By Lawrence G. McMillan
The last two weeks seem like they took two months. It’s hard to believe, but two weeks ago, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was near the high end of its range, with positive technical indicators, and an upside breakout seemed a possibility.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (MarketWatch) — Heading into Tuesday, I didn’t think the market could act any worse, but it did. It’s almost impossible to fathom that the market was rising with improving technicals eight trading sessions ago.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Suddenly, the stock market started to develop "religion" about the U.S. debt situation, and sold off sharply this week.
In one sense, this is like any other "event" -- an FDA hearing or a potentially volatile earnings report: the underlying has trouble moving decisively in either direction until the event has passed.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Until today, the market didn’t seem to be reacting too badly to the standoff taking place in Washington, regarding the raising of the debt ceiling and the possible downgrading of U.S. government debt.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Thursday's breakout upside move in the stock market has solidified the indicators together into a bullish posture. The chart of $SPX held onto a bullish picture even though the selling in the past two weeks was heavy at times. The 20-day moving average has been rising all along, and the index never closed meaningfully below that average
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained bullish, as they have continued to decline from their high peaks of a month ago.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market staged a strong rally on Tuesday. Was it just a “Turnaround Tuesday” — a reaction to an oversold condition that had developed via the heavy selling of last week — or was it a true change of sentiment from bearish to bullish? To answer that question, we can look to our technical indicators, for several of them are right on the brink of turning bullish. The bulls actually had a strong chance to effect that change today, and they did not.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market had a powerful showing Tuesday with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallying 1.6% for the day. Market indicators suggest a potential 100-point rise in the index over the next few months.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market is finally staging a strong rally. Is it just a “Turnaround Tuesday” thing, or have the bears fumbled the ball (they weren’t moving it very well anyway)? I’m sure there’s plenty of room for debate regarding either of those stances, and both are probably true to some extent.
Today’s move solidifies support on $SPX at 1295-1300, and that remains an important area. On the upside, the important level to overcome would be the 1330 level.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Put-call ratios are excellent measures of the sentiment of the general option-trading community. When the sentiment is that "too many" people are buying puts or calls, it is worthwhile to pay attention, for the majority are normally wrong at major turning points, and their actions can be interpreted into a market trading signal.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market action this week has been quite bearish and, frankly, quite out of character in terms of the indicators, but it may also be a rather severe reaction to the overbought conditions that had built up.
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) had strong upside momentum a week ago, but ran into resistance very near the April highs.
Equity-only put-call ratios are bullish and have remained bullish even during this week's decline.
