Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

Aloha everyone. The Big Wave Trading model is in a mixed variety of signals, with the Nasdaq currently under a BUY signal, the SP500 and Russell 2000 are under a NEUTRAL signal, and the DJIA is under a SELL signal. It is not too often you will see us under all three signals at once but here we are. Overall, the market does have the “feel” of a market that is ready to launch higher. The reasoning behind this is our analysis of leading stocks, leading industry groups, speculative stocks, and the technical condition of the overall market. Right now, things look really good for a continuation in prices in the uptrending direction. We are basically fully invested here, with only a small hedge working in the SDOW. This position will be closed out, obviously, if we switch back to a NEUTRAL or BUY signal in the Dow. We are not fully invested based on what we believe or think the market will do. We are fully invested because so many leading stocks have triggered legitimate buy signals that we have utilized all our capital. Do you know what year it was the last time I was all out of cash to deploy in the market? 2003. So the thinking is that based on past analysis the rest of the year should be solid. Still, do you think we will not sell EVERYTHING if the market tells us to? You know we will. If the market reverses, sell limits or hit, or our big winners reverse on huge volume, trust me we will not waste any time running to the exits and reversing our positions to the short side via leveraged ETFs. At Big Wave Trading the most important thing is to be prepared for everything. Nothing in life is ever guaranteed. Shock events and black swans show up all the time. However, we would like to point out a correlation between the current market and that 2003 market that remains my best trading period ever in my life. In 2003 we went into Iraq. Now it is 2013 and we are going into Syria. Is history repeating itself again? Probably not. But it sure is rhyming. Have a wonderful upcoming week. I wish you all the best. Aloha from Maui. TOP CURRENT HOLDINGS – PERCENT GAIN – DATE OF SIGNAL CAMP long – 202% – 4/26/12 WAGE long – 145% – 1/8/13 FLT long – 132% – 9/6/12 POWR long – 123% – 12/11/12 HEES long – 103% – 9/4/12 INSM long – 102% – 4/19/13 MEI long – 92% – 4/10/13 ADUS long – 81% – 4/22/13 LGF long – 54% – 4/19/13 WDC long – 48% – 1/9/13 GMCR long – 46% – 4/23/13 CHUY long – 42% – 1/10/13 TRLA long – 38% – 6/28/13 V long – 37% – 8/31/12 ADS long – 37% – 12/11/12 OCN long – 37% – 5/8/13 DDD long – 35% – 4/30/13 CCF long – 34% – 6/28/13 WST long – 34% – 1/22/13 LOCK long – 33% – 5/20/13 BEAV long – 31% – 3/5/13

Syria Headline Clips Gains; NASDAQ Shines as Volume Rises

Another day and another missed shot at a bona fide follow-through day. However, given the volume surge in the NASDAQ and its ability to clear/hold yesterday’s high things are brighter than they may seem. The Fed’s Beige Book release did little to stock movement, but now with the focus on data it appears the Beige Book has been left in the dust. All eyes continue to drift towards Friday’s job report and continue to ignore what they should be paying attention to. It is clear the NASDAQ has and continues to be the clear winner amongst the major market averages. While we didn’t get a true follow-through day today is much more positive than meets the eye. Anything is possible and with a lot of headline headwinds many will be fearful of what may or may not happen. Sure we can get a rush of sellers completely wiping out gains over the past two days, but we are missing one key component: our crystal ball. No one knows the future and we can only trade the now. While we still have a short-term downtrend it is looking more likely this market pulls out of the recent trend and resume moving higher. Volume has been above average the past few days with solid gains, not something we have been accustomed too. Stick with the process regardless of what your opinion is. We all know cutting losses and riding your winners is a staple of trend following. Ignoring these rules is hazardous to your trading. Another rule when broken that is even worse is not taking your signals. Ignored Entries/Exits over time will erode your performance greatly. Imagine losing your biggest winners over a course of the year…you’ll notice you will significantly lag the market. Not taking an entry signal and missing on potential gains is just as important as taking an exit signal. Failure to do so will end up costing you in the long run. Ride your winners and enjoy the ride.

Stocks Fall Hard in Heavy Trade; Homebuilders Rally

A slew of positive economic data helped bolster the case for the Federal Reserve to taper its money printing scheme. Apologies, taper the quantitative easing program. The S&P 500 blew by a key level we had been watching in heavy trade as well as the NASDAQ. Leading the market to the downside were small cap stocks with the Russell 2000 falling 1.93% on the session. On the positive side, a better than expected homebuilder sentiment drove housing stocks higher in heavy volume. Volatility jumped as the fear trade kicked into gear one day ahead of options expiry. A nasty day of selling ahead of options expiry and pushing our uptrend out of the way. It is important to obey your trend following rules. Did you have a stock break through a key moving average, channel, or ATR stop? Whatever your sell rules are you must obey them. Ignore them at your peril. No one knows whether or not today was a buy-the-dip-day or the start of something more sinister. Do not ignore your rules. The S&P 500 did drop below 1680 in heavy trade leading us to believe we are likely to see the major index to test its 50 day moving average. For the NASDAQ, to see its 50 day moving average will take a bit more effort by sellers. Over the next couple of trading session how each index reacts to its 50 day moving average will be a key indicator how we proceed forward. Keep your focus on price action and the market will guide you. Sentiment continues to favor the bull camp, but has come in week over week. Bulls did drop on the AAII survey with Bears inching up a bit. However, bulls still sit at 35% while bears sit at 28%. NAAIM sentiment saw a dip in bullishness due to more bearish bets being placed on the market. We have yet to see extreme sentiment, but perhaps this is apart of the “new normal.” Either way; price rules our actions and everything else is a cocktail conversation. Stick to your rules and with Big Wave Trading.

Another Hindenburg sighting; Europe Emerges from Recession

Its official European nations are out of recession as GDP rises above expectations. The news did very little for US stock futures and neither did Mortgage Applications which fell 4.7% week over week. Homebuilders once again were weak on the session and continue to look very weak. Buyers kept to the sidelines today with the market drifting in a range all day long. Keeping the market from pulling back further was AAPL as the stock punched through $500 or what was known earlier this year as the generational bottom. We continue to move sideways in this market digesting July’s gains and we remain patient studying price. Another Hindenburg sighting was made today making it the 6th time in 8 days (Business Insider and Zerohedge confirmed) the magical formula for predicting crashes has shown up. The omen doesn’t have a perfect track record by any stretch of the imagination, but it did show up in similar fashion in 2007 and 2000 prior to those bear markets. Can we reasonably guess the same will occur? No. We’ll simply follow price action and let it dictate our next move. Key levels on the downside are 1680 and on the upside is 1710. If we do see this market plunge through 1680 in heavy trade we may have something to the downside. Until then we are sticking with our plan. Here are the Hindenburg Omens: http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/08/20130814_Hind.png Homebuilding stocks continue to take a beating and today was not an exception. ITB and XHB are in downtrends and continue to act weak. Both ETFs are signaling more lows and if buyers do not step up here homebuilders are at risk of a steep decline. Probabilities say a modest decline is certainly likely. In the same boat, but further down the stream are JNK and HYG. High Yield tends to run alongside equities, but not since May. HYG and JNK continue to show weakness in the High Yield space calling into question if we are about to see some trouble in High Yield land. As the 10 year moves higher the ability for questionable borrowing will simply become more difficult to obtain. Perhaps another “omen” for this market, but we’ll need to see further evidence. Will the Hindenburg turn into something real this time around? Stay tuned.

AAPL Jumps on Icahn News; Lifts markets

A less than stellar retail sales report couldn’t keep the market down today. Volume jumped over Monday’s super light trading volume. It isn’t a surprise to see Tuesday volume higher than Monday, but nice to see where the market reverses its early morning losses. The story today was Icahn announcing his position in AAPL. Begs the question, didn’t Ackman do the same thing with his HLF? And the reason Icahn went long HLF? Certainly doesn’t matter to us, but seeing hypocrisy in this world isn’t very hard to find. At the end of the day the push in AAPL gave a big boost to the NASDAQ. Another solid day for the market and our uptrend and we are going to continue to stick with the trend. It is truly amazing to continue to see people fight this trend we have been in since November 16th. Sure, at the end of 2012 the market was shaky. Had you paid attention to leading stocks you would have likely ignored the noise coming from the Fiscal Cliff discussions. While DC may not have solved all the issues it was enough to help propel this market to new highs set recently. The moral of the story is to stay with price and forget everything else. At the moment it appears the market is digesting July’s gains quite well. Yes, we do have some distribution in the market. However, the distribution days are far from being devastating. On the flip side we continue to see leading stocks acting strong. In what kind of market would you have leading stocks acting weak? One nearing a correction is this answer. This may change over the course of days or weeks, but what we have now is a normal uptrend. Stick with the trend and Big Wave Trading. Obey the cardinal rule of cutting losses and riding your winners.

NASDAQ Books Gains in Quiet Session

The dog days of summer hit the market with volume dropping to the lowest levels since early July. Early morning lows were met with buyers, but for the S&P 500 and the Dow couldn’t muster gains. Over at the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 were able to grab gains. Not much in the way of economic data to get the market to dive one way or another. Our uptrend remains despite the number of distribution on the NASDAQ and the S&P 500. While it is easy to make excuses and say we should be cautious, but there isn’t a way to know whether or not we have topped. We will continue to push forward and use price as our guide. Market leaders continue to act well in this market environment. It is nice to see market leaders continue to hold up well despite the number of distribution days we see. Sure, next month we’ll see a confluence of events that may or may not trip up this market. However, we aren’t there yet and guessing how the market will react to any kind of event is a fools’ game. We have price and what we know at this point in time is this market does not want to go down. If we do see major cracks in market leaders and further major distribution we’ll change our tune. Until then we’ll continue to push forward. There are plenty of people writing and bloviating about what will happen with the Fed through the end of this year. Will Big Ben taper or not? Is the next Fed chairman Yellen or Summers? We can debate how Fed policy has completely destroyed the cost of savings devastating those living off interest including pension funds. However, this is simply policy debate and should not be mixed with trading the markets. It doesn’t matter to use if the Fed will taper or if the next Fed chairman is Yellen or Summers. We’ll stick with price and leave the rest of the nonsense to others. Cut those losses short and ride your winners!

Stocks Find Strength at the Morning Lows Closed just off the Highs of the Session

After the recent bout with selling the market was able to find buyers pushing the market higher as volume swelled. Whether or not it was managers trying to get in their trades prior to leaving the Hamptons or Shore doesn’t really matter. Expanding volume as price moves higher is generally a good thing. Just after 10:30 AM EDT it appeared as if sellers were winning the day and would extend the trading losses. However, the market was able to find buyers willing to step up and scoop up shares. We did not hit new highs today, but the action was certainly bullish enough to suggest we may have another new high. Stick with the trend. Sentiment indicators crept towards the bullish tint, but not in huge waves. AAII Bull increased to 39.5% from 34.62% last week. Bears jumped too from 25% to 26.65%. Clearly more of the crowd edged towards a bullish stance week over week. However, we aren’t seeing extremes where Bulls exceed 50% and bears are well under 20%. NAAIM sentiment survey showed rose slightly from 74% to 75% invested. This move doesn’t exactly scream over exuberance from money managers putting money to work. Again, price action certainly hasn’t suggested we are at a top and even sentiment hasn’t suggested we’ve hit one either. Market leaders continue to act well in this environment despite a few mishaps with earnings: GMCR and SCTY. Even GMCR which reacted poorly to stop didn’t end the session in terrible fashion. TSLA performed well after earnings and continues to be a leader. PCLN reported today and is jumping nicely in after-hours trading at the moment. If you stick with market leaders and stay disciplined you can reach outsized gains. It takes following the methodology and not making reckless decisions. Many will still try and call a market top here. They may be right about this market and we’ll go lower. However, what we know right now is we remain in an uptrend and we are going to stick by our process. There is no need to be a hero and turn into a zero. Longevity is the name of the game and we are here to build long-term success. Have a great weekend.

Stocks close in the Red; Volume ends Mixed

Continuing with the summer trade the market closed lower lead by the Russell 2000. The NASDAQ posted back to back losses while the S&P 500 losing streak extended to 3 days. We did see a nice rally off the lows, but as soon as the rally began volume was sucked out of the market suggesting sellers left the building. NASDAQ volume did end the day higher notching another distribution day for the index. However, given the move off the lows it wasn’t a terrible distribution day. Many are blaming “The Taper” for stocks selling off. Perhaps the reason is the taper, but we aren’t picking up what the pundits are putting down. Our uptrend remains and we continue to monitor our positions and their respective price action. Solar stocks took a hit after earnings out of FSLR weren’t warmly greeted by the market. Homebuilders once again were to the downside with the entire group showing very negative price action. Given the market is in an uptrend shorting stocks is a fools game. The reason to highlight homebuilders is very simple. They were leading the market higher and now have rolled over. Financials are the only group showing strong earnings growth at the moment and if this group rolls over we’ll take notice. Earnings continue to pour in and we continue to monitor for earnings gaps. Quite a few stocks are running ahead of earnings making it quite difficult to buy with them being extended. We need sound patterns to make use of earnings. We aren’t about to gamble our capital going outside our process. Stick with the plan and execute. No need to be a hero in this market. Tomorrow we’ll get another week’s worth of job data from Initial Jobless Claims. Hard to believe this number used to be meaningless. It’s not hard to believe given the financial media’s need to fill the airwaves. You do not get an advantage by gaming initial jobless claims. It would be wise to avoid that type of trading. In after-hours trading TSLA turned heads again with its stock nearly up 10%. GRPN is another stock moving higher. SCTY and GMCR aren’t so lucky. Ride your winners hard and dump your losers.

Stocks Pull back in Fast Trade

Let the top calling begin as the stocks pull back in heavier volume. Today’s pull back wasn’t too severe and part of a normal reaction to the market hitting new highs. What we’ll want to avoid seeing for this uptrend to fail is a string of distribution days strung together. At this point, we really do not have enough evidence to suggest “calling a top” here is justified. Although, it will not stop folks from trying to be a hero and call a stock market top. Our process does not include calling market tops, but one that relies on price action giving us a high probability entries and exits. Until such time we get enough price evidence we’ll stick with this uptrend. We aren’t trying to be heroes in this market. Many tried to be in May when we had the nasty high volume reversal on the 22nd. May’s high did market a short-term top, but it wasn’t a major market top like many are hoping for. Even a 10% decline from previous highs wouldn’t signify a big market top. Do not get wrapped up in the hype of where the market is going or where it has been. All we know is what we have now and trying to guess what will be will only lead down a path of pain. For the most part many leaders pulled back in normal fashion. Not much to worry about from that angle at this point in time. Distribution days are a part of EVERY market uptrend and are expected. The S&P 500 has 4 distribution days, but today is the only one where it was on the real negative side. If this market has topped we’ll get a few more distribution days and they will be more severe today. This is what we’ll be looking for and will adjust accordingly. The most important thing to remember in this market is to follow your investment process. Deviating from your plan by going rogue or being a hero will destroy your trading. Cut your losses.

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading Market Model remains under a BUY signal with zero pressure weighing on it. With the indexes hitting all-time highs and leading stocks leading the way higher, everything is aligned for further potential price appreciation in all asset classes. Stocks continue to trend higher and while it would have been very nice to see the market consolidate gains this summer allowing the 200 day moving average to catch up with price it is not in the cards. Still, there is no reason to complain that stocks are continuing to move higher as we are well positioned here. Still, it would be nice to see stocks consolidate these gains and get that 200 day moving average closer to price. With the market so extended from this line, making new investments here is a very risky proposition. If you are not already long, it is going to be very hard to play catch up. However, playing catch up has indeed been very possible as earnings season is allowing plenty of opportunities to play catch up with leading stocks producing some nice gains following earnings and after those earnings. The buyable gap ups have worked very well the past two weeks. The best play, for our intraday chat room members, by far, has been buying calls or straddling/strangling stocks with strong EPS/sales growth that are heavily shorted. Recent straddles in FB and QCOR has made one or our members very wealthy and with earnings season still in full swing there should be other opportunities in the upcoming couple of weeks. If you are not playing the calls, straddles, or strangles and are not buying the buyable gap ups, it has been a rough go for EOD trading signals. Recent signals on the long side have not performed as well the past two weeks as I would like to see in an uptrending tape. However, most signals are not of the high quality standard that previous signals were due to the fact that this market has been well extended past its upper regression line and 200 day moving average for a while now. This is why recent signals have been weak and why we have kept them small relative to more recent signals. Still, it is a strong tape and many more signals are sure to present themselves as we move along. As long as the trend trends higher, there is no reason to top call this QE tape. Set your buy stops in leading stocks and get long at the pivot points, straddle the heavily shorted leading stocks, or buy the buyable gap ups. These trades have been doing very well in this most recent move higher. Buying stocks on an EOD basis following a powerful breakout is still not seeing the follow through that we became accustomed to from 1996-2008. So keep that in mind as if we continue to move higher from here. While a nice consolidation allowing the 200 DMA would be nice to see it is what it is and this trend is strong. Don’t fight the tape and whatever you do NEVER top call a strong market. One day, this market will go climatic or parabolic, leading stocks will too, and lower highs and lower lows will be set in leading stocks in leading industries. That is when you need to be on the lookout for a top. Until then, ride the trend which is your friend higher. Have a great rest of your weekend and I wish you the best during the upcoming week. Aloha from a very beautiful west side of Maui. Aloha!!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain since Signal – Signal Date CAMP long – 178% – 4/26/12 POWR long – 149% – 12/11/12 RVLT long – 133% – 3/26/13 FLT long – 121% – 9/6/12 WAGE long – 95% – 1/8/13 HEES long – 94% – 9/4/12 CSU long – 88% – 9/4/12 ADUS long – 74% – 4/22/13 CHUY long – 57% – 1/10/13 SBGI long – 54% – 3/22/13 TECUA long – 49% – 2/5/13 WDC long – 48% – 1/9/13 INSM long – 48% – 4/19/13 V long – 43% – 8/31/12 LGF long – 42% – 4/19/13 TRLA long – 42% – 6/28/13 GLL long – 40% – 2/14/13 ADS long – 40% – 12/11/12 MEI long – 38% – 4/10/13 OCN long – 28% – 5/8/13 DDD long – 25% – 4/30/13

Technology led by FB fuel the NASDAQ Higher

The NASDAQ hit a new multi-year high prior to noon time only to see sellers rush in and quickly move the index to its lows of the session. The S&P 500 was unable to sustain its morning gains too despite the efforts by technology names. Industrials and utilities helped push the SPX into positive territory. Consumer Services was the largest drag. Volume was up on the session across the board, but like most summer trading sessions volume ran below average. It is not big surprise volume is below average with the Fed on tap to deliver its policy statement tomorrow at 2pm. This uptrend remains intact given the price action we have in front of us. So many are concerned over the actions of the Fed tomorrow and are trying to gamble with how the market may or may not react. You cannot be 100% sure how the market will or won’t react to whether or not the Fed talks taper or not. It is pretty clear at some point they will taper and finally end the QE program. When is another question to be answered only by the Fed. Many do believe it will start sometime this year and with the falling budget deficit it will be interesting to see if the Fed will become the soul purchaser (monetizer) of US Treasury debt. Or will they simply taper their purchases. All fun questions to ask, but it is no way to position yourself to make gains in the market. FB gave a classic entry after posting earnings last week. The stock hasn’t looked back since it took a breather on Friday. There have been plenty of naysayers, but price action clearly shows there is a bias to the upside. AAPL was leading the charge along with FB, but pulled back from its high of the session. There is clear resistance at the February, March, and May highs. It will be interesting to see how the stock reacts at these points. A rising AAPL price is certainly a gigantic positive for the NASDAQ. Aside from the Federal Open Market Committee policy statement release second quarter GDP is set to be released. According to Bloomberg the consensus figure is for 1% annualized growth in the second quarter. Quite pathetic as the Fed has been pumping $85 billion a month since December and one percent growth seems quite pathetic. Common consensus says a higher than expected GDP figure would push the Fed to taper sooner rather than later. How the market reacts will be how we react. We will not try to game the direction of the market. Stay with the trend.

Market Participants await Economic Data and the Fed

A quiet day on Wall Street today as summer trading continues. Many are likely still trying to recover from their weekend festivities. Perhaps many were with Steve Cohen. Pending home sales weren’t as bad as the market was looking for, but was still negative month over month. Dallas Fed Manufacturing activity index was lower than expected coming in at 4.4 (expectations were for a reading of 7.5). The market was able to find its footing just after the European close. NYSE volume ran just below Friday’s level and closed that way too. NASDAQ saw volume drop too. Major indexes were able to avoid distribution given volume was lower on the day. Today was not a game changer as this uptrend continues to march on. The talk of the town continues to be whether or not the Fed Chief Ben Bernanke will hint or talk about tapering the Fed bond buying program. QE and ZIRP have destroyed those who have saved by compressing short-term and long-term rates forcing folks into riskier assets. How does this translate to how we react in the market? It does not, but as a matter of policy debate we can certainly point out how much we have destroyed the earning power from savings. Who wins out Wed the Doves or Hawks? Leading the S&P 500 higher today were utilities. Despite the 10 year yields rallying slightly today utilities found love. On the downside the two notable groups lower were Financials and Oil & Gas. While Oil & Gas lead to the downside losing .84% Financials were down .72%. If it weren’t for the Financials earnings growth would be downright dismal. ZeroHedge has been quite vocal on this point. Financials or XLF is one sector to watch. While a pullback is normal, but if the group turns into ITB/XHB would be a big red flag for this market. Until then, there is no reason to think this uptrend can’t continue. We can guess if the market has topped or not, but we simply do not have evidence it has done so. Yes, housing stocks have rolled over and are poised to continue lower. However, they are really the only group looking like the downside is the path of least resistance. Cut those losses.

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading portfolio remains under a BUY signal with only a minor amount of pressure on the indexes following the weak price action on Tuesday and Wednesday in the overall market. Besides that there is no pressure in our model as leading stocks, speculative stocks, and the overall market continue to trend higher in lockstep. With this being the case, it does not make much sense to drone on and on about the minute details of the trading action the past week. It was a very successful week in terms of playing straddles/strangles before earnings on a few stocks like FB, BIDU, and TRIP and buyable gap ups remain the best way to return alpha in this low volume uptrending market. Overall, it was a decent week with not much to dissect or psycho-analyze. There is no need to waste any more of your valuable weekend time. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I wish you the best during the upcoming week. Aloha!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain since Signal Date – Date of Signal RVLT long – 191% – 3/26/13 CAMP long – 167% – 4/26/12 POWR long – 143% – 12/11/12 FLT long – 103% – 9/6/12 CSU long – 91% – 9/4/12 HEES long – 91% – 9/4/12 WAGE long – 90% – 1/8/13 SBGI long – 64% – 3/22/13 ADUS long – 64% – 4/22/13 INSM long – 50% – 4/19/13 V long – 50% – 8/31/12 TECUA long – 47% – 2/5/13 WDC long – 42% – 1/9/13 MEI long – 41% – 4/10/13 LGF long – 38% – 4/19/13 CHUY long – 37% – 1/10/13 GLL long – 34% – 2/14/13 GMCR long – 34% – 4/23/13 ADS long – 32% – 12/11/12 PFBI long – 31% – 11/19/12 WST long – 30% – 1/22/13 BEAV long – 28% – 3/5/13 CCF long – 26% – 6/28/13 DDD long – 25% – 4/30/13

Obama’s Economic Speech Fails to Inspire Buyers; AAPL Jumps

A big jump in New Home sales failed to get the market going as the homebuilders sold off hard on the news. The talk of the street was AAPL earnings and the stock’s big move on the day. Without AAPL the NASDAQ would have notched a day of distribution. The S&P 500 could not escape distribution settling down .4%. Even though the NASDAQ did not suffer the same fate as the S&P 500 it did give up almost all of the gains had at the open. Not typically something you want to see in an uptrend, but it isn’t a gigantic red flag. In after-hours trading we had quite a few earnings moves setting up nicely in the morning. We are still without enough distribution days and negative price action to call the end of this uptrend. While we may be long in the tooth we don’t have the proper signals telling us this is over. AAPL was an earnings winner as many were calling for an atrocious quarter from the technology giant. More earnings in the after-hours session will help set the tone tomorrow at the open. Earnings gaps have been a great way to play earnings season. Stocks must meet certain criteria before they can be considered, but they can be quite profitable. Homebuilders sold off in heavy volume and it comes to no surprise even with a big jump in new home sales. ITB and XHB are certainly struggling and while the housing data points to a positive outlook perhaps fundamentals truly are best at tops. In addition to ITB and XHB another key sector looks to be rolling back over and that is XLU. After rallying along with bonds (yields falling) yields raced higher today putting pressure on Utilities. Utilities are far from sexy, but along with Housing this sector is seeing quite a few headwinds. You’ll find plenty top callers in this market. It has proven to be a fool’s game trying to game a market top. Don’t call tops and ride your winners.

End of Day Selling Push the NASDAQ and S&P 500 to the Lows of the Session

Earnings season continues and the prevailing theme is for companies to beat on the bottom line, but fall short on top line growth. There are many things we can extrapolate, but in the end it won’t help our bottom line. A big miss from the Richmond Manufacturing index highlights weakness in the Northeast manufacturing sector and the market reactive negatively to the news. Spending majority of the day near the lows of the session the NASDAQ pushed into new low territory just before the closing bell. Not the type of action you want to see from a price action stand point. The NASDAQ did post a day of distribution and has been piling on a few days here. It is something to keep an eye on despite this market remaining in an uptrend. Much will be made of AAPL’s earnings release. At this time they have yet to release earnings and I’ll make a note of them when they do report. The stock has been a drag on the entire market especially the NASDAQ yet it hasn’t kept the NASDAQ from gaining nearing 19% YTD. I suspect a sharp rise in the stock will have many shorts running for the hills. Initial reaction to earnings: It appears AAPL beat estimates and its guidance is sort of inline. The reaction is positive at the moment, but the stock will need to clear some levels before any long signals are generated. Any positive news for AAPL will benefit the NASDAQ greatly and push the index higher. Stay tuned. The insane stock moves after earnings releases, makes it very difficult to hold into the report. If you do not have a sound process you will certainly lose your nerve during earnings season. If you hold an abnormally large position and are stuck it is likely your position size is too large. More often than not many traders simply do not understand risk management and adopt the “go big or go home” mentality. Unfortunately, this is not the type of approach you want in this market. The idea is to stay in the game for a very long time not just a few minutes. Make risk management a priority.

S&P 500 Hits another All-Time High

Today was a quiet day in the Market as participants ease back into trading from the summer weekend. Existing home sales disappointed where by sales dropped 1.2% month-over-month. Clearly higher rates have put pressure on the housing market. Chicago Fed Activity index show a slight drop of .13, but who really follows this index anyway. The disappointing housing figures helped push the market higher. When there are no sellers it is quite easy to push the market higher with very little volume. Volume dropped from Friday’s option expiry inflated figure, but we weren’t really expecting volume to surge. The S&P 500 hit a new all-time high on small gains, but hey it is still a new high. Distribution really isn’t hounding the market and we still no reason to call a top here. This market continues onward and upward with this uptrend despite those who continue to fight the trend. Earnings continue to be the focus and MCD delivered its results prior to the market open. Unfortunately, it missed its estimates and the market punished the stock throughout the day. Overall, those who eat less MCD tend to be a bit healthier people in general. MCD clearly weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the stock does appear to be entering into a downtrend. MCD is not a typical name we’d be involved with, but given its price action to date we’d avoid the long side. Housing stocks will begin to deliver its earning releases shortly. ITB and XHB continue to look very top h heavy. ITB looking the worse out of the two, but both clearly are struggling at the moment. Nothing in this QE/ZIRP driven market would surprise us, but it does appear the housing stocks are set to go lower. PHM reports before the bell on Thursday and it appears to be rolling over. So much of the economic recovery talk has been surrounded by the housing recovery will make this week interesting. SHW disappointed with its earnings, yet HD and LOW are near or at highs. LL reports on Wednesday too. HD and LOW do not report till the middle of next month. Keep an eye on housing stocks as well as to those who are tied into it. Gold and silver pushed off their lows nicely today. Certainly here in the short-term a bottom is in place. We have certainly seen a few cover here. Does it mean gold and silver are headed back to 2012 highs? It does not. We’ll be patient and wait for proper entries and use proper risk management before entering into any trade. Nice way to kick off the week with gains. Stick with the process and have a great week!

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading Model remains under a BUY signal with very little data weighing against its current signal. The stock market climbed higher, across the board, this week and despite the lower volume there remains very little to zero selling pressure in the current tape. Friday’s intraday action confirms that above analysis as a morning gap lower found support early on the SP-500 and DJIA and mid-day for the Nasdaq. This kind of action, following a gap lower, is very constructive and says a lot about the strength in this market considering how extended the major averages are from their respective 200 day moving averages. We are not in the business of attempting to call tops at Big Wave Trading. We simply move like water with the market. As the market’s trend flows upward, we will ride that wave accordingly. When the shift comes, we will be quick to hedge our positions and sell off securities that violate trailing cut loss levels or key moving averages. Despite the strong market and our success this year, we have no interest in trying to limit the gains by trying to anticipate a turn in the market here. Therefore, there is nothing to do here, currently, but ride the trend higher until it does turn. When we see another day like 5/22 we will start a hedge and then operate around that hedge according to the price action in the market. Right now, we have a lot of momentum inherent in this market and based on past historical strength like this, we expect more bases to be formed in the coming months and a resolution to the upside. However, we are not betting on this information and only using it as a possible guide to the upcoming rest of the year. If the market begins a selloff, starts making lower highs and lower lows, with leading stocks breaking down hard, we will be very quick to sell out our long positions and move to the short side. However, in this tape, betting on the short side has continuously been a losing proposition and not one we are interested in entertaining as long as the fed’s liquidity injections via POMO/ZIRP/QE continues. One day the uptrend will end and when it does the short side will be extremely profitable to trend traders. For now, though, the trend is up and I will be more than happy to ride it much higher if it does have much higher to go before the inevitable sell off happens. I would not mind at all if this market went parabolic before climaxing and reversing lower. It would make for a much more profitable venture for our current long positions and give us a better base to begin our short side work on. Right now, that is all forward thinking and planning. The reality of today is a market that is hitting new highs on low volume with no sellers above. To bet against a continuation of this trend would be to make a major gamble against history. One day we will not hit new highs. Until that day happens, I do not advise fighting this tape. I know a lot of traders that decided to do this on 5/22. I got a lot of messages and emails telling me that 5/22 was the top. How do you think these “traders” feel now? Based on my near 20 years of doing this for a living, I can tell you almost for sure that they more-than-likely still believe they are right. Too bad the stock market doesn’t care about what they believe. Either you want to be right or you want to make money. Which is it? I can tell you which one we focus on at Big Wave Trading. I hope you are choosing correctly. If not sooner or later your bottom line results will let you know if you chose correctly. Have a great rest of your weekend and I wish you all the best during this upcoming week. Aloha from the gorgeous island of Maui where all of us that live here are 100% grateful to call this our home. Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain Since Purchase – Date of Signal RVLT long – 196% – 3/26/13 CAMP long – 167% – 4/26/12 POWR long – 150% – 12/11/12 CSU long – 104% – 9/4/12 HEES long – 98% – 9/4/12 FLT long – 95% – 9/6/12 WAGE long – 86% – 1/8/13 ADUS long – 66% – 4/22/13 SBGI long – 63% – 3/22/13 INSM long – 61% – 4/19/13 WDC long – 59% – 1/9/13 TECUA long – 56% – 2/5/13 V long – 48% – 8/31/12 CHUY long – 46% – 1/10/13 MEI long – 43% – 4/10/13 GLL long – 42% – 2/14/13 LGF long – 37% – 4/19/13 PFBI long – 31% – 7/19/12 GMCR long – 31% – 4/23/13 WST long – 31% – 1/22/13 ADS long – 30% – 12/11/12

Stocks Gain, but Tech Disappoints in After-Hours

Better economic data hit the tape helping push the S&P 500 to new highs. The Philly Fed manufacturing index came in well above expectations. Jobless claims fell week over week. It was certainly good news from the economic front and the market pushed higher. Volume rose over Wednesday’s trade but just was about average. Summer time trade tends to be light and today’s volume is not surprising. We remain in an uptrend, but given the after-hours reaction to earnings tomorrow will certainly be a fun day. We only have one day of distribution and see no reason to call a top. INTC and EBAY struggled after earnings putting pressure on the NASDAQ today. Tomorrow the NASDAQ will have even more pressure delivered by GOOG and MSFT. Both stocks missed earnings in a big way and both were getting hit hard in the after-hours session. GOOG and MSFT had been stars of this most recent rally from December. The NASDAQ can thank these two stocks for its rise in 2013. Sentiment check: we saw the AAII Bulls drop slightly to 47%. Bears did get back above 20% to 21%! NAAIM sentiment climbed over 60%, but overly bullish bets weren’t being placed. Sentiment still isn’t at an extreme point, but it is high. Combine sentiment readings with the percentage of stocks over their respective moving averages is a possible sign we could see at least some consolidation over the next few trading sessions. It is best to stick with the program and know anything can happen. GOOG and MSFT will at least make tomorrow somewhat interesting. Combine the crazy earnings action with options expiry should excite those who watch the market tick by tick. Have a great weekend.

BAC and YHOO Soar as Stocks get back on the Winning Track

Poor housing data kicked off the morning with Mortgage Applications falling along side Housing Starts and Building Permits. However, the data wouldn’t keep stocks from ending positive as Bernanke’s testimony and continued to press the Fed would remain accommodative as long as possible. Gold and silver didn’t buy the Fed’s Chairman Statement as both precious metals turned lower. YHOO shined after its earnings report Tuesday night. BAC jumped as well after reporting earnings earlier in the day. Volume was mixed, but NYSE volume can be attributed to the huge turnover in BAC. Tomorrow is a new day and the evidence we see continues to have us operate on the long side of the market and there is no sense in fighting it. EBAY and INTC reported earnings and the reaction is disappointing so far. EBAY is nearly down 5% after guiding EPS lower for the third quarter. INTC missed on revenues and while it is not trading down 5% it is in the red. On the upside IBM reported earnings and the stock’s reaction is quite positive. The stock is hanging above 200 price level. It will be interesting to see if the stock can hang above this level at tomorrow’s open. SCSS reaction after earnings was disappointing and the stock is down more than 8%. Quite the moves here in after-hours trading making tomorrow’s open very interesting. A quick note on sentiment from the II survey as bulls jumped above 50% while bears went under 20%. Last week we saw a similar spread between AAII Bulls and bears. We’ll post these numbers in tomorrow’s commentary. Sentiment is a tough gauge for market tops as they often hit extremes as the market continues to hit new highs. It does appear we are nearing an extreme point. An area of cautionary tone is the amount of stocks above their respective moving averages. At today’s close nearly 87% of stocks were above their 20 day moving average. 75% of stocks were above their 50 day while 79% of stocks were above their 200 day moving average. We are certainly at a point where a normal correction would occur. Will it occur tomorrow? It is anyone’s guess, but it’s a friendly reminder to make sure you stick to your game plan. Ben Bernanke is keen on keeping the market away from hearing taper talk. Will the Fed chairman simply just announce the taper out of the blue? Who knows, but at this point it seems likely as any mumbling of a taper sends traders scrambling. Cut those losses and ride your winners.

Light Trading Volume persists; Stocks pull back notching a Day of Distribution

A better than expected Homebuilder sentiment reading failed to lift stocks and sent homebuilding stocks lower. Trading volume rose above Monday’s level, but again was below average. The major stock indexes did notch a day of distribution in technical terms. However, the damage was minor and we are considering this to be a light distribution day. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite ended its win streak at 8 straight days of gains. Traders now await Ben Bernanke’s testimony tomorrow. There were pockets of weakness, but until we see more of this action this uptrend still is in play. TSLA was the talk of the town after the stock fell more than 18 points. The stock has had an amazing run since its initial breakout in April. The stock has more than tripled from that point to now. It is not unlikely to see the stock break after hitting new highs. If you bought the recent low volume breakout you are likely underwater and highlight a point of being nimble when buying extended stocks. However, if you are in from April you have plenty of leeway. Just remember to take profits along the way. If you have a sound trading plan you aren’t panicking over the move. If you are, come join us. Yesterday we pointed out the homebuilding sector as being weak. After initially climbing after the sentiment release the entire sector sold off. Today’s action highlights what you think may not necessarily happen. The price action as of late has been bearish, not bullish. Could the sector turn around after tomorrow’s release of Housing Starts and Building permits? The answer is yes, but given the evidence we have now it doesn’t seem likely. Stick with price and ignore the noise. There were plenty other leading stocks like XONE and SSYS who were hit today. It is not unusual to see leaders get hit, but when they begin to get hit all at once over a period of time it usually spells trouble for the overall market. Today was one day and we remain in an uptrend. Until there is sufficient evidence given to us from price we are going to stick to the long side. Maybe the top callers will be right here…or they won’t. Enjoy watching the fireworks go off courteous of the Fed Chief.

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading portfolio is currently under a BUY mode across the board, with the Nasdaq fully switching to a BUY signal on the 9th with the SP-500 and DJIA following on the 11th. These indexes now join the Russell 2000 which was placed under a BUY signal last Friday. The Russell 2000 is leading the current model switch and was able to build on the gains nicely the past week. Every index performed well this past week. It was nothing short of extremely impressive. What makes it even more impressive is that the rally in the overall market is on fumes. That goes for many recent breakouts in high priced highly liquid CANSLIM quality securities. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of leading stocks breaking out on volume. However, there have been too many TSLA, SPWR, PCLN, GOOG, AMZN, MCD type moves for my personal liking. At the same time, while I may not like it, it doesn’t matter. Those that are focusing on price action alone in leading stocks are enjoying their gains as long as they are buying at the exact pivot points in their technical consolidations. For those that can not watch the action all day, I will remind you that you can use buy stops to buy a stock as soon as it breaks out to new price highs. Even with the overall low volume, the rally is still impressive. Many stocks are moving higher on volume and many others are setting up in price consolidation patterns with solid accumulation/distribution patterns. I am sure that even if the market pulls back here, knowing that the Fed is in full-on QE/ZIRP/POMO mode, support should be found in the overall market. This hypothesis is based on the current technical patterns remaining as they are and in turn developing into even more bullish technical patterns in the upcoming weeks. If individual stock price patterns falter, this assumption on price action will be nullified. Still, the trend with POMO/QE/ZIRP is very clear. Pullbacks are to be bought and stocks can not sell off more than 10%. That will definitely change one day and this will definitely lead a lot of people that are greedy into the poorhouse but until then you simply can not fight the overwhelming trend. Calling tops has been killer to traders the past five years and yet I still see constantly on stock twits and facebook. It was not too long ago on 5/22 that so many new traders/investors were confident this market had top. Now these same traders find themselves underinvested and/or not invested at all. This is the purpose of the market. It is there to fool most of the people most of the time. Looks like they were fooled again. This is why in times like this, if you do not have a system, and invest on emotions, you are going to have a bad time. Emotions are a killer in the stock market. They can only hurt returns over the long run. You must learn to eliminate them, if you are going to learn how to hold stocks like the stocks you see listed below for the big long-term gains. The big money will always be in the sitting and in this market sitting has never been harder. Trust me. I don’t even come close to seeing the gains I saw in my personal accounts from 1998-2008. On top of that, stocks simply do not move like they used to. Compare the performances below to some of my past big winners and you will see times have changed. One day they will go back to normal. However, until that day happens, it is what it is and price action is all that matters. The trend is your friend until it bends at the end. Make sure that you don’t show up late to the trend and ride it lower when it bends and all the smart money is exiting. The Nasdaq has been up 12 of the past 13 stock market sessions yet I see many traders looking to get heavily long here. Seems a tad late to me. However, what do I know compared to what the market knows? The exact same thing you know. Nothing. The market discounts all. Price action is all that is real. Continue to follow price and ignore volume. In this QE world it is leaving many traders underinvested. You must learn to discount it. Have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful upcoming week. Make sure you obey your systems, especially your stops. Always cut your losses short. Never ever ride a losing position and never ever add to a losing position. Especially in a melt-up tape like we have now. PS: Can you tell I just got done reading my third Jesse Livermore book of the summer? It is an annual ritual. I recommend it both for new and experienced traders. Once again, have a great weekend. Aloha from Maui!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain Since Signal – Date Of Signal CAMP long – 181% – 4/26/12 RVLT long – 165% – 3/26/13 POWR long – 150% – 12/11/12 CSU long – 107% – 9/4/12 HEES long – 95% – 9/4/12 FLT long – 93% – 9/6/12 WAGE long – 90% – 1/8/13 ADUS long – 86% – 4/22/13 SBGI long – 71% – 3/22/13 CHUY long – 69% – 1/10/13 WDC long – 54% – 1/9/13 TECUA long – 49% – 2/5/13 V long – 48% – 8/31/12 GLL long – 47% – 2/14/13 INSM long – 44% – 4/19/13 MEI long – 40% – 4/10/13 LGF long – 39% – 4/19/13 ADS long – 31% – 12/11/12 WST long – 30% – 1/22/13 DDD long – 27% – 4/30/13 BEAV long – 26% – 3/5/13

Stocks Rise as Volume ends Mixed

Sloppy action began the day as sellers immediately hit the open. However, just after 10:30 and during the Fed’s open market operations did the market find its footing and reverse course. For the fourth straight day the market saw gains, but volume ended mixed on the day. NASDAQ volume was higher on the day, but slid on the NYSE. Traders weren’t too active on the NYSE today. Perhaps tomorrow’s release of the FOMC meeting minutes is weighing on trader’s minds. Whatever it is, trading was not active today on the NYSE giving pause to this most recent rally attempt. Price action remains okay for the markets, but without a confirmation day it is looking like if this rally is to continue gains will be limited. Homebuilding stocks turned things around today. The group has been beat up for quite some time. Higher interest rates will certainly negatively impact buyers’ purchasing power. Price action in the names still needs some work to show any turnaround is possible. For now, we’ll keep an eye on the group for improvement. Any weakness will certainly be a sign of things to come for the group. HYG and JNK continue to act like junk despite HYG’s attempt today. It is anyone’s guess where rates will go next, but for now it appears higher rates are here to stay. HYG and JNK certainly have been hindered by higher rates. Even XLU has come well off its high set back in April. Anything related to yield has been taken to the woodshed. Until we get a signal otherwise, it appears these sectors will continue to be under pressure and see lower prices. It was interesting to see the XLF breakout today approaching May highs. Financials are an important indicator on where the market is heading. First we had Small Cap stocks breakout into new high territory and now with financials nearing a new high this is certainly a positive for the overall market. There are positive signs for this market and there are negative. Confused? Biased? Join Big Wave Trading and focus on winning.

Consumer Credit Jumps as Stocks End off Their Highs

The market got off to a good start thanks to Europe rebounding after Friday’s dismal performance. For the NASDAQ the high of the day would come shortly after the open and it would fall from there. The Dow fared the best today gaining 59 basis points, but it too was off its high of the day. Volume rose across the board. Friday’s volume figure was lowest for a full day of trading. Perhaps traders were still recovering from the holiday weekend. A boring day in the markets with sluggish price action and we are still without a follow-through day. Russell 2000 hit an all-time high today before pulling back, but the small cap stock index has been the best performer. It is a good sign to see the small caps to lead the way. However, we are 9 days deep into this rally attempt and the market has unable to secure a follow-through day. We could certainly get it tomorrow or a week from now, but even if we do we won’t be expecting much from it. Typically your powerful rallies will come from a follow-through day occurring on days 4 through 7. While we won’t rule out a new rally our expectations for gains will be tempered. Consumer credit rose much more than expected at 19.6 billion dollars. Expectations were for a rise of 12.5 billion dollars. Auto loans and student loans have been the primary driver of consumer credit and while many will take a rise in credit as a positive is it really just another bubble? We know student loan debt is an issue as the market has increased over one trillion dollars. At some point there will be a tipping point where we’ll no longer be able to support such a large amount of debt. Alcoa (AA) kicked off earnings beat street estimates. Expectations for second quarter earnings are quite high from Wall Street. However, pre-announcements have been negative. Follow price and have a process and ignore the noise. Stick with Big Wave Trading.

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading Portfolio is under multiple signals currently, as small caps are significantly outperforming big caps. Overall the Model is weighed mixed BUY to NEUTRAL with the Russell 2000 being under a clear BUY signal, the Nasdaq under a BUY/NEUTRAL signal, and the SP-500, DJIA, and NYSE being under NEUTRAL signals. For what it is worth, the Nasdaq will switch to a BUY mode with a new high printed on the index, with or without volume. As has been mentioned here every weekend since May 22nd, all signals should be taken with a grain of salt during choppy summer time sessions where volatility increases. This also being a QE/POMO market, all SELL signals must be taken with baby steps until a clear roll over on heavy volume is triggered in all major market indexes, leading stocks, ETFs, inverse ETFs, leveraged ETFs, and inverse leveraged ETFs. Unless there is a complete confirmation, funny money printed by the Federal Reserve will continue to act as a floor. In time that will change but for now betting against that trend is foolhardy. With the switch in the Russell 2000 to a BUY mode and a switch in the Nasdaq to a BUY/NEUTRAL mode, we can now operate a little bit more aggressively on the long side in small cap and technology related positions. We are also taking off our remaining hedges and are now only long individual stocks in the managed accounts. If the market decides to roll back over, we will not hesitate to start building our hedges once again. The biggest lesson to be learned this past week is that trying to call or predict a top in this market is, for now, not a very profitable methodology when the tape is dead. The saying “never short a dull market” comes to mind, first off. Second, “never short a QE/POMO market” follows right behind. The bottom line is that is just does not pay to be a “committed” bull or bear. This market remains very unfriendly to trends and trend followers, overall, and staying constantly neutral and flowing like water is the best advice I can give to anyone trying to navigate it. Overall, it is shaping up to be another no-to-low volume rally, following an above average volume sell off. This pattern was never sustainable before 2008 and now it is the norm for the past three years in a row. It is what it is. OK, it’s time for me to catch one last round of the nine-day swell that has been hitting my backyard in Lahaina. While the market hasn’t been full of action for trend followers lately, at least the Pacific Ocean has been for surfers. If you can’t ride one wave, ride another. Have a great post-holiday weekend. Aloha from Maui!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain since Signal – Date of Signal CAMP long – 175% – 4/26/12 POWR long – 140% – 12/11/12 RVLT long – 124% – 3/26/13 CSU long – 100% – 9/4/12 WAGE long – 93% – 1/8/13 FLT long – 89% – 9/6/12 ASTM short – 81% – 7/17/12 HEES long – 80% – 9/4/12 CHUY long – 68% – 1/10/13 SBGI long – 62% – 3/22/13 GLL long – 58% – 2/14/13 ADUS long – 52% – 4/22/13 V long – 48% – 8/31/12 WDC long – 47% – 1/9/13 TECUA long – 46% – 2/5/13 INSM long – 38% – 4/19/13 MEI long – 37% – 4/10/13 LGF long – 31% – 4/19/13

A Late Session Rally Lifts Stocks off the Lows

Another morning rally turned sour as sellers regain control. The market received positive news as total vehicle sales jumped more than expected. Once again the 50 day proved too much for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial average. Today’s volume was higher than Monday’s and not a positive for this market. We are still waiting for this market to confirm this recent rally, but the past two days have done very little to build confidence we will see a follow-through day. Tomorrow the market will close early and given the jobs report Friday it is unlikely we’ll see a follow-through day tomorrow. Tuesday’s market action mirrored closely to Monday’s action. Today we can at least blame Merkel and the demonstrations in Egypt for the sell-off, but they are simply excuses. Given the price advancement Monday morning the market would have had a short at following-through had Friday not been the day of the Russell index rebalances. Volume was there today, but price was lacking. Perhaps we’ll need to wait for Friday when we get the jobs report. Next week we’ll kick off earnings season. It will be interesting season seeing if Wall Street remains overly optimistic on earnings. Preannouncements have been on the negative side and not to mention we still have economic data to pour through. The financial media will have a field day speculating the actions of the fed. It is all noise. Focus on the process and stick with Big Wave Trading. Tomorrow’s day will likely be uneventful heading into the Fourth of July holiday. Please be safe and enjoy the day off!

Stocks Close well of the Highs of the Session

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial average were both rejected at their respective 50 day moving averages despite better than expected ISM Manufacturing data. At 10 am the market received better than expected manufacturing data helping the market to jump to the highs of the session. Another test of the highs occurred just after noon time, but sellers took over. For the majority of the afternoon the major market indexes experienced selling closing well off their highs of the day. A late day rally helped stopped the bleeding. Small caps ended the day higher outperforming the S&P 500 by more than 80 basis points. Volume simply couldn’t compete and was below average. Not the type of action you want to see from a market trying to confirm a new rally. Day 5 of the attempted market rally was certainly an interesting day. In the early going it appeared we’d be able to confirm a new rally and be poised to run higher in front of second quarter earnings. The NASDAQ did fill the gap from 6/20, but was unable to close above it as sellers appeared to be waiting to unload on the market. Unlike the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average the NASDAQ remains above its 50 day moving average. In addition, the Russell 2000 is above its 50 day and appears poised to break into new high territory. This certainly is a positive for both indexes and potential for a new rally to be confirmed. Anything can happen here, but it appears the Dow and S&P 500 are weighing the overall market down. All eyes will be pointing to Friday’s job figure. One big negative in today’s ISM report was the jobs picture. It wasn’t pleasant as the jobs index hit new lows. Hard to believe manufacturing is picking up that much without factories hiring. Could it be humans have simply been replaced to a point where manufacturing can pick up steam without having to hire? We’ll leave the guessing to the so called experts on CNBC and Bloomberg. As long as we ride our trends executing our strategy we’ll end on top no matter what the economy has in store for us. The morning started off great, but the ending was a lot less to be desired. We do live in the QE/ZIRP area where anything is possible. Stick with Big Wave Trading and we’ll lead you to success.

Big Wave Trading Weekend Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

It was a great week the past week on Maui and a good week overall for the stock market. The market did rally the past week but all the action came on below average volume until Friday when EOQ and EOM trading took over. As we know by now, from 1850-2008 this would be considered a bad thing but from 2008-now low volume rallies following heavy volume selloffs have been bullish. So I would not necessarily be too cocksure that the market is failing here at the 50 day moving average, just yet. While we are under a SELL signal, all it would take to switch back to NEUTRAL during the summer months would be a close above the 50 DMA on all three major market indexes (the Russell 2000 is already above the line). If that occurs, the situation will still remain fluid as there are a lot of individual stocks that need some work to clean up their current consolidation patterns. That being the case, we still have a lot of leading stocks making new intermediate term and new highs and plenty of stocks still forming decent consolidation patterns. When you combine this with the weakness in bonds, the higher amount of stocks hitting new lows, and the fact that the Fed is hinting at tapering and there are all sorts of legitimate reasons to remain very NEUTRAL here. And that is exactly where we are heading into this holiday short week. While we are under a SELL signal our personal feelings are extremely NEUTRAL on the current trend. I will have to either see more breakdowns or breakouts to move to either the bearish or bullish camp respectively. As of now, we just have too many crosscurrent and mixed signals to work with. This means new positions will remain small in individual stocks, on the long side, until a BUY signal is triggered or a “perfect” signal is triggered (extremely rare to almost non-existent during a SELL signal) in an individual stock. New positions on the short side remain scant to non-existent during this volatile period. However, as the market ticks down and ends weak each session we will continue to add to our current hedges that are being built in inverse leveraged long and leveraged short ETF positions. Enjoy the upcoming fireworks in the stock market and at your local hot spot. There is a lot of data coming out, around the world, during this short week so I am sure it will not be a boring one. But hell what do I know. Nobody, including myself, knows what tomorrow will bring. The future is absolutely impossible to predict. You can definitely game it and be ready for it but you can never know it. Aloha and have a wonderful holiday week. Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain since Signal – Date of Purchase CAMP long 159% – 4/26/12 RVLT long – 139% – 3/26/13 POWR long – 132% – 12/11/12 CSU long – 93% – 9/4/12 WAGE long – 90% – 1/8/13 FLT long – 82% – 9/6/12 ASTM short – 79% – 7/17/12 HEES long – 75% – 9/4/12 SBGI long – 66% – 3/22/13 GLL long – 60% – 2/14/13 ADUS long – 60% – 4/22/13 INSM long – 59% – 4/19/13 CHUY long – 53% – 1/10/13 TECUA long – 43% – 2/5/13 V long – 42% – 8/31/12 WDC long – 41% – 1/9/13 PFBI long – 28% – 11/19/12 MEI long – 26% – 4/10/13 WST long – 25% – 1/22/13

Shanghai Drops more than 5% sending World Markets Lower

Despite an impressive move off the lows just after the lunch hour the final hour of trading was won by sellers. Closing off the highs of the session major markets with the exception of the Dow were down more than one percent on the day. Volume simply could not compete with Friday’s level due to quadruple witching. VIX enjoyed a volatility day closing up 6.5% to 20.12. Summer time trading has arrived and we expect the volatility to continue and given the increase in volatility we will adjust. Shanghai dove more than 5% as the liquidity issues continue to evolve in China. One thing is for certain the Shanghai Composite is in a severe downtrend and trying to catch a falling knife is not something one should attempt. Perhaps the index will get a bounce this evening, but it will likely continue to the downside over the longer-term. 2013-06-24_SHANGHAI_COMP_daily The one saving grace perhaps for our markets will be the 200 day moving average will likely serve as a reasonable spot for the markets to bounce. It is anyone’s guess whether or not it will lead to new market highs, but a logical spot for the market to bounce nonetheless. Volume will be an important key in determining whether or not institutions will come out and support stocks. Today, it was a mix bag with the final hour selling really putting the damper on a sustainable bounce. A few other items will certainly help give a lift to the markets. Both the RSI and McClellan indicators are near areas where the market has bounced historically. It isn’t a given a market bounce will occur, but if one were to occur it would not come as a surprise to us. We’ll be paying attention to our stocks and will act accordingly if and when signals come our way. Everything else is just noise. Economic data today was light, but an uptick in the Dallas Manufacturing Survey was better than expected. Tomorrow we’ll get a read on Durable Goods and Wednesday we’ll get a read on GDP. Not the start to the week bulls wanted even with the intraday rally. Make it a great week. Join the Big Wave Trading team.

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

I am on my way out for the weekend as it is the summer solstice and a super moon weekend. Before I take a trip to Hana, I wanted to give a quick recap of the past week. The past week was the most unusual week since 2001 as for the first time in 12+ years our model did three switches to three directions in three days. It all started on Tuesday as a breakout above the downtrend channel on the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq switched our model back into a BUY mode. The very next day, we failed that move on heavier volume. That then switched our model from that BUY signal to a NEUTRAL signal. Then in one of the more insane moves in a very long time, the model then switched to a SELL signal with every major market moving average closing below the 50 day moving average. This then, of course, led to Friday’s big support on huge volume. The huge volume was due to quadruple witching so I would definitely not look much into today’s intraday action. This past week pretty much summed everything up as to what I expected we would see this summer following that break on 5/22. The summer chop is here and the mixed signals are back. Not only did I have sell signals throughout the week but I also had fresh new buy signals in many leading stocks. Their action was very mixed with most of the action being poor but not poor enough to be completely scared of the long side. With that being said, we got another two fresh new buy signals in two leading stocks, on Friday. If the market was ready to completely break down I do not think we would be seeing signals during a pullback. Normally, during a pull back, new long signals dry up. During this pullback, despite a lot of stocks breaking down, we are getting long signals. This hints more of a rotation than an outright top. Still, truth be told, the verdict is still out and in a QE/POMO/ZIRP environment anything and everything must be expected. This is definitely not the time to be a hero and if you do not have a methodology that keeps you in leading stocks during “scary” pullbacks in the indexes or do not have a methodology that at least gets you heavily hedged when things turn sour then it is probably wisest to avoid trading this market until a clear return to an uptrend is under way. Until that happens, I suggest new investors focusing on learning, reading, and studying history rather than try to game a summer-time market that is clearly bipolar. This bipolar action is all too familiar for trend followers that just lived through 2011 and 2012. Most of us knew that the smooth, quiet, and low volatility uptrend of 2013 could not last forever. So it is what it is. A mixed market with mixed signals. If you marry the bull side or the bear side this summer, chances are you are going to be very disappointed. Stay neutral my friends. I repeat, stay neutral. Have a great summer solstice and super full moon weekend everyone. Aloha. Top Current Holdings – Percent Gain since Signal Date – Signal Date N/A – N/A – N/A

Stocks Drop as Volume Soars

The Federal Reserve remained the focus of many traders and pundits arguing over whether or not the Federal Reserve should taper or not. Meanwhile, sellers got to work and pushed the market lower for majority of the session. Even a last second effort by buyers was knocked down at the close. Volume soared across the board as institutions rushed into the market. Homebuilders were hit hard despite the existing home sales came in higher than expected. Gold and Silver went back to September 2010 levels as both precious metals were crushed (despite physical demand for gold continues to move higher). With the major markets having put in a lower high and a lower low a downtrend is certainly here. There wasn’t much that was spared from the onslaught of selling. The 10 year Treasury note is yielding above 2.4% and the 30 year at 3.51%. Big moves in just over a month for yields, but are they spiking because the economy is getting better? Or is it simply Ben Bernanke will no longer be buying as many bonds? Headlines came out the fed was going to taper to $65 billion a month at the September meeting and end the bond buying program next June. This announcement only threw fuel onto the fire and accelerated the decline further. It is best to step aside when a freight train is headed your way. Having a sound strategy in times like this will certainly keep you calm. Many will be driven by emotion and make costly errors while we will take advantage. Here is a screen shot of the Hindenburg Omen. You’ll notice we have gotten 6 signals since the end of May. It almost appears certain we’ll get a correction with this many signals showing up. Cut your losses and ride your winners. Have a great weekend.

Fed Day Turns Nasty as Stocks Fall on Bernanke’s Policy Decision

What a volatile day it turned out to be with stocks gyrating after the FOMC policy announcement only to close at the lows of the session. Stocks were lower ahead of the announcement as many feared the Fed would inject into the statement regarding tapering bond purchases. In fact, it did not and the market still went lower. Bonds sold off in tremendous fashion with the 10 year yield at 2.333% for the day. Higher yields will not be kind to the US Treasury and the US government cost of servicing debt. Given today’s action and the jump in volume it appears this market wants to head lower with us leaning towards the sell side of the Big Wave Trading model. Volume kicked into hyper drive after the release of the statement. Intraday volatility did as well and was mostly like due to algos fighting each other. The NASDAQ appeared to have a few 10 point swings in a few seconds. It is very doubtful humans could move as fast causing this type of movement intraday. It is more for our amusement to watch those trying to decipher this type of action. No way could one even begin to interpret and act upon profitably on the type of action we saw today. Avoid those who claim they can at all costs. The fear index or known as the VIX ended the day slightly higher closing at 16.64. It dipped as low as 15.36, but was able to finish in the green. For such a big move lower the lack of movement to the upside in the VIX is somewhat puzzling. Perhaps traders aren’t as fearful of a taper then the market action is leading on. For now, we have weak price action accompanied by heavy volume and this is throwing out cautionary signals. There certainly will be pundits who will be claiming the market has exhausted itself and we have topped for good. No one knows the future and while anything is possible nothing is certain. We do see ETFs like HYG and JNK displaying very weak action and it would be easy to conclude this is over. However, in 2011 many claimed this to be over and we are sitting near all time highs. We’ll let price action do our talking and follow it and leave the guesswork to others.

Stocks Close Higher ahead of the Fed

Anticipation of the Fed tomorrow is tremendous as traders position themselves ahead of tomorrow’s policy announcement. On the economic front today weaker than expected housing data failed to halt the rally in homebuilding stocks today. Homebuilding ETFs regained their 50 day moving average a show of strength. Buyers were out support stocks yet volume lagged behind Monday’s pace suggesting buying fever wasn’t too high. Tuesday’s returned to positive side as the last two Tuesday trading sessions have ended in the red. Today’s price action certainly has put the market in a more favorable light for the bulls. Of course, tomorrow can change this picture in a heartbeat. However, given the recent action there hasn’t been any signals suggesting we have much downside from here. Homebuilders have certainly made a come back and judging by the volume seen in the ITB ETF buyers were rushing to pile back in. Defense of the 50 day is a big positive for the ETF and stocks. Last week it certainly appeared as if homebuilding stocks were going to head below their respective 200 day moving averages. Crude oil settled above $98 a barrel. Higher crude prices will certainly hurt the consumer despite all the good news regarding “shale oil” and “shale gas.” Higher commodity prices in general will have a great impact on lower income families and continued rising crude oil prices will certainly keep the squeeze on. DBC – Powershares Commodity tracking fund is poised to push higher from its latest consolidation. Not only will stocks have fun tomorrow with the Fed announcement look for the commodity sector join in the fun we call volatility. There will be a lot of talk from the financial press on how to manage ahead and after the Fed policy statement. Let price be your guide rather than your opinions. Ego gets in the way often and leads to issues trading your portfolio. Let it go and follow Big Wave Trading and our process guiding you through any type of market. Enjoy watching the fireworks!

Taper Trips up Rally, Stocks Close Higher as Volume Expands

A positive sentiment report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) helped propel stocks to the highs of the session. Prior to the NAHB report the Empire Manufacturing index jumped more than expected. However, a deeper look into the report showed some serious cracks. It wasn’t until after 2pm where the trouble began to start. A headline from the Financial Times stating the Federal Reserve was set to announcing taper plans on Wednesday sent the market into a tailspin. Nearly wiping out the day’s gains the market was able to close just under the mid-point of the session. Volume was higher than on Friday assisted by the intraday volatility. We remain stuck in neutral as this market is desperately looking to find a new trend. Tomorrow we’ll get a boat load of economic data, but all eyes will be waiting on the release of the FOMC policy statement. To taper or not will be the hot topic across the blogosphere and financial media. No one knows other than the Fed Chairman and the rest of the voting board members. If the FOMC does taper is it guaranteed the market will go lower? While it may seem logical for the market to go lower is it a given? We’ll get a trend sooner or later, but no one can guarantee where the market will head next. There are a few stocks looking decent here regardless of the increased market volatility. Learn to embrace volatility rather than fear it. Volatility is our friend and we’ll use it to our advantage. Many will fear market volatility as we embrace it. Learn with Big Wave Trading how to embrace volatility. We are certainly looking forward to the fireworks the market will provide this week. We’ll be ready to take on the challenge we call the market. A strong process relying on piling onto winners and cutting losers produces fantastic results. Have a great week!

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading Portfolio remains under a NEUTRAL condition, following a week of choppy price action. The overall market continued its choppy trading the previous week with neither the bulls or bears asserting any real directional power. The bottom line is that we remain trapped between the recent highs and lows of all the major market indexes during the past month. Our model will not move to either a BUY or SELL mode until this trading range is broken. The other possible model change could occur if the indexes make a powerful one day price move on higher volume. If that occurs and the indexes still remain range bound it is possible, if there are leading stocks in confirmation of the move, that we could switch before the trading range is resolved. If we were forced to make a bet on which way the market is going to break next, we would laugh in the face of someone suggesting such a preposterous notion. However, if we were asked to analyze the current situation of leading and other individual stocks in relationship to the pullback in the overall indexes, that would be a welcome logical request. When it comes to leading stocks in the market, based on EPS and RS ratings, everything is crawling along well. Our current holdings and leading stocks have done remotely well during the pullback in the market, with many of these stocks forming constructive consolidation patterns that historically should lead to further price breakouts. Some of our favorite examples include SCTY, TSLA, TNGO, DPZ, INVN, BLMN, SWHC, LNKD, and many others. These stocks are either consolidating nicely or are trending higher, despite the weak market. This, in our analysis, is a positive sign for a possible resolution higher. This being said, nothing is concrete and for all we know the market might break out to new highs to just reverse lower on huge volume. The point is that anything can happen in the stock market and if you are not ready for anything and everything, then at some point you will be caught off guard and pay the price. We shall see what the upcoming week has in store for all of us traders. As it stands, we continue to be very neutral here ready for anything to happen. Once again, based on our current holdings and leading stocks, we should expect a resolution higher. In reality, however, remember, anything can happen and everything must be prepared for. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Aloha from a very beautiful, warm, and sunny west side of Maui. Aloha!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Return Since Signal Date – Date of Signal RVLT long – 162% – 3/26/13 EAC long – 156% – 12/17/12 CAMP long – 136% – 4/26/12 POWR long – 135% – 12/11/12 CSU long – 106% – 9/4/12 FLT long – 97% – 9/6/12 HEES long – 86% – 9/4/12 ASTM short – 73% – 7/17/12 INSM long – 68% – 4/19/13 WAGE long – 63% – 1/8/13 ADUS long – 59% – 4/22/13 CHUY long – 55% – 1/10/13 SBGI long – 50% – 3/22/13 WDC long – 45% – 1/9/13 V long – 41% – 8/31/12 GMCR long – 39% – 4/23/13 BBSI long – 38% – 2/13/13 TECUA long – 36% – 2/5/13 GLL long – 27% – 2/14/13 PFBI long – 26% – 11/19/12 DDD long – 25% – 4/30/13

Stocks Rise with Volume Snapping the Dow’s First 3 Day Losing Streak of the Year

Despite the Nikkei’s 6% drop overnight US stocks were able to find buyers pushing Major Market Averages higher by more than 1.2%. The Dow snapped its first 3 day losing streak of the year. S&P 500 tried to close above yesterday’s high, but stopped short. Overall, the day displayed each of the major market averages finding much needed support at their respective 50 day moving averages. A key level of support we needed to see hold. After today’s trading session we’ll need to see some follow through for us to have a chance at regaining May’s highs. A solid session for the bulls today with volume coming in higher shows this market still may have some highs left in it. Economic data came in slightly better than expected. Jobless claims dropped more than expected. Advanced retails sales were slightly better, but weren’t that exciting. Check out the following chart on jobs and ask yourself is this really sustainable? Is the housing recovery for real given where lumber prices have headed? What about furniture sales? Sentiment saw bears drop and bulls gain as the two nearly were even on the AAII survey. Bears dropped to 34.59 while the bulls jumped back over the 30% market landing on 32.97%. NAAIM saw position increase slightly to the bullish side, but still far from its highs seen earlier this year. Apparently the crowd and investment managers are not buying into the “but the [expletive] dip” or what we like to say “BTFD.” We employ a different strategy that actually quantifies where we get in and out it is still fun to poke fun at the dipsters. Time and time again trend following strategies of buying new highs or moving average crossovers outperform buying new lows. However, taking a look at the next chart it appears using volatility as a guide we may have seen at least a short-term bottom here using the SPY as our guide. Have we bottomed? We can’t predict the future, but we can certainly play the odds. Happy Father’s Day!

Markets Close in Lower half of the Day’s Range as Volume Jumps

Failure of the Bank of Japan to signal even more stimulus sent the world markets into a selling frenzy. Initially, buyers were able to push the market well off its low and at one point pushing the Dow into positive territory twice! A weak 3 year Treasury note auction sent sellers back into the market pushing the market near the lows of the session by the close. Volume rose across the board suggesting Institutions were in the market selling stocks a negative sign for the market direction in normal markets. At the very least the action we are seeing may simply be foreshadowing further volatility. This market is certainly under pressure and given the rise from November until May a little correction is certainly not a surprise to us. Obey your sell/exit signals as the stock market is certainly on shaky ground. Following up yesterday’s move lower homebuilders continue to tack onto their losses. LEN continues to be one of the weakest among the group. XHB has seen its fair share of heavy selling since February and is now just finally catching up to the ETF. An even bigger decline has come from the utilities as the 10 year yield has jumped higher. XLU topped out the first of May has slide 9% from its high and has had trouble finding buyers. Higher rates have certainly stung a few industries and it is quite obvious traders aren’t keen on higher rates. Daily volatility has certainly kicked up with the VIX nearing multi-month highs. The VIX closed at 17.07 up nearly 10% on the day. However, VIX tracking ETFs continue to lag the performance of the VIX overall. For example, the VXX was only up 6.6% today well behind the VIX performance. It certainly doesn’t appear investors are rushing towards volatility to hedge against a market decline. Or it simply could be the inability for these ETF managers to keep pace with the VIX. Something to keep an eye on as this market proceeds. The positive here is certainly the major market averages remaining above their respective 50 day moving averages. A negative here was the rejection at the 20 day moving average. While the 50 day is certainly a bit more important the rejection at the 20 day is something to take notice. Since the beginning of the year we have been able to jump back up thru the 20 day with ease. Now, we have rejection. Stick with the process and do not try to be a hero.

Small Caps lead with Gains as Industrials and S&P 500 end flat

A very uninspiring day as the market digested gains spawned from a two day rally to close out last week’s trading. Volume ended the session lower across the board. Typical for a Monday in this market as traders await Turnaround Tuesday. Homebuilders were exceptional weak today with LEN and RYL looking among the weakest in the group. AMZN followed through on Friday’s gains closing off its highs of the session. Today’s move was quite subdued given the moves from the Nikkei and DAX, but a quiet day can be good for a market. We’ll need to see follow-through from Friday’s gains here shortly. Stick to the plan by executing flawlessly. There are a few IPOs today mentioned in the Big Wave Trading chat room today. They are certainly poised for big gains and are giving us an indication we have another new high from this market. Nothing is certain, but we aren’t about to give up on potential gains because of the way we feel this market should go. Healthy action in IPOs often portrays an environment where traders are willing to take on beta risk. Thus, higher prices will be tolerated and not sold into. Stick with price and Big Wave Trading guiding you through the market waters. Lumber prices have fallen 23% off its February highs and now the homebuilders are beginning to show signs of weakness. LEN and RYL are both below their respective 50 and 200 day moving averages. Not typically a sign of strength. The homebuilder ETF XHB is struggling to hold onto its 50 day moving average. While lumber prices are months removed from its highs the homebuilders were just at highs in May. Did we just see the top in homebuilders? Time will tell, but it appears lumber prices won’t be revisiting its highs any time soon. Tomorrow we’ll get a few economic data points, but nothing of great importance. Retail sales will come Thursday and PPI will close out the week. The market will likely begin gearing up for next week’s FOMC meeting towards the end of the week. To Taper or not will be on everyone’s mind. I hardly doubt we’ll get any movement from the FOMC. In any case, stick with the plan and execute.

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading Portfolio remains under a NEUTRAL condition but did see the model switch to a cosmetic-SELL mode on Wednesday only to be flipped right back to NEUTRAL on Friday. This quick flip-flip was not shocking on a discretionary basis as the signal triggered with only the NYSE under the 50 day moving average. On top of that, as we have constantly warned, since 2011, SELL signals are going to have to be confirmed in all indexes, ETFs, inverse-ETFs, inverse-leveraged-ETFs, and with leading stocks breaking down, before any SELL signal is actionable on a position taking basis. QE, ZIRP, and POMO makes taking SELL signals nearly impossible and it is not anything we will be interested in seeing until we see a real parabolic/climax conclusion to all of this economy propping. Despite the fake signal, it was an overall decent week. The bad news is that our early hedges that were doing nicely hedging our longs by Wednesday left us with mostly losses by Friday. However, what turned out to be great news for us, on the flip side, we did not produce one single full sell signal on Wednesday, when our model did a false switch. The fact that the market cracked and we had zero sell signals in our long holdings was a hint that the market was stronger than the tape was letting on. On top of that, what turned out to be the worst missed trade on our end since 2011, we saw an extremely high quality long signal producing in what is currently a non-CANSLIM stock (it will be shortly in the upcoming quarters). That stock was TTS. The signal it produced that day would be considered an 8.5 out of 10 using our internal criteria and that is an extremely high rating on a new long signal (obviously 9s and especially 10s are very very rare). Unfortunately for me and my portfolios, we have never received such a beautiful signal on a day where we switched to a SELL mode. This has never happened. I began trading my trading career in 1996, went full-time in 1998, and from these moments have never seen such a signal on a day of a SELL signal. So what to do? Well, since I didn’t consider it “perfect” (a 9.5 or 10 out of 10) I decided to pass and let the model take control. That was a big big mistake as TTS has rocketed higher 13% in the two days following this lovely signal. On top of that, the SELL is now NEUTRAL. Lesson learned. What was the lessen? Well from now on I know that when the market is trending above the 50 day moving average on all of the most important major market indexes, we have many long positions holding up well in our current portfolios, we have many stocks still setting up in strong bases, we have very few stocks breaking down hard in my short scans, and we get a near-perfect high-quality long signal on a day when we do switch to a SELL we take the trade. Now, I have to watch TTS do what it is going to do and “hope” that it produces some sort of follow-up signal to try to get me long this wonderful pattern. We shall see if I get a second chance. I will not be holding my breath, however. Still, it was a very important lesson learned and goes to show that even with almost 20 years of full-time stock market experience you can still teach an old dog new tricks. Well played Mr. Stock Market. Well played. Big Wave Trading never needs to learn a lesson the hard way twice. Have a great upcoming rest of the week everyone. It’s been a nice weekend, despite the TTS missed trade on our end. Truth be told, I am more upset that the season finale of Game of Thrones is tonight than I am I missed that trade. As far as I am concerned, Game of Thrones, should never end and never go on break. Just keep the camera rolling and George R.R. Martin writing. Aloha!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Return Since Signal Date – Signal Date EAC long – 228% – 12/17/12 HIMX long – 185% – 12/19/12 CAMP long – 132% – 4/26/12 POWR long – 125% – 12/11/12 RVLT long – 114% – 3/26/13 CSU long – 107% – 9/4/12 FLT long – 95% – 9/6/12 HEES long – 82% – 9/4/12 ASTM short – 72% – 7/17/12 INSM long – 72% – 4/19/13 GNMK long – 71% – 11/16/12 WAGE long – 64% – 1/8/13 WDC long – 46% – 1/9/13 BBSI long – 45% – 2/13/13 ADUS long – 41% – 4/22/13 V long – 40% – 8/31/12 CHUY long – 40% – 1/10/13 SBGI long – 39% – 3/22/13 GMCR long – 35% – 4/23/13 TECUA long – 31% – 2/5/13 GLL long – 31% – 2/14/13 AMWD long – 30% – 2/1/13

Turnaround Day moves to Thursday ahead of the Jobs Report

The US Dollar took a plunge during the session, but the move failed to keep stocks down for long. By early afternoon the stock market found its footing and pushed higher closing at its highs for the session. Volume rose on the NYSE, but fell on the NASDAQ. Institutions were certainly active in the market today ahead of tomorrow’s job report. At one point during the session the S&P 500 was below its 50 day and looked as if it wanted to head further south. The defense of the 50 day moving average is certainly a bullish indicator for this market to bounce. A solid day for market bulls, but given this market’s ability to react violently to news tomorrow will certainly be fun to watch. Volatility broke out during the session as the market fell along with the US dollar. The only thing not to rebound nicely was the dollar index. USDJPY broke through its 50 day moving average and fell below the 96 level for the first time since April. The USDJPY currency pair has correlated well with the Nikkei 225 and tonight’s trading session should be filled with fireworks. Falling into a bear market the Nikkei has come off more than 3,000 points from its high falling below its 50 day moving average. Sure we could see a bounce, but does that mean its going to revert back to its May’s high? Sentiment has shifted in favor of the bear camp, but not at an extreme level. Bulls fell below 30% to 29.47% on the AAII sentiment survey. Bearish respondents couldn’t crack into above 40% closing the week at 38.95%. NAAIM manager survey pushed the median responded to only 55% invested. Interestingly enough if we look at the extremes there was at least one manager who was 200% long when responding to the survey. On the flip side the max exposure on the downside remained at 125%. Sentiment is favoring the bear camp, but given the trading action over the prior week it is no surprise. Tomorrow should be a fun-filled day with lots of action regardless of direction. Try to avoid the talking heads and focus on price. Have a great weekend!

Stocks Fail to Convert on Turnaround Tuesday falling on light Trade

For the first time in 20 tries the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell on a Tuesday. Volume came in considerably from Monday’s level, but institutions weren’t keen on bidding up US stocks on volume following through on Monday’s gains. The market appears to be awaiting the jobs report on Friday. In the short-term we are seeing quite extreme oversold readings but we know this can continue into even further extreme conditions. Today’s move is certainly not what we want to see from this market. This uptrend is under pressure and we’ll need to see a powerful bounce to shake this market avoid any further destruction. Stick with the Big Wave Trading process and you’ll breeze through this market with ease and gains. No matter the direction you’ll succeed. Stick with cutting losers and stick with your winners.

Stocks Resist Selling Finish near the Highs of the Day

A dose of negative economic news helped embolden sellers during the first half of the trading session. However, sellers would lose their momentum and the market would regain strength pushing well off the lows of the day’s gains. After Friday’s late day plunge the market appears to be ready to push higher just in time for Turnaround Tuesday. Volume on the day soared despite Friday’s end of the month volume kicking in. The Dow Jones Industrial average led the broader market showing blue chips are holding up this market. Commodities jumped on dollar weakness with the USDJPY dropping below par. A few leaders were hit today, but with the market finding its footing this uptrend may not be over just yet. Turnaround Tuesday is tomorrow and if we had to wager a guess we’d suspect a rally would occur. Tuesday’s have been very important to this rally and the trend has been for Tuesday’s to finish in the green. Not too mention we remain oversold given where the McClellan Oscillator resides. A run at previous highs is not out of the question with the support at May 23rd low. The market has May’s high in its sights. Gold and silver have seemingly found a bottom along with the miners. GDX has come off its lows as of late after April’s plunge. Volume has picked up on the upside more so than distribution since the end of April. GLD and SLV continue to try to pull off the lows, but volume isn’t prominent like volume on the GDX. Has gold and silver bottomed? No one can answer this question without guessing. Pick your spot and know where your exits are. Stick to your process and have a great week!

Big Wave Trading Portfolio Update And Top Current Holdings

The Big Wave Trading Directional Model has switched from a BUY signal to a NEUTRAL signal, following the final hour of action during Friday’s stock market session. The vicious sell off on Friday, combined with the churning and distribution days adding up this month, is more than enough evidence that it is time to be fluid and ready for a move in any direction in the overall market. Longer-term there is a lot of support in the overall market that could easily lead us to further upside price. However, on the short-term we are indeed extended on all major market averages in relation to the 200 day moving average. The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 also remain a bit extended from their respective 50 day moving averages. Therefore, a pull back here is not a surprise and is in fact welcomed if we want to continue with higher prices in a more measured and somewhat safe manner. What will be more important to watch from here on out is how the major indexes will act around these key averages. Support at these key areas, along with high quality stocks showing Relative Strength to the overall market, would be indicative of a market that wants to continue higher over the intermediate term. If, instead, the market decides to find some support, begin to bounce, and then rolls over below the 50 day moving averages on the indexes, then we can start to prepare for some form of correction. Right now, most of our long positions (you can see 75% of our current holdings below as 3/4 of our portfolio holdings are up 25%+ per trade), are riding their key moving average lines higher and if they start to break below we will continue to take profits, cut our losses, and add to our hedges. Right now, since we are heavily long, we have been building a hedge in case the market does decide to correct harshly over the next couple of weeks. If the market decides to move lower, we will continue to pair back our long positions and add to our hedges. If the market decides to roll over and enter a prolonged downtrend, we will be ready via our market direction model and we will go short stocks that produce short signals accordingly. For now, it is best to be ready for anything. Emotions are very strong for those in the bull and bear camp. That can cause some extreme short-term price movements, as we saw in the final hour on Friday. Therefore, the best plan is to have a plan for every outcome. We do this on a daily basis at Big Wave Trading and that is why you will find very little to zero emotions involved in our methodologies. It is all about price signals. It is never about opinions or emotions. The only good opinion is no opinion, in the stock market. Have a great weekend everyone. It looks like our summer shores are in store for another large swell. Good news for me. Once again, have a great weekend. Aloha!!! Top Current Holdings – Percent Return – Signal Date EAC long – 204% – 12/17/12 HIMX long – 201% – 12/19/12 CAMP long – 134% – 4/26/12 RVLT long – 128% – 3/26/13 CSU long – 112% – 9/4/12 POWR long – 108% – 12/11/12 FLT long – 95% – 9/6/12 HEES long – 86% – 9/4/12 INSM long – 79% – 4/19/13 ASTM short – 71% – 7/17/12 GNMK long – 71% – 11/16/12 WAGE long – 60% – 1/8/13 SBGI long – 48% – 3/22/13 ADUS long – 45% – 4/22/13 WDC long – 44% – 1/9/13 CHUY long – 39% – 1/10/13 V long – 38% – 8/31/12 BBSI long – 38% – 3/22/13 PFBI long – 31% – 11/19/12 GMCR long – 30% – 4/23/13 GLL long – 30% – 2/14/13 AMWD long – 28% – 2/1/13 DDD long – 26% – 4/30/13

Last Half-Hour Sell-Off Trims Day’s Gains

Slightly disappointing economic numbers failed to trip up the market at the open. GDP came in slightly below expectations and jobless claims were disappointing. Volume rose on the NASDAQ by a hair and dropped over on the NYSE. Plenty of stocks are holding up including the banks lead by big moves from BAC and MS. The last half hour of the session was not desirable for stock bulls. Over the past few sessions sellers have been dominating trade push stocks lower at the close. This may turn out to be nothing, but it is something to keep an eye on. Not a terrible day for the markets, but one that could have been much better. Sentiment indicators continue to be off extreme levels with the exception of the II survey. Even though the survey respondents for the II survey were less bullish they still remain historically high. Bears remain below 20% and have stayed around 20% for quite some time. However, the AAII survey showed a bigger drop in bulls closing the week at 36% while bears are at 30%. NAAIM survey showed managers were bullish, but less bullish than the week prior. Sentiment certainly isn’t screaming a top signal, but the bullishness on CNBC remains very high. Price action still favorable for the longs and this is what we want to see. Tomorrow’s end of the month trading will see volume spike at the close of the session. It will be interesting to see how the volume run rate will be prior to the final hour of trading. There are plenty of stocks holding up exceptionally well in this market. They are certainly signaling this market has more room to run to the upside. This is not a guarantee we go higher, but certainly we have signs we can go higher. On a longer time frame we do remain in an overbought condition. We can remain here for quite some time and with short-term indicators like the McClellan oscillator showing oversold conditions a bounce here into new highs wouldn’t surprise us. If we do fail here we can cut our losses and go with the flow. Cut your losses short and ride your winners.