLX chart below), would have cut the total loss to only 3%. Stops, needless to say, like with all systems, need constant examination and re-examination.

I looked into this because I’d been told day trading stock options can’t be done. This week may be an outlier but as far as this “trilogy” of day trades has gone, it has been done.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#DayTrading Stock Options in the “Fools’s Game” Part II

Posted on by diogenes227

(CLICK ON THE CHARTS FOR A LARGER VIEW)

TSLA at the end of the day – net up 94%.

BABA at the end of the day – net up 52%.

AAPL at the end of the day – net up 14%

.

NFLX at the end of the day trade – net down 43%.