The Trailing Stop

Follow Through

Yesterday I commented that we really needed another solid day of advance before we could feel like we were headed up. We got that day overall but some quarters were not along for the ride. I remain unconvinced, and continue to look for a consolidation in the overall market. That being said, this could have been a disastrous week, with the Iraq elections, a Fed Meeting, and the State of the Union - instead we get tentative positive movement. I think we'll see more of the same today.

Our picks from yesterday did well, with 4 advances, 3 declines, and one sitting tight. The one with no movement was PTA, one of my purchases. Alas, I did not review the average daily volume on PTA, which is something I usually evaluate. Here was have less than 200,000 shares traded daily - something that would have made me take a pass had a noticed it before.

Good trading!

A Great Day! (or Not?)

Those of you excited about yesterday's performance may not want to read on, as I hate to burst what is probably a perfectly justifiable bubble.

Today seemed to be an across the board good day, with the gainers vs losers at 710 to 240. This is generally a very strong indicator. My trepidation lies with the fact that yesterday's number was 801 to 169.  I would have felt better if our Iraq election enthusiasm had continued with vigor rather then beginning to taper. Two data points do not make a trend, so today we'll add a third, but with the Fed expected to raise rates a quarter-point again,  don't expect to much jubilance. All bets are off if they go more or less than a quarter point, of course.