Happy Easter StockBandits!
Last week the indexes gave up a little ground to work their way lower within their respective short-term trading ranges. That meant declines of around 1%, give or take, but no change of character hit the tape so there wasn’t anything of technical significance.
In the short term, this puts the burden of proof on the bulls again as they have a shot at defending some recent support, although for the intermediate term they have little to prove. Every dip has been bought going back to last October, so with the market just a relatively short distance from highs here, we don’t have reason yet to expect anything ugly. The fact is that the overall trends are still up, even if over the past couple of weeks we’ve been moving laterally.
My watch lists remain lopsidedly bullish, although there are some names exhibiting weakness. I think as traders we continue to favor the general trend, but consider plays in both directions as they come. Naturally, that should produce more long-sided plays while the overall strength persists.
We still have a few weeks before the majority of earnings reports hit, so the focus should remain on the technicals at this point. A lot of stocks are acting well, but with the market not showing much momentum here the key will be to patiently let the setups mature before taking action. That’s how I’ll be handling it at least as we head into a new week of trading.
I’ll cover my game plan for tomorrow in the video, and as always, feel free to share your own thoughts, trade ideas, and questions down below in the comments section.
Here is tonight’s video:
The Bandit Broadcast Video – Click to Watch!
Video Stocks Discussed: UNH, ZION, ROK, LGF, NFLX, AET, AXP, BTU, TEX
Swing Trading Candidates:
TEX has been range-bound for several weeks but looks to have stabilized here in the lower portion of the range. The lower boundary is too far away in terms of risk, so I’m keeping a tighter stop for this one as per the intraday chart highlighted in the video. I’ll be a buyer if this one clears the trend line at $23.30. As with all swing trades, my stop and target levels for this stock are on the Hit List here inside the Hideout.
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The Hit List is a separate post which contains discussion on open positions and swing trade stops and targets, so be sure to check it for further details on swing trades.
