ryanbrennan's blog

By Lawrence G. McMillan

One system that we normally trade is the one that says the market declines the week after September expiration.  This definition of “expiration” goes back to the days before weekly options, so it refers to the third Friday of the month (today, September 15th).  Last year, this system did not work, but it has produced profits in 22 of the last 27 years.  The track record is shown below.  Note that a negative number is “win” (i.e., the market went down) while a positive number is a “loss.”

By Lawrence G. McMillan

On Monday, September 11th (a date we will never forget), $SPX broke out to new all-time highs. There hasn't been a lot of follow-through after that, but those highs have been retained.

The importance of these new highs is that they distinctly turn the charts positive. The $SPX chart now has support at 2480 (the old highs), as well as at 2460 and every 20 points down, all the way to 2400.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Late last week, $SPX broke out above a minor downtrend line, accompanied by buy signals from several indicators. It appeared that a move to new all-time highs was imminent.

However, those plans have stalled. $SPX did challenge the previous highs at 2480 but was unable to break through. This week it has struggled. So, at this time, the $SPX chart needs to break out over 2480 to be classified as strongly bullish. Otherwise it's in a trading range, from roughly 2400 to 2480.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

By Lawrence G. McMillan

$SPX has staged a rally that began on Tuesday's opening (August 29th) and has lasted three full days to date. The result was a breakout through the downtrend line that had been in place (see Figure 1), and that has turned the $SPX chart bullish.

On the downside, the first support level is 2440. Tuesday's rally has also left 2428 as a support area, to go along with 2420, and then the major support area at 2400. A close below 2440 be a enough to negate the current upside breakout, in my opinion.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Despite the media euphoria over recent rally days, the $SPX chart remains short-term negative because of the downtrend lines (see Figure 1). So far, this is showing no signs of being more than a short-term correction, though. It would take a breakdown through major support at 2400 in order to turn the $SPX chart truly bearish.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

By Lawrence G. McMillan

VXX will be reverse split 1-for-4, before trading begins on Wednesday, August 23rd.   It is a bit ironic that VXX is finally starting to rise so the reverse split might not be necessary, but this was probably in the “works” well before the recent announcement date.  

For existing VXX options, the striking price will remain the same, but the “shares per contract” will drop to 25 from 100.  Those existing VXX options will henceforth have the underlying symbol VXX2.■