_________________

After the overnight futures were hinting at a big gap up this morning, a more somber tone set in as we opened and have stayed in the red thus far. The VIX (volatility index) remains elevated above 30 and is on the move this morning, which is problematic for bulls looking to see the violent price swings abate. Most sectors I am seeing are basically in the red or flat so far, save consumer discretionary which appears to be the leader.

My BSFT and FIRE longs continue to act well. Both of those stocks are set up well technically and have terrific short squeeze potential. I am still short AAPL and am looking for a breach of $380 on the downside before shorting more. In sum, this market remains hell-bent on not making things easy for both bulls and bears. So, staying shifty and nimble is the name of the game.

Comments »

Coinciding with iBankCoin’s four-year anniversary this weekend is the one-year anniversary of our 12631 Trading Service inside The PPT. The service is run by myself and the RaginCajun, where we direct a cutting edge, real-time chat room on top of many other features. We only offer 12631 memberships to PPT subscribers due to the interconnectedness of the services, in the sense that 12631 seeks to extrapolate on The PPT algorithm. Since literally the first moment that we launched 12631 in 2010, the response has been overwhelming. Over the past year, we have cultivated and developed a community of well over 200 active members at all times.

During that process, our service has taken on a life of its own inside the iBankCoin family of businesses. There is little doubt in our minds that we are home to the most dynamic and value-added chat room and trading service on the internet. Despite our numerous subscribers, however, we are a very closely-knit group, genuinely seeking to help and pulling for each other on a daily basis.

Along with the great help of Jeremy in the IT department (shout out to “gappingandyapping” too), we have also consistently upgraded the service, including email alerts for all trades, and a recent renovation to our unique “Pelican Room” chat with plenty of useful features on the sidebar.

As we head into our second year, our goal is simply to continue to sharpen our trading skills, refine our use of The PPT algorithm, and nurture our great sense of community. We would like to sincerely thank our loyal members for helping to turn our service into a special place, with traders improving daily, as well as gaining confidence and having fun along the way. And, of course, none of this would be possible if The Fly had not showed the business acumen and confidence to give us the green light to launch the service last year.

We have had a wildly successful year in 12631, but we are not the types to rest on our laurels. In fact, we are just getting started. For as little as $25 per month, you can join us on the journey.

Click on the 12631 hyperlink to learn more about joining our winning team.

Comments »

____________________________

My FIRE long is way out in front of this market, which is impressive considering how much the indices are up. Moreover, my lone short is AAPL, which continues to lag the market. All of my trades are timestamped in our state of the art chat room (we just made some incredible upgrades too) and sent out to members via email alerts inside the 12631 Trading Service. That said, I think you guys know that I have been openly discussing those trades and points of analysis here on my iBankCoin blog in recent days and weeks.

If nothing else, this morning’s action proves that the sell-off we saw on Wednesday was nowhere close to having the legs the bears wanted. We are still in a turbulent market, flying through the clouds of those longer-term moving averages on the S&P 500 that I have been outlining in my video market recaps. That said, the more names like FIRE that are permitted to execute mulit-quarter breakouts, the more I believe the bulls will be that much closer to seizing greater control of this market headed into the end of 2011.

____________________________

Comments »

____________________

To follow-up on this analysis that I wrote ten days ago, shares of Apple have indeed broken below $390 after consolidating for several weeks. If you read that post, then you know that the “island top” reversal that Apple formed has been confirmed, even more now that $390 has been breached. Shorting Apple is a psychologically difficult thing to do for many traders, given the strength of their products and high esteem in which the firm is held, but those sentiments and facts merely serve to distract you from the current price action.

Accordingly, inside 12631 I initiated a short positon in Apple today with a fairly tight buy-cover stop back above $390.

____________________

Comments »

___________________

Former NFL head coach and broadcaster Sam Wyche once began his color commentary for a game by noting that hard work alone usually insufficient to compete at the highest level. Actually, what the affable yet rough-around-the-edges Wyche said was, “Jackasses work hard. The key is to work smart.” Indeed, in the stock market truer words have never been uttered, as Mr. Market could not care less how may hours you spend toiling over research reports and “Breakfast with Dave” or Apertivo with Nouriel commentaries.

Speaking of working intelligently, you probably were not aware that HSNI (Home Shopping Network) hit all-time highs on Tuesday since its IPO several years back. How did I know? Well, I did my homework via perusing my saved screens inside The PPT. Members of both The PPT and 12631 can click here to access my custom relative strength screen, in which HSN popped up with the highest daily hybrid PPT score percentage increase on Tuesday out of any stock with a very high PPT Relative Strength score.

The retail sector still intrigues me, given the favorable setup in the ETF chart of XRT. I have also included the annotated charts of JOSB MW STMP as other long retail ideas below.

___________________

___________________

___________________

___________________

Comments »

____________________

The bulls continue to make progress in the afternoon part of recent trading sessions, which sure beats fading miserably after a strong morning, as we saw many times in the third quarter. It is also nice to see volatility continue to slowly abate. I am seeing more and more breakouts happening, which is a positive sign for longs. That said, I am staying methodical in adding long exposure here, focusing on the very best charts.

Hubris is something that traders constantly struggle with, in the sense that we look for trades where conviction is high, but have to be nimble in making adjustments should things start working against us. Running the 12631 Trading Service along with @RaginCajun, we put ourselves out there all day, every day, completely exposing our portfolios, ideas, and trades for members to see, in addition to the work we put in here on iBankCoin.

With hundreds of loyal members sticking with us through all types of markets, behind a double paywall in The PPT, there is little doubt that we offer a first class service and community, complete with a state of the art chat room. What makes us special is not cherry picking winning trades or sweeping losing ones under the rug, like many traders do, but rather pulling for each other in a genuine, non-passive aggressive way. At the end of the day, that is why 12631 is not only still around, but stronger than ever and growing as we speak.

I will be back with more thoughts about the market in my recap after the bell. To learn more about 12631, click on that hyperlink or feel free to ask me questions in the comments section of this post.

 

Comments »