The charts of the major banks are still in well-established downtrends and are highly suspect, despite rallying today. Even if they have bottomed for good, I expect quite a bit of turbulence before crossing over into a fresh uptrend. Bottoming is a process, and the further along a chart is in that process the higher up it should go on your watchlist for a potential breakout.

Huntington Bancshares is a regional bank that has ceased trending lower for quite some time now, and instead has been basing for several months. In other words, the fight is on between bulls and bears in a rather tight price range. If the financials have bottomed, then I want to be in the strongest relative performers. Above $5.25-$5.30 with strong buy volume would entice me to play HBAN for a breakout from this base.

_____________________

Comments »

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A7tLVIsuNw 550 412] ________________________

Here is a freebie for you guys courtesy of The PPT Seasonality feature. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. has a perfect 6 and 0 record in terms of finishing the month of October higher, for an average return in the month of roughly 8.50%. As we do in 12631, we take The PPT one step further, looking at the chart. As you can see below, ICE looks to have formed a bullish consolidation amidst tightly wound moving average on the daily chart. Such a period of compression is likely to give way to an explosion, as one side emerges victorious form a hard-fought battle between bulls and bears. Judging from both seasonality and the technicals, the bulls have an edge here. Also note how the stock clearly outperformed the market since the summer crash, especially in September–A clear sign of relative strength.

Seasonality

Month Avg % Return Total # Months # Months UP # Months DOWN January -1.949 6 3 (50%) 3 (50%) February 5.887 6 4 (66.67%) 2 (33.33%) March 6.572 6 4 (66.67%) 2 (33.33%) April 7.516 6 5 (83.33%) 1 (16.67%) May 0.697 6 3 (50%) 3 (50%) June -0.8 6 4 (66.67%) 2 (33.33%) July -5.454 6 2 (33.33%) 4 (66.67%) August -3.879 6 1 (16.67%) 5 (83.33%) September 4.653 6 5 (83.33%) 1 (16.67%) October 8.499 6 6 (100%) 0 (0%) November 0.181 5 2 (40%) 3 (60%) December 10.092 6 6 (100%) 0 (0%)

________________________

Comments »

_________________________

All of the bullish engulfing candles, oversized hammers, and bullish piercing line candles printed on Tuesday will not amount to much if the bulls do not confirm the upside reversal with a further move higher sometime in the next few days. It is always a dangerous proposition to place too great a significance on any one Japanese candlestick, which means that enthusiasm should be tempered for now. As evidence, consider the carnage that impacted bulls who automatically assumed the “hammer” printed on the S&P 500 daily chart on August 3rd of this year meant we had certainly bottomed. Not only did we crater the next day, but we have not come within 30 S&P points of the highs of that hammer since.

Should the bulls mean business this time, though, the issue is where to look for longs. You can pick through beaten-down garbagio, such as FWLT PWER TEX, but I have had more success sticking with winners who had outperformed a nasty market. Two such names are seen below. Note how price is above all moving averages with solid volume patterns to boot–Quite an accomplishment considering the ferocious broad market selling we have seen.

_________________________

_________________________

Comments »

_______________________

The following stocks continue to impressively outperform the market, and are showing strength in absolute terms too. Note how they have similar chart patterns over the past week especially, with shallow dips followed by strength today. Clearly, they did not fall as much as many other stocks and the broad induces last week. As I discussed on my video recap for Monday, the bulls still have their work cut out for them going forward. However, there is no excuse for not being prepared by arming your watchlist with the best of the best performing stocks.

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

Comments »

We have a nice move by the bulls this afternoon after two headfakes earlier today. I am watching the following ideas into tomorrow.

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

 

Comments »

_________________________

Although the overall market is on very shaky ground here, Lifeway Foods (LWAY) has emerged as a real winner with their Kefir line of drinkable yogurts. The dairy related firms have been showing relative strength to the market at various points throughout this year, and the chart of Lifeway below illustrates that trend is persisting. The stock does trade thinly, so be careful with market orders. Also keep an eye on DF in the dairy space.

1120 on the S&P 500 is still the key level to watch that trumps all else, but if it holds then it pays to be prepared with stocks showing relative strength.

_________________________

Comments »