I won't be posting till Sunday night, but I will say that today was pretty ugly. In December, this is the call I made, that we would rally in January and then pull back, but after the strong run we had, I was thinking I may of been wrong. Initially, it looks like the market is setting up for a possible head and shoulders with the next rally being the right shoulder on SP and NAS. I will try to analyze the indices this weekend. Notice that some stocks held up pretty well today and those should be the first to move when we get a bounce.

Have a good weekend,

DT

Nasdaq may of formed an island gap reversal today. I am showing it on the hourly cause it is easier to see the gap area. Notice the gap down on Wednesday and the gap up on Thursday leaving the Wednesday session in an island. This is bullish and should provide support until there is a CLOSE below the gap up. The only caveat, is I like islands near the bottom of a downtrend or top of an uptrend. This is after a pullback and may not hold the same strength.
Well, I am seeing that Cramer gets a lot of his ideas from IBD. I posted on VAR earlier this week as an earnings play and PRAA as a cup and handle breakout candidate and funny enough Cramer pumped both of them tonight. Luckily I was in VAR already, but I will probably leave PRAA alone for a few days. I will probably milk this run and get out before earnings on 1/25. Here are the charts on both.

Here is another that I have been profiling lately. Looks like it wants to break out here.
HAUP:Here is a high flyer that is testing a trendline.
MDCC:Looks good here after testing trendline. Watch for a break over the consolidation base.
RACK: Testing a trendline here and they have been hot.

Tomorrow will be a tricky day with options expiration and indecision over today's rally confusing traders. I will stay away from most plays tomorrow.
Good Luck,

DT

I will be posting an update tonight, but it is later then usual.

DT

We have two straight gaps down on the Nasdaq and both days ended as stalemates for bears. Indices don't like to leave gaps and I think these will soon be filled. Today looked like it would be a bloodbath but aside from a few techs I didn't see too much follow through for the bears. Tomorrow will be telling after Apple disappointing guidance and EBAY's miss. Dow looks worse right now as it touched the 50 day SMA already.
MMUS: I've been following this for a while and today they released some news and it seems like this has just been waiting to explode. Keep an eye in it tomorrow.
I love how volume has been building on weekly chart.
I've been waiting for a TALX pullback and I'm not sure if people got confused with the split today but TALX reversed hard after touching the 50 SMA. I added to my position at 29.70 this morning and was rewarded almost instantaneously. They report earnings soon and there may be an earnings run.
VAR: I profiled this Monday night as a possible earnings runner and this morning when everything was down, they were quietly moving up. Resistance is broken and they are at all time highs with no resistance in sight.
PRAA: They were profiled on tonights IBD in the New America section and the chart looks interesting. Looks like a cup with a high handle base.

Good Luck,

DT

By the way... Tech stocks are getting creamed after hours.
YHOO,INTC,MRVL,AAPL,GOOG,NVDA, EBAY,AMZN, all down.

I won't posting my regular update tonight as I am feeling under the weather and not up to it. Lots of stuff pulled back healthily today and some resumed their uptrends, but there were a few that gave up support rather easily. I am getting mixed signals so it is probably best to stay light and wait for the trend to appear. I did notice more smallcaps moving today and they usually move earlier then the mid and large cap stocks. CMED was strong today and BOOM hit a new 52 week high. GROW, MIND, TRAD all looked good and may continue to move higher.
Good Luck and I will try to get back to regular schedule tomorrow.

DT

Here are updates on what my CMED charts are looking like. I commented last night that they were pulling back on decreasing volume and were looking like they were ready to move higher. They did just that and I added some shares as they eclipsed fridays high. They held my trendline and may run through their earnings release. Weekly chart is looking good too. I am also seeing a nice increase in what I call "basher shorts" on the yahoo public board which is a good contrarian indicator.

I'm starting to see a few more interesting set ups but there are still a lot of stocks that are too extended for a safe entry. There are two types of plays I will be targeting in this market environment. The first setup which is reliable in bull markets and rallies is the pullback to support. I look for stocks that have broken from a base and are making the first pullback to test support. I typically buy my first lot as close as possible to support, and then the next lot after I see a bullish candle confirmed at support. When I say "confirmed", what I'm looking for is a higher high after a hammer for example. The second play is a pre earnings run. We are starting the earnings season and I try to find stocks that are expected to have good earnings. These stocks tend to rise up to earnings day. I exit the position before earnings about 99% of the time.

TALX: This stock was one of the first to move on this rally and has pulled back a little. This may be ready to resume uptrend. TALX will split soon and stocks tend to run towards the split date.

CMED: Very orderly pullback to the 10 day SMA. This sector is hot and CMED has some IBD buzz right now, so I expect a breakout to a new all time high soon.
VAR: This may be a good earnings play. They report earnings on 1/25 and the chart is looking good. They broke out of a pullback channel, and are trying to break out of the current base. MACD is crossing over.
BLK:Another earnings play. They report earnings on 1/19 so this would be a quick play. I would wait for them to make a higher high at this point.
SAY: They pulled back and seem to be holding the trendline.
GROW:Nice bullish candle on test of dotted blue line. Read my previous post on GROW.
CME: This might be a decent mid term trade as metal ore rallies in GOLD, SILVER, and COPPER may of brought in more money in. Triangle was broken and is now testing the trendline as support.

If any of these trigger tomorrow I will try and post a more thorough analysis of it intraday.
Good Luck,

DT

I will be posting an update later tonight.