Today’s Trading Plan: It’s the Bulls’ Turn

Technical Outlook:

• The whipsaw price action in S&P 500 (SPX) continued yesterday with a hard bounce following two days of selling. 
• The price action is sporadic and unpredictable at this juncture. Very topsy-turvy – Last Thursday you had a bullish break above recent consolidation. Following Monday’s price action, you had a bear flag pattern playing out on the daily chart and after Tuesday’s close you had a bullish engulfing candle pattern. To say the least, there are strong opposing forces at work in this market. 
• The natural inclination of this market is to engage in a pullback and relieve some of the recent price pressures. With the election just around the corner, the Federal Reserve is operating in a political capacity and making decisions that will keep the market from selling off. 
• Nasdaq (QQQ) was by far the strongest of the indices with a move back above its breakout level, while holding on to the 5 and 20-day moving averages and recapturing its 5-day MA. 
• SPDRs S&P 500 (SPY) volume was at recent average levels but below Monday’s showing. 
• 30 minute chart of SPX is very choppy with a slight trend higher over the last two weeks. 
• Sharp reversal on the CBOE Market Volatility Index (CBOE) yesterday with a 10% decline that took price down to 13.10. Looks to test the uptrend off of the August lows again. 
• Despite the market being near its all-time highs, only 43% of stocks are trading above their 40-day moving average. Quite low. 
• There are lots of headlines battling for supremacy right now: Oil & Iran production output, the debates, and Deutsche Bank (DB) stability. 
• United States Oil Fund (USO) is looking at a test of the rising trend-line off of the February lows. Currently that trend-line is sitting on the $9.95 level. 

My Trades:

• Added two new long positions to the portfolio yesterday
• Covered three of my short positions yesterday for losses. 
• May add 1-2 new swing-trades to the portfolio today. 
• Currently 30% Long / 20% Long / 50% Cash
• Join me each day for all my real-time trades and alerts in the SharePlanner Splash Zone

Chart for SPX: