The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index SPX, rallied off the support level at 4330 in mid-August, and things looked quite rosy for a while. But that rally may have just been an oversold reaction, and not the start of a new leg of the bull market, as the bulls had hoped.
Breadth has deteriorated badly over the past few trading sessions. So, the buy signals that had been established on August 28th have already been stopped out and replaced by sell signals. This is our shortest-term indicator, and it is sometimes subject to these whipsaws. The previous sell signal, which began at the beginning of August, was a longer-lasting signal, but that has become more of the exception than the norm.
So as long as SPX remains above 4330, a bullish case can be made. In the short term, that case is coming under attack after the failure of the recent rally at the 4500 level. In any case, we will continue to trade confirmed signals around a “core” bullish position.BKR had a strong move upward in July and then spent most of August consolidating those gains. Now it has broken out again to the upside, accompanied by strong stock and option volume patterns.Set a trailing stop at 35.
Long 6 ORIC ORIC, +0.68% Sept 7.5 calls: The stock is strong, as it made a new yearly high yesterday. Raise the stop to 8.40.