Trade of the Day - LKQ Corporation (NASDAQ: LKQX)

The pre-market mood was deceptive given the bullish tech M&A (MSFT/YHOO) story versus the disappointing jobs data. I didn't want to chase stocks that already had been in bounce mode prior to this morning à la CROX and CELG, both of which gapped and produced wide, green OR bars on the 15 minute time frame. The usual suspects and last year's big tech leaders were weak again off the open (AAPL, AMZN, RIMM, BIDU, GRMN).

So I decided to take my time and look at all the WL stocks. The setup taking shape on the LKQX 15 min. chart reminded of something I read yesterday on Tom C's blog. A long upper shadow can be bullish if it is followed by a bullish inside bar.

Basically, LKQX opened strong, tested gap resistance from Wednesday, and retraced, resulting in a long upper shadow. The next bar moves towards R1 and, as we can see on the 5 min. time frame below, carves out 2 NRBs, so I decide to go long. Price easily breaks through gap resistance and R2 on 3/15.

A quick look at the daily time frame and I map out my daily spots, the first of which is $19.00, a strong former support area, and now, a likely resistance area. As price approaches that level, I lock in some profit. There's not much else to say except, following a tight midday consolidation, it just continued up, closing just above the 50 DMA, halfway up to the next daily PP. Sweet!

My next trade was a low risk, B&B off of a NRIB in NVDA. The SOX was in the midst of a momo bottom reversal and this is my favorite semi stock.