Monday, June 02, 2008

NASDAQ Technical Picture - Bearish Gap Sell-off to Start the Month




Although volume was lighter, there was no lack of catalysts this Monday morning to get the month started on a bearish note. Europeon bank weakness spilled over the pond with a string of broker/dealer downgrades and target revisions, followed by S&Ps reduced credit ratings for Lehman, Merrill, and Morgan Stanley.

Looks like our mini H&S top on the NASDAQ is finally taking shape. Tomorrow I'll be watching the 50 SMA on the intraday chart to hold as resistance.

I noticed that there are no shares available for shorting GRMN on IB. I also see that it has carved out a bullish three point base (looks somewhat like an inverted H&S bottom). Could be a short squeeze here, so keep it on the focus list.

4 comments:

PDT said...

Sucks about the whole Briefing.com situation.

I have two questions regarding your comments about GRMN.

1) How can you tell there are no shares available for GRMN. Is this some sort of feature in IB?

2) Could the head and RS of the H&S pattern also be considered a C&H? There is a nice volume contraction during the handle. Either way, the targeted move would be the same I guess. Just curious on your thoughts.

Thanks.

TJ said...

Hey PDT,

1. Yes, There's a color code column you can add which tells you immediately when you enter a stock symbol, if it is available for shorting. There are three codes, apple green is shortable, red not and forest green - few shares available.

It's a great feature when you are trading gaps, otherwise, you won't know on a short until you you pull the trigger. And you might have wasted several hours waiting for the pattern to develop, only to find out, there are no shares available.

2. Yes, I thought so too when I was analyzing the chart.

A good trade. I traded it off of the 5 min. bull flag this am.

PDT said...

Thanks for the tip.

Are you referring to the bull flag that forms right on R2? Which one was your entry?

Good trading!

TJ said...

Yeah, right at the half dollar point, it's perfect when it lines up with a half or whole dollar number.