Professor’s Comments December 31, 2013

Posted by OMS  at December 31st, 2013

Stocks marked time yesterday in low volume pre-Holiday trading.  The Dow was up 25, but the SPX finished flat.  Volume was only 77 percent of its 10-day average.  There were 185 new highs and 52 new lows.

I expect that today’s trading will be very similar to yesterdays, as most traders on the Street will be going home about noon, even though the markets will remain open until 4pm.

One thing that I did note from yesterday was the positive end of month / year pre-Holiday bias.  And given that the first few days of the New Year are usually very Bullish, I would expect this positive bias to continue a bit longer. Looking back, this positive bias has kicked off major rallies for the last two years, rallies that continued on for months.  However this has not always been the case.  What is more typical is a positive first few days followed by a correction once the institutions complete their portfolio re-balancing.  So be careful.  With the SPX now less than 20 points from where I expect stiff pattern resistance to develop, all I’m doing now is managing money.

I did watch a few stocks from the Honor Roll yesterday and even though all of them finished up, it was like watching paint dry.

Total SA (TOT) was the strongest of yesterday’s picks, finishing up 0.90 cents.  AMGN and MRK were only up fractionally.  GPOR continued to develop its Blade, closing up 0.11 cents at 61.24.  AMGN and GPOR have nice patterns, and IF the market starts to rally on 2 January, I would expect these stocks to be among the market leaders.

Also, continue to watch JCI.  It was highlighted by Emeritus about a week ago and hasn’t done anything since.  But that’s exactly what makes it so interesting now.  Because it hasn’t done anything, the Blade of a beautiful Hockey Stick Pattern continues to form.  Currently, JCI is not on the MWL. But we know that it’s just under the cut off.  If the re-appears on the List in the next few days, I will become very interested.

With Emeritus remaining quiet last night in his stock selection, I too will be calling it quits early.

This will likely be my last post until after the New Year’s Holiday. If I see something start to develop, I’ll post it.

I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

That’s what I’m doing,

h

Not sure of the terminology we use? Check out these articles

The Hockey Stick Pattern
The Creation of Waves and Trends
FAQ

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