Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Market closes mixed with declining volume

The NASDAQ closed higher for the 6th time out of 7 days as volume continues to remain above average. Today appeared on the onset it would be a day of consolidation, but the NASDAQ would have none of that. While volume remains above average for the NASDAQ the S&P 500 continues to remain below the key volume moving average. A sign Institutions are more interested in NASDAQ composite stocks than the S&P 500. A pull back is certainly in the cards and would be a welcome sign to consolidate the recent gains. However, our trend remains up and until this situation changes we are positioned accordingly.

Tomorrow we get a bit of economic data in the morning and it will be all about retail sales figures. Forecasts are for sales to jump .20% and I wonder to myself: “do economists ever get anything right?” They don’t, it is meaningless to position yourself based upon a hunch or opinion. NO ONE knows the future we only know what we know up to a point. Sure, fiat money has an average shelf life of 35 years, but it doesn’t mean the US Dollar has to end (in one form or another) 35 years to the date Nixon took us off the gold standard. The moral of the story: price and volume tell the story you want to be listening to; follow it!

January always tends to be a tricky month for stocks. Sure, optimism runs high for the new year and as humans we tend to have emotional roller coasters and makes sense for stocks to run at the beginning of the year. However, January tends to be more of a messy month for stocks and it is quite dangerous to think live on hope of a good year. Have a game plan of how you plan to attack the market and execute the plan. There is buying going on underneath, we are finding them and you need to have a game plan to attack those names.

The key to success is using a cut loss strategy to protect your downside. It is always important to cut your losses and move on.

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