Side-Way Trading

As I mentioned in the "S&P 500 Financial" post on August 20, 2010: "At this moment the majority of technical indicators remain to be bearish by suggesting the higher odds of further decline." - the indexes (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and DJI) are lower, yet if you take at the hourly chart (1 bar = 1 hour) you will see that most of the time the indexes were in side-way action.

Side-way characteristics of the current down-trend could be noticed from the beginning (August 9, 2010) of this down-trend. It is difficult to compare the current down-trend to the previous down-trends we had over the last couple of years. Te previous down moves where more consistent and had much less side-way trading sessions. It is already almost a month since the indexes in the bearish move and, so far, during the recent decline, we have not seen two strongly negative session in a row. Yet, mainly because of the side-way trading, we still have not seen panic trading which would be characterized by the strong bearish volume to the price down-side and strongly oversold advance/decline issues and volume readings.

The other characteristic of the current down move is the high level of volatility. The volatility is not extremely high, yet it remains steady on the high level.

The same a s a week ago, I would say that the majority of technical indicators remain to be bearish by suggesting the better odds of the further decline. Yes, the Friday's advance has pushed some technical indicators into bullish sentiment and if you take a look at shorter-term technical analysis you may see some bullish signals. However, in order to have a strong up-move, in addition to the bullish signal, the stock market should be predisposed to the up-move. So far, we may see bullish signals on shorter-term frames, yet, personally, I have not seen any strongly oversold indications. Therefore, I would not place a long bet.