What to Expect?

The past week was short (Thanksgiving week had three full trading sessions and one short trading session), yet, quite volatile. Actually, we may consider that since November 18, 2010, the DJI and S&P 500 are in side-way volatile action. The Nasdaq 100 index (mainly because of the swing at the morning on November 24) is only about half of the percent higher.

While the main indexes (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, DJI and Russell 200) are topping sideway, there are some indexes that are in clearly defined down trend - as an example, see Dow Jones Utilities index that could be considered in down-trend since October 20, 2010 and S&P 500 Financial index that has been moving down since November 4, 2010. Overall, lately we had mostly negative and side-way sentiment.

Taking look at technical analysis from the mid- and long-term prospective we may not see a lot of positive signals. The money flow on daily charts (1 bar = 1 day) is moving down. It is not negative on the S&P 500, DJI and Nasdaq 100, yet, it is close to become negative. After September-October rally up, the indexes could be considered quite overbought. Yes, some traders may say that the correction we had during the second week of November could be enough to release the stock market from its overbought pressure, yet, it is difficult for me to believe in that by the following two reasons:

- Some indexes are still in decline.
and
- We did not have any strong volume volume surges during that correction (with exception on the Nasdaq 100). The correction down does not ends on low volume. In most cases corrections down and down-trends have strong volume surges at the bottom and we have not seen it yet.

Overall, I'm still bearish over mid-term. However, I numerously mentioned in periods of side-way trading that when there is a clearly defined upper and lower line of side-way corridor (as it is now on the S&P 500 and DJI) it is always a good trading strategy to set a stop-loss.

From the short-term prospective, technical analysis is not positive as well. The money flow on 1-min, 5-min, 15-min and 30-minutes charts is negative. It is neutral on hourly charts. I would expect to see negative trading session tomorrow. However, we should remember that volatility is at high levels and we may see strong swings in either direction. Personally, I plan monitoring 15-min and 30-min charts tomorrow.

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.

Trading Strategy

On July 31, 2010 in my "Volatility" post I mentioned "Overall, I would say that you may find a number of technical indicators that suggest possibility of up move. My technical analysis tells me that this possibility exists as well, yet, so far, I do not see the indexes gonging higher their June 21st and July 27th highs." Taking look back at the past week, we had relatively quiet and side-way trading with exception of strong up move on Monday's morning and strong swing down and up on Friday. The S&P 500 index stuck in side-way action exactly at its high seen on June 21st, 2010; the Nasdaq 100 index - a little bit below and the DJI index a little bit about.

Now, by analyzing indexes I would say that the situation is mixed at this point. From one side on the longer-term charts we have decrease in volatility which would suggest the possibility of up-move. From other side we started to see negative divergence on many technical indicators - when price moves up and makes new high, yet an indicator either moves side-way or moves in opposite direction.

If I would analyze all technical indicators I would say that, because of the side-way trading over the last 5 days, 50% of technical indicators are neutral and could be interpreted either as bullish or bearish, 25% of indicators are bullish and the rest 25% are bearish. The one may ask how a trader can make a decision in such situation. The main challenge of technical analysis that the stock market never gives you 100% clear signals. There are always some technical indicators that favor up-move and some technical indicators that favor bearish trading. The challenge is to define what indication is more important at given period of time.

In the current situation, even I more bearish (because of negative divergence I see on many charts), I would say that (as in most cases of side-way trading) a simple strategy could be used. Every side-way trading defines upper and lower lines of side-way corridor. If upper line of side-way corridor (high on August 4) is broken - odds would favor bullish trading. If lower line of side-way corridor (low on August 6) is broken - odds would favor the bears. Until then conservative approach on my opinion would be to remain in cash.

DJI Chart

I have not been posting a chart for a while and mainly because of the current market position, I think it would be nice to take a look at the location of the indexes in relation to the previous support and resistance levels. On December 20, 2009 in my "DJI" post I already referred to the DJI (Dow Jones Industrial) longer-term charts. See below the DJI chart (chart #1) I posted at that time.

Chart #1: The DJI Chart 10-year view of the historically defined 8% side-way corridor

At that time when the up-trend was in the its full force, I alerted that the stock market is entering the sensitive area. Maybe I sounded funny when I expressed a possibility of side-way trading at the moment when the stock market up-move looked unstoppable, yet, I would like to show continuation of the same chart (see chart #2 below). I think, now you my try to analyze by yourself about a possibility of long-term side-way trading.

Chart #2: The DJI Chart 10-year view of the historically defined 8-10% side-way corridor

I do not want to state that the stock market will bounce up to to its April's highs - additional analysis on lower time-frame would be recommended for this. The DJI index has already been in this sensitive side-way corridor for about 8 months. It could be the end of the side-way trading or it could be in the middle. From the charts above you may only say that the current movement is more volatile than the side-way trading trading in 2004-2005, yet it less volatile than the side-way trading 1999-2001. Still if the indexes (DJI, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100) bounce up - it will be the first bounce up only in this historically defined sensitive sideway corridor; and at this moment, my personal technical analysis confirms that such scenario is quite real.

Technical Analysis

In my previous post (see "High Volume and Volatility" post on March 14, 2010) I mentioned that the market is predisposed to the correction and that I expect to see some side-way trading with preference of staying in cash. Over the last five trading sessions (a week) we saw some up-move with a decline on Friday. At the end of the week, the indexes are about 1% higher from the previous week close. Some may consider it as side-way trading, some may consider it as continuation of up-trend. I would continue to stay on the same position I was a week ago: I would prefer to stay in cash. On such overbought indexes I think it would be too risky to trade "Long" and 1% of gain over five day does not worth a risk. At the same time it could be a little bit early to open a short position.

My position of "staying in cash" is based on the same technical indicators I mentioned a week ago: strong bullish accumulation (result of positive money flow since beginning of February 2010), High volume surges during the price up-move and some increase in volatility. All of this suggests the market (based on the S&P 500, DJI and Nasdaq 100 indexes) is predisposed to the movement down.

Overall technical analysis became more bearish over the last week, mainly because of the Friday's decline. Many technical indicators started to show bearish signs. Yet, I would not disregard high volume during the Friday's decline. This volume may push indexes back to the most recent highs. On the other hand this decline may grow into correction down.

I know that my posts sometimes could look confusing. On very rare occasion I clearly state my view on the possible future trend. However, if you have at least some knowledge in the art of technical analysis I think you can get some of my ideas, compare my technical analysis with yours and maybe find a correct answer. If you are looking for a straightforward opinion and straightforward signals, I am sorry, this blog is not for you. In this case I would recommend going to payable services and get some auto-trading advices.

DJI

The purpose of technical analysis is to predict a possible future trend movement and, as a rule, predictions are based on the comparing the history and applying the history research results to the current market. This week I would like to show a few charts of Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) index. I selected 10-year and 6-month chart to demonstrate where the main indexes are at the current moment in relation to the longer-term periods.

From the 6-month DJI chart (see the first chart) you may see that the DOW index has been trading in narrow (2.5% wide) corridor for a month. I believe this side-way action has made many traders impatient to see when this pattern is broken and many of them, I think, expect to see strong correction, which would be logical after such strong recovery. However, I would not rush into short trade without setting a tight stop-loss strategy.

If you take a look on the second chart below (DJI 10-year chart), you will see that the DJI index is traded at the level which is inside of the historically defined long-term corridor. In 1999-2001 the DOW index spent 18 months in 8% corridor (between $10,000 and $10,800) and in 2004 we had 12 month of side-way trading in the same corridor.

Can we assume that we may expect to see the Dow index traded in the same 8% corridor for prolonged period of time now as well? What could be a reason that the Dow Jones index was in that 8% corridor for such long period of time? Maybe this is the level where the real value of the companies listed in the DJI index is: the Dow listed companies are not under-evaluated and they are not over-evaluated. If this is true then it would explain side-way trading before and we can expect side-way trading in the same corridor for longer period of time again.

Now, coming back to the 6-month DJI chart, we may see that the DJI index still did not hit the top of this 8% corridor. Because of that, the exit from the current 2.5% side-way trading still could be up toward the $10,800 level. This is why even when I see technical analysis results suggesting down move I would not play short without tight stop-loss.

Chart #1: The DJI Chart 6-month view of the current 2.5% side-way corridor
Chart #2: The DJI Chart 10-year view of the historically defined 8% side-way corridor

S&P 500 Chart

It is a month as the market has been trading side-way (see the S&P 500 index chart below). I have already been pointing on sideway trading in my previous posts (starting from November 15, 2009: see my "Technical Analysis" post), and it looks like the market continues to follow this pattern. Last week in my "Sideway Trading" post on December 5, 2009 I expressed my expectation to see some action on exiting from side-way trading, yet, it looks like we had another bounce from the lower line of the side-way corridor and now the indexes (S&P 500, DJI and Nasdaq 100) are headed to the upper-line of this corridor (resistance line).

At the current moment, the majority of the technical studies on my chart are bullish. However, we are coming closer to the upper corridor line and up-move become weaker and we may face another bounce down.

Now, after 1-month of sideway trading I would not bet on up-trend until I see the indexes, at least S&P 500 and DJI, are breaking strongly the resistance line (not breaking it for 15 min period and a for a few points only). At the same time I would not bet on the down-trend until I see the same indexes moving below the lower line (support line) of the sideway-corridor. The indexes have been trading in this corridor long enough to assume a possibility that overbought sentiment accumulated in the first half of November is not in force anymore and most likely it will not push the market down. Now, on my opinion, the longer-term sentiment is the only force that may push the stock market down. We may see that since July 10, 2009 the main indexes (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and DJI) were in the strong up-move and we may assume that they could accumulate overbought sentiment and without a new fuel (new investors coming into the market) we could face a strong correction (at least the same as we had in second half of June 2009).

Still, since we do not know what exactly may happen, we may wait for clearer and stronger signals. At least this is my view and my position on the current market.

Chart #1: The S&P 500 Chart with elements of technical analysis: