Sunday, January 11, 2009

At the bottom end of a narrowing range

This weekend I've been looking at this rising wedge/pennant pattern that seems to be present in all the major indexes. It starts in late November when the last 52 week lows were made and coincides with a seasonally strong period of time. Volume has declined as the range narrowed and it seems something is about to give. Friday's action suggests we may be headed lower since all the major averages except the Russell 2000 closed and the Q's back below their 50 day moving averages. Below I've got the double Russell 200 etf UWM, which I bought on Friday at $19.19.

Given the late action on Friday (which involved 50 dma breaks) I'm not so comfortable with this new position which I was buying at potential 50 dma support. If we slip much below this level I will once again be worried that the long term down trend is continuing (and get the heck out of UWM). Its not over for the bulls just yet though, we are merely at the lower end of the rising and narrowing range. The daily stochastics have given a sell but the CCI is holding.

If the market doesn't breakdown here then one long term chart I keep looking at and like is the ICE weekly. It seems to have good support around $60 and it's 50 dma is beginning to slope upwards:
I own some ICE with a stop at $60, and frankly, I am not worried about all the analyst downgrades last week. Analysts have proven their ineptitude to me time and time again, I view their opinions as buying opportunities in this case. First off all, ICE stands to benefit from the new CDS exchange system being developed. Further, they will see higher volumes from a renewed interest in commodities as they bottom. ICE actually announced record volumes last Tuesday in energy contracts. Read: record volumes->record revenues or analysts are wrong. But of course, I'm in it for the chart.

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