Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Wedgie in the indices

I took off half the SKF yesterday and moved stops. Because (repeat after me) We Never, Ever Let a 25% Weekend Move Get Away. Plus, the double-short products are just a pure shit ripoff. They're intraday-only.

All three indices look to me to be at the bottom trendline of a wedge. A break of that downtrend line could mean a lot of downside for the markets. A bounce could be a big move up.

I went back to the bible, Edwards & Magee's "Technical Analysis of Stock Trends," and looked up the pattern of a wedge.

Tell me how well their comments have held up:

Rising wedges are common in bear market rallies. Magee says that it is so typical that frequent appearances of wedges after an extensive decline bring about questions as to whether a new bull trend is in place. Does that sound familiar?

Another item of note is that it normally takes more than three weeks to complete. We've got that. And once prices break out of the wedge to the downside they usually waste little time before declining in earnest.

We're still somewhat overbought, not as bad as it was a week ago.

I would lean to the short side here, with the caveat that it's hard to make money during earnings season either way.

Geithner speaks, or rather obfuscates, late morning. Last time, it was worth a 100 point Dow bounce. The plan is to stay neutral until he speaks. If you want to be long, some oil might be good on a reversal.

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