shuriken's Daily US Markets Recap, Discussion, & Random Musings - NOW W/ OPTIONS TUTORIALS!

Glossary

If you don't understand a term used in this thread, you can look it up here:
http://www.investopedia.com/?viewed=1

If you're completely new, I'd suggest watching all of these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Infor...8CDEBF64B7

Quote from Basics of Trading Video Course from InformedTrades.com : A 75 Lesson video course meant to give traders an introduction to the basics of trading as well as the components necessary to develop a profitable trading plan.

Major Indices - These are an imaginary portfolio of securities representing a particular market or a portion of it.

DJI - Dow Jones Industrial Average
SPX - S&P 500
COMP - Nasdaq Composite
NDX - Nasdaq 100
RUT - Russell 2000

Commodities - These are basic goods used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type.

Examples:
GOLD
CRUDE

Internals - This refers to "market internals" and is a blanket term to collectively describe market indicators.

Overall Volume - The uptick volume minus its downtick volume over a specified period.
Breadth - A ratio of companies advancing relative to the number declining at a specific point in time.
Advancers/Decliners - The absolute number of advancing relative to the number declining at a specific point in time.
Trin - An indicator calculated by taking the advances-to-declines spread and dividing that by the volume of advances to declines at a specific point in time.
VIX - The ticker symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index, which shows the market's expectation of 30-day volatility. It is constructed using the implied volatilities of a wide range of S&P 500 index options. This volatility is meant to be forward looking and is calculated from both calls and puts. The VIX is a widely used measure of market risk and is often referred to as the "investor fear gauge".

Charting Terminology

5's - 5 minute charts
15's - 15 minute
60's - Hourly charts

20MA - 20 period moving average
50MA - 50 period moving average
200MA - 200 period moving average

SMA - Simple moving average
EMA - Exponential moving average

LOD - Low of the day
HOD - High of the day

Go here for Candlestick Patterns:
http://stockcharts.com/school/dok...k_pattern_

Calculating pivots/resistance/support levels:
http://www.earnforex.com/pivot-points-calculator
<-- It mentions forex, but it's good for all technical analysis.

Analyzing the Markets

I go here every morning to see what went on in the European and Asian markets:
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/asia/

Economic Calendar - Market moving indicators, those that merit extra attention, and other key indicators:
http://www.marketwatch.com/ECONOM...s/economic
and
http://anasdaq.econoday.com/bywee...ust=nasdaq

Misc.

Doldrums - LUNCH! The time period between 11am and 1pm in the markets which is *generally* characterized by lower overall volume and lack of trend.

Hopium - In securities trading a trader is said to be under the influence of the fictional narcotic hopium when she/he finds themselves deeply in the negative on the wrong side of a trade. The trader will continue to hold the position in the hopes that the security will return to the value at which they acquired it.

Quote from himarty : There are few people on SD interested in futures [wikipedia.org] based on technical basis [google.com], but you raised other items such as economic schedule [bloomberg.com] that, with proper explanations, broadens the audience for this thread.

TD

why not just start the thread when you have time?

Tuesday - March 23, 2010

The Big Picture: Major indices rallied to new 18-month highs, attributed to better-than-expected home sales reports.

Internals:
DJI 10888.83 +102.94
SPX 1174.17 +91.38
COMP 2415.24 +19.84
NDX 1963.20 +13.61
RUT 690.30 +7.39
GOLD 1100.90 -2.80
CRUDE 81.26 -0.65
NYSE Overall Volume 4,998,526K
Nasdaq Overall Volume 2,316,461K
NYSE Breadth 3.45 : 1 Positive
Nasdaq Breadth 4.45 : 1 Positive
NYSE Advancers/Decliners 1381
Nasdaq Advancers/Decliners 926
NYSE Trin +0.77
Nasdaq Trin +0.46
VIX 16.35 -0.52

Tomorrow's Economic Data:
Time (ET) / Report / Period / Consensus Forecast / Previous
8:30 am / Durable-goods orders / Feb. / 1.7% / 2.6%
8:30 am / Durables ex-transportation / Feb. / 1.2% / -1.0%
10 am / New-home sales / Feb. / 318,000 / 309,000

Quote from dayv : TD why not just start the thread when you have time?

Wanted to get today's data off my trading platform before midnight.

GM! Durable goods up 0.5%

FUTs down - are we going to see a down day or do we rally straight to dow 11k?

/DX break out. >82 now. opening bell soon!

portugal aa -> aa-

new home sales down 2.2%

crude 7m...

Wednesday - March 24, 2010

Sorry, didn't have time to update.

Sony Corp (SNE) was a *GREAT* and easy short position with it putting in an abandoned baby candlestick!



Thursday - March 25, 2010

The Big Picture: The bulls were in charge early Thursday, but an apparent setback in Greece's debt crisis at midday sent the indexes tumbling. Strong early gains stalled in mid-afternoon trade, first cutting the froth off the gains and then turning the indexes to losses on all but the Dow.

Internals:
DJI 10841.21 +5.06
SPX 1165.73 -1.99
COMP 2397.41 -1.35
NDX 1949.15 -2.69
RUT 679.10 -4.58
GOLD 1094.40 +0.30
CRUDE 80.76 +0.23
NYSE Overall Volume 6,465,149K
Nasdaq Overall Volume 2,523,376K
NYSE Breadth 1.34 : 1 Negative
Nasdaq Breadth 1.63 : 1 Negative
NYSE Advancers/Decliners 522
Nasdaq Advancers/Decliners 658
NYSE Trin +0.95
Nasdaq Trin +0.99
VIX 18.40 +0.85

Tomorrow's Economic Data:
Time (ET) / Report / Period / Consensus Forecast / Previous
8:30 am / GDP revision / 4Q / 5.7% / 5.9%
10 am / Consumer sentiment final / March / 73.0 / 72.5

Today was definitely a day for both bulls and bears alike. I was long from yesterday and held my position until I bailed during the AM hours. I saw a double-top form with confirmation from indicators and weakness in the issues up/down ratio a.k.a. tick on the second rise which compelled me to enter into a short position with a rather tight stop (upside risk ).

The futures are confirming a down open tomorrow (GDP reports will most likely read "neutral") so I will hold my short (unload half) into the 9:55 am (at least) until the sentiment comes out. Watch carefully and unload, as needed. I may go long sometime during the day, but do not expect to hold over the weekend.