Given that the volume was low again, my plays worked out fairly well. I entered FSLR long in the morning and sold shortly after. Also, had MGM which I sold later in the day. Before close, I entered short with FWLT. Also, I am holding $ES_F short overnight.

Due to time constraints I am going to write sporadically. I am trying out some new trading methods with individual high beta stocks. Here is a list for Monday - 12/28/2009. These are meant to be fairly short-term 1-5 day holding period trades. I may trade some of these myself and will tweet them if I do.

potential plays:

aig - short below 30 or long above 30.73
amag - short with stop loss at 39.15
amzn - short below 137.5 and long above 139.7
bidu - short below 414.15
ctrp - short below 73.01 or long above 73.36
drys - short below 6.02
fslr - long with stop at 132.80
gnw - long with stop at 11.79
hdb - long above 130.5 or short below 129.5
ice - long above 109.72 or short below 109.15
joyg - short below 54
ma - short below 254.54 or long above 255.81
masi - setting up for long or short
mgm - short below 9.42
mr - setting up for long or short
sina - setting up for long or short
vprt - setting up for long or short
wynn - short below 59.02

MY TOP SHORT PLAYS ARE:

HDB
MGM

MY TOP LONG PLAYS ARE:

FSLR
ICE

Let's see how this plays out on Monday.

S&P 500 close = 1095.95

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = L

____________________________________________________________

Markets started down, ended up. The short-term trend is back up for now, but should be viewed with caution. I am skeptical of this bounce even though things are a little oversold and we are in the bottom end of the trading range. I have been pretty much sitting on the sidelines for now until I get a better feeling for this market. It is so tied to the $USD right now that it is really a day traders market and things can shift in a matter of minutes.

Levels to watch for tomorrow:

1098 - resistance

1085-1086 - support

I WILL NOT BE WRITING FOR A FEW WEEKS.

S&P 500 close = 1091.94

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = S

Intermediate (SWING) trend = S (12/7/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = NONE (purchase price = $0)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = NONE

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

Although the market opening looked quite bleak, the pullback was fairly controlled. I think we may see a little weakness tomorrow followed by buying. Until we break out of this trading range I have been talking about, I don't think the markets will do anything different. In other words, we will likely ping pong between the current trading range.

Levels to watch for tomorrow:

1098 - key resistance to break to revert the short-term trend back to up

1088 - today's low should serve as support tomorrow

S&P 500 close = 1103.25

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = S

Intermediate (SWING) trend = S (12/7/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = NONE (purchase price = $0)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = NONE

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

Markets are in a totally non-trending phase. This is a good time for a trend trader like me to stay out of the market. It is very hard to find an edge in this kind of a market. Although, the short term support was broken today at 1106, I am a little hesitant to even call it a new short-term trend. Will watch for now until markets find direction.

Levels to watch for tomorrow:

1110 - resistance

1096-1098 - support

S&P 500 close = 1105.98

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = S

Intermediate (SWING) trend = S (12/4/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = NONE (purchase price = $0)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = NONE

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

You have not traded in the last week or so you are wiser than me. The markets have been so whippy as of late that the longs and shorts are constantly getting stopped out for a loss. This happened to me on Friday after going short on Thursday. I was up nicely as of close on Thursday and then the Friday gap up stopped me out for a decent loss. It has become a day trader's market. Swing and position trading is a little difficult right now.

The markets are still in an uptrend on the longer frame charts. Take a look at this daily chart, the trend line is up and the market is essentially in an uptrending channel. The last few weeks have been a trading range. Take a look at this 60 min chart, you see the range bound action between 1080 area and 1120. I had mentioned a week ago that we would likely hit the 1121 area. We came within 2 points of this on Friday. This represents the 50% retracement level from the all time highs to the low of march at 666. If you believe in fibonacci levels, you know that the golden levels at 38.2%, 50%, and 61.8%. The markets will often revert after retracing to one of these levels. I would not be suprised to see a multiweek pullback to start. The other possibility is that we retrace to the 61.8% level that would put us near 1228. I cannot predict which will happen, but I think it would be wise to take some off of the table if you have been lucky enough to ride this run up from March.

Let's see if the markets finally break out of the trading range this week and find some direction.

S&P 500 close = 1099.92

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = S

Intermediate (SWING) trend = S (12/3/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = TZA (purchase price = $11.57 AND 11.81)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = 11.35

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

Markets broke down a little today and the short term trend reversed. I bought TZA on the break of Russell 596 and then again at 592. I think we could see a move back down to the lower end of the recent multi-week trading range which would put us at around 1085 on the S&P 500 and around 575 on the Russell 2000.

Levels to watch for tomorrow:

S&P 500:

1097 - small gap and potential support

Russell 2000:

581 - small gap and potential support

S&P 500 close = 1109.24

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = L

Intermediate (SWING) trend = L (12/1/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = None (purchase price = $0)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = NONE

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

Choppy boring day in the markets today after a nice gain yesterday. Markets are still overbought, in particular, keep an eye on the Russell 2000 tomorrow. If Russell breaks 592, short term trend will reverse and cause a sell off. Levels to watch for tomorrow:

S&P 500:

1115 - resistance

1105 - support

Russell 2000:

599 - resistance

592 - support

S&P 500 close = 1108.86

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = L

Intermediate (SWING) trend = L (12/1/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = None (purchase price = $0)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = NONE

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

Well, from oversold we became overbought in one day! I think this trading range between 1080 and 1112 area could last for a while. At this point the markets just keep getting whipsawed by good news and bad news. Not sure what real good news is at this point when the markets are near their highs.

Tomorrow should likely be a day of consolidation which will then setup for a move back down or potentially a break out to the upside from the trading range.

Levels to watch for tomorrow:

1112-1113 - strong resistance due to multiple rejections at this level

1103 - decent support

1082-1086 - strong area of support

S&P 500 close = 1095.63

Long-term trend = L

Short-term trend = S

Intermediate (SWING) trend = S (11/27/09)
Intermediate (SWING) position = None (purchase price = $0)
Intermediate (SWING) stop loss level = NONE

(click on link on the right to see 'swing trade performance')
(ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE INTRADAY)
____________________________________________________________

My trading has been halted this week due to personal obligations. Thus, I will not be tweeting much this week.

Looks like the markets chopped around for most of yesterday with a decent end of day finish that did not take out the intraday high of 1097. Markets are oversold in the short-term and we could see a bounce tomorrow. Levels to watch for tomorrow:

1099 - a break of this level would reverse the short term trend back to up

1092-1086 - strong band of support