Where Did All The Volume Go?; Huge Rally With Weak Close And Low Volume Is Not Bullish For The Market Long-Term
March 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was beyond a great day for the stock market, once again, for the second day in-a-row, as the Nasdaq led the way higher with a 3% gain that had many market participants jumping for joy. Too bad all that jumping for joy was not celebrated alongside large institutional investors who decided to stay away from the market today as I guess they did not want to be part of the short-covering rally. And with volume coming in well below the 50 day volume average you can be sure that that is exactly what we saw today. It was just your usual bull bounce in an overall bearish market environment.
That bounce was given credit due to JPM buying BSC for $10 a share instead of $2. This whole thing sounds crooked to me and I will just leave the action in BSC to that. But, this news was given credit, on top of some good existing-home sales data, for today’s gains. Well, you know what news would have been better with today’s 3% gain? NO NEWS. It is a huge rally on large volume that comes with no news and a lot of stocks breaking out that gets me more exciting than any other news headline I could possibly see. It almost gets me as excited as the bottom callers who call a constant bottom in this market, are wrong 5 times before they are right once, and then when they get a tiny bounce dance in the streets that all is well.
I forgot what it was like to be involved in a stock market where price action is so rough yet so many “traders” can’t stand still and keep trading their pants off like it was a rip-roaring bull market. But here I am in one again for the first time since 2000-2002. It is incredible how not even ten years can go by and yet we have still forgotten all the lessons we should have learned there. The bottoms callers today sound just like the bottom callers then. They are so sure this is a bottom that the put/call has fallen to .80.
DJIA Leads The Way As BSC Rocks The Stock Market On Mixed Volume; How Can This Be A Bottom Without A HUGE Surge In Volume On the Nasdaq And NYSE? It Can’t Be!
March 17, 2008 | 2 Comments
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Stocks gapped lower after a horrible announcement by JPM that they bought BSC for $2 a share. Now, while I don’t want to gloat on this, I just want to say that for the 100th time in my life I have warned a bunch of traders to not buy a certain stock and yet they still do it. There was one reader from Santa Barbara from RealMoney.com that attacked me 8 days ago for telling him BSC was a POS. Well here we are from $75 to $4 and yet still no apology. No, thank you. No, I am sorry. Just a big pile of nothing. From Eugj to BHCO to Gerard to WillPS to SCO to Geoffrey from Santa Barbara: all of these characters have called me out and told me that I did not know what they were doing and EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY WERE PROVEN WRONG AND EVERY SINGLE TIME I DIDN’T RECEIVE A SINGLE I AM SORRY OR THANK YOU. Is this what our world has come to? 
Oh well, there is no doubt I have become a sensitive character in my old age and things like this bugs me now. I just don’t know how yet to act when it comes to responding to jackoffs that make themselves out to be major idiots. I guess I will learn to ignore it in the future. The exact same way I ignore going long any stock below the 50 day moving average or go short stocks above the 50 DMA.
Possible Stagflation?; Stocks Lose Ground On Higher Volume, Giving The Market Its Second Distribution Day
April 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started the day weak on the back of data from the NAR announcing that they expected existing home sales to fall in 2007-the first drop in 38 yrs-and also see lower existing and new home sales in the short term. That combined with higher gas prices weighed on stocks early. But once again the dip buyers showed up and started to bid stocks higher. That was until the Fed March meeting minutes came out at 2pm. That promptly sent stocks to new lows on the day before they received a minor bid into the close. Read more
Stocks Rally Again And Close Near Their HOD, On Stronger Volume; Volume Well Below The 50 Day Volume Average
April 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks performed the same way as they have been recently, with the markets gapping up, selling off, and then finding dip-buyers to help bring them off their lows and sending them near their highs by the close. All of this happened despite a very healthy amount of bad news from the housing and mortgage industry. Almost half of my links that I received today involved stories about the housing and lending markets. However, stocks digested the data and did what they have been doing recently rallying the rest of the day. Read more
Traders Take An Extra Day Off; Stocks Dance Around And Close Basically Flat, On Slightly Higher Volume.
April 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stock investors returned from a long three-day Easter weekend to a very inactive market. Even though trading was pretty wild, choppy and volatile today, the market still traded in a very narrow range and basically did not move from Thursday’s close. Read more
HAPPY EASTER!!!, HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!!, AND HAPPY PESACH (PASSOVER)!!!; Stocks End Short Week With More Gains On Light Trade
April 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started the morning off with a gap lower on the back of a currency tightening measures in China. But after the gap lower, stocks steadily climbed higher on very quiet trade for the rest of the day. That reversal off the gap lower was caused by the Labor Department announcing that jobless claims this week fell within forecast. Those jobless claims this week rose by 11,000 to 321,000.
Also helping to lift stocks was a couple of merger and acquisition related announcements. Kirk Kerkorian has made a $4.5 billion bid for DCX and WEBM agreed to be acquired by Software AG. WEBM rose 27% on the announcement. This now puts the 1Q M&A deals up 27% over this time last year. $1.1 trillion worth of M&A deals this year has us on pace to beat last years record. More amazing is private equity deals. Those have risen 47%, year-over-year in 2007 so far.
Combine the positive jobless claims with the M&A deals, and with most traders taking Thursday off to have a very long weekend, and you had a recipe perfect for higher stock prices, despite oil climbing back over $64 on the news that the EIA saying that oil inventories declined for the eight-week in a row.
HAPPY EASTER!!!, HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!!, AND HAPPY PESACH (PASSOVER)!!!; Stocks End Short Week With More Gains On Light Trade
April 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks started the morning off with a gap lower on the back of a currency tightening measures in China. But after the gap lower, stocks steadily climbed higher on very quiet trade for the rest of the day. That reversal off the gap lower was caused by the Labor Department announcing that jobless claims this week fell within forecast. Those jobless claims this week rose by 11,000 to 321,000. Read more
Stocks Revert Back To Old Ways; A Day Of Back And Forth Meaningless Trading Ends With Stocks Slightly Higher On Lower Volume
April 5, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Stocks went back to their old ways of not doing much intraday but boring us to death, after a few important economic numbers hit the wires. The ISM service index fell to 52.4 in March from 54.3 in February. Expectations were for 54.7, so obviously this was not good news. The prices paid index rose to 63.3 in March from 53.8 in February, indicating inflation is still very real. Also, according to the Census Bureau’s factory orders, orders fell 1% in February after being down 5.7% in January. These numbers, overall, were very weak and not bullish. However, the market managed to put in more gains despite these poor economic numbers. Read more
Stocks Finally Provide The Confirmation To The March 21st Follow-Through; Nasdaq Leads Market Higher, On Higher Volume
April 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Possible good news out of Iran over the release of the 15 hostages, oil prices falling 2% to $64.64 as the result of the possible release, positive foreign market gains in Europe and Asia, and positive news from the housing market was just what the market needed, as stocks gapped higher, held the gains, and rallied into the close to close near their HOD. Read more
Stocks End Slightly Higher, Across The Board, On Low Volume; 3rd Day In-A-Row Stocks Reverse Intraday Selling
April 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It was a busy day of economic data and merger & acquisition news, kicking off a week of what is going to be a economic data-filled short week. Stocks got off to a good start, gapping higher, with M & A news all over the headlines. FDC received a bid from Kohlber Karvis Roberts, GISX agreed to a takeover by XRX, and TRB agreed to be bought by Sam Zell. Read more
