I liked what I saw in the markets today. It was as quiet as could be but at this point I think that is good. A little consolidation under the highs and above the MA’s is probably healthy, and we also saw an uptick in volume.

GS, XLF & IWM which had all been acting poorly outperformed nicely today with volume along to make it more believable. This is by no means a game changer but it was encouraging.

My feeling is that this Dubai situation could have been one of those events that got people to move to the sidelines after such a strong move off the bottom. You can envision a scenario when folks start saying ok we’ve had a good year let’s lock it in and start over in January. That looked like it might have been the case early Friday but there was no follow through. Barring unforeseen disasters this market it feels like it wants to close the year at or close to the highs.

When I have trade ideas I usually like to see a nice clean defined entry point. For example buy XYZ when it breaks through 30 on good volume and relative strength. It allows for nice clean entry’s, well defined stop losses and it cuts down on imagining entry spots. Due to the recent choppiness nice clean spots are harder to come by, so if you don’t see a number next to the symbol use the most recent highs or lows for entry. This makes the rate of failure higher so make sure you have good volume and strong relative strength or weakness.

wcrx 24.65
aee 26.1
jag
amed short
axp 42ish
bcr
cme 330
flr 42 short
sbux 22.1
snda 51