Engulfed

What is with this crazy market? Don't get me wrong; a triple-digit down day on the Dow is terrific. But this market is heading for the nut house.

Over the past trading week, there have been two instances of big bearish engulfing patterns on the $NDX. Today's was a whopper. Having a superstar like EBAY up in the double digits at the open and yet have a wipe-out like this is really encouraging.


The $SPX bounced off that resistance line beautifully. The market still has no direction, though. It's neither bullish nor bearish. Just schizo.


The rest are straight-up short ideas. AMX:


AutoZone (AZO), still in the stratosphere:


Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL), approaching resistance:


Black and Decker (BDK):


Goldman Sachs (GS), finally getting a reversal:


LLL:


NutriSystem (NTRI), with its cup and handle pattern failing:


RTI:


Sears Holding (SHLD), also weakening:


Now for your occasional clip of the day! The world's worst weatherman. Brace yourselves.

Sub-12K. Tim Says Yay.

The Dow was able to close for ten days in a row above the 12,000 level. Not today, though. We're back into 11,xxx territory. Let's hope it stays that way! For years!

As usual, I've got a number of charts to share with you that you might find of interest. First up is a long (you heard right) suggestion, symbol CRR. Looks pretty battered to me, and the swell in volume recently indicates a possible change in direction.


Now onto more familiar territory - the shorts! Here's FMX:


LLL looks good:


I like how MCK is playing against these Fib fans:


MTW looks like a good double top:


NVR is thinly traded, but a good topping pattern:


Finally, these's QQQQ. Check out the similarity between the two sections of the RSI indicator. To me, this suggests the QQQQs (and, therefore, the $NDX) are headed much lower.

What a Week

This was quite a week. 12,000 pierced. A close above 12,000. It even managed to end the week above 12,000 (by 77/100ths of a point. Blowout earnings from GOOG. And a tidal wave of earnings reports, few of them shockingly bad.

If there's an opposite of fear and panic, we have it right now. The VIX pushed even below the trendline I drew for it a while back. These are epic low levels of complacency in the market.


Someone asked yesterday in the comments section about where I place stops. It depends on the chart. There's no set percentage or anything. That would be arbitrary. Take LLL, for instance, which I own puts on right now. I have an order to sell the puts at the market price if the underlying stock goes above 80. It's not based on a formula. It's based on the chart, and every chart is different.


I'm still 99% short right now (with a fair bit of cash on the sidelines), but here's a couple of long ideas for you. There's Redback Networks (RBAK):


As well as Sears (SHLD), which I've bashed for the longest time, but I cannot help but admire its gorgeous pattern. This has got to be the most perfect cup-with-handle pattern I've ever seen. It's beyond me why everyone on the planet would suddenly start buying their leisure suits and knit pants at Sears, but the chart doesn't lie.


I haven't indiscretely shown my positions in a while, so they are below (those that will fit on the screen, anyway; I ran out of room). As always, click on the picture (and any picture on this blog) to see a bigger version.


This market is in a "watched pot never boils" situation, and it's tiresome, I know. Some think we'll have to wait until after the elections are over. Some think we'll have to wait until January. And plenty of people think there's no such thing as a bear market anymore. Time will tell.