Trader Mike's Notes

These notes are here primarily to show my process and how I use the scans to find setups. This is NOT an attempt to be a stock picking service! I want people to use the site's extensive functionality to find their own setups which match their trading plans, strategies & risk tolerances.
OLLI - Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc.

The "Calm After Storm" is always the first scan I check each day and that's where I found OLLI. It had a pop (the storm) after updating their guidance on the 11th. It's been consolidating since then. I'll be looking to get long if it can clear its 200 & 50-day moving averages, which it's been struggling with.

QQQ - PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1
QQQ

We've had a pretty good snapback rally for the market since the Christmas Eve debacle. QQQ is about 12% higher than its close on December 24th. As always, the question is what's next. I see that stochastic (14, 3, 3) for QQQ hit overbought levels today. It along with the other indices (and index ETFs) are closing in on their 50-day moving averages. Those moving average lines are sloping downward pretty steeply, so they *should* provide some resistance.

EMLC - Market Vectors Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond ETF

Interesting, there are a few emerging market ETFs on the Expansion Breakout scan today.

SPY - SPDR S&P 500
SPY

Yet another note about the market in general. Today the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Wilshire 5000 made new 52-week closing lows. There's almost nothing but red on the General Market Overview page and the % of stocks above their 50-day moving averages sits at 14. So we're in full "everything is terrible" mode! It's almost like the market is trying to look as bad as possible in time for the Federal Reserve meeting in a couple of days. For bull-only folks (those who don't short sell), it's a good time to prune your watchlists and add those stocks that you'd like to buy once the market firms up. We may be primed for a short-term relief rally / oversold bounce. So that could be a good chance for some quick trades and/or to lighten up on some longs. It'll be interesting to see how the market reacts to whatever the Fed days & does this week.

SPY - SPDR S&P 500
SPY

Another note about the Trend Table for the indices. My last note pointed out how it was all red and I thought we had to get "some kind of bounce". Well that was almost *the* bottom. Today a lot of that red flipped to green as a few indices rose above their 50 and/or 200-day moving averages. So the picture is a lot prettier (if you're a bull). But I'll also note that that trend table is almost all green now, so if you believe in mean reversion, expect to see some red or yellow creep in, most likely in the short-term trends.