Online Stock Trading Chart Patterns

There is a lot going on here. This chart of Altria Group (symbol: MO) has two distinct set ups and a key price level that is giving conservative to aggressive traders some options… and that’s exactly what is so great about trading chart patters. First start with price. The double top and the 73.50 level can be studied together. The price level itself is a psychological number and will be resistance as prices trade up to it.

The fact that about four candles have topped at this psychological level gives it more credence as a ceiling.

The triangle chart patterns is a congestion pattern.

This Autochartist alert is pointing to lower prices but since the break has not yet happened this is merely a likelihood based upon trend and other factors that Autochartist takes into consideration when it generates an alert.

An aggressive traders can take an alert like this and look for an opportunity to short resistance.

The more traditional set up would be to wait for the breakout/breakdown.

Note that this pattern has a high Quality and Uniformity reading and a low Initial Trend.

For a rangebound (congestion) pattern like a triangle, this is exactly what we would look for!

XOM has pierced the 90.00 level and earnings are this week.  While shorting a stock like XOM with record high crude prices may not typically be a set up for sane people…the weakness does not go unnoticed.

The pierce of the 90.00 psychological, decade number and the rejection at 95.00 with a double top pattern (above) sets up a short this week.  A key to the follow through will be resistance at 91.00.

Today’s candle represents a break of the uptrend that has been in place since August.

So what do have today that we didn’t have Friday?

The G7 meeting basically came out and said that world wide growth probably is not as strong as it seems so now — by comparison — the U.S. Dollar and equities markets are oversold.

If foreign countries don’t want to buy or our dollar, bonds, equities that certainly does not allow the market to find support.

Now the global markets are seemingly not as strong as they were and the U.S. markets look that much better and you can see the reaction especially with the U.S. Dollar which rallied about 1% today which is the most significant rally in over a year.

The next step is to see how attractive the equities markets will be. Today is a clear sign of confusion. As of 1:00pm EST, the market has reversed most of the losses is is close to unchanged.

Ideally for a the market to move with a steady trend, it’s best to see the Dow and Nasdaq composite move at a 4:1 to 3:1 ratio. The techs are still leading the way this morning so the ratio is not there and thus it mainly is those tech stocks that were sold off Friday that are recovering.

Let’s take a look at a sample list of the OIH. The OIH is the oil services holders and has a number of stocks that make up the ETF itself. You probably already know that…but do you know the weighting of the stocks in the ETF? During earnings season it is particualrty important to now how individual names can impact the ETF.

These top ten holdings account for 78.02% of the OIH

BAKER HUGHES INTL (BHI) 9.84%
DIAMOND OFFSHORE DRL (DO) 6.46%
GLOBALSANTAFE CP (GSF) 7.89%
HALLIBURTON CO (HAL) 8.5%
NATL OILWELL VARCO (NOV) 5.01%
NOBLE CORP (NE) 6.03%
SCHLUMBERGER LTD (SLB) 11.86%
SMITH INTL INC (SII) 5.99%
TRANSOCEAN INC (RIG) 10.57%
WEATHERFORD INTL (WFT) 5.87%

Intel (INTC) has been closely watched going into this week as their earnings were coming out…

Take a look a look at the following charts.  The top chart is the Autochartist alert chart while hte bottom is the all-important live chart that we all should do out homework on.  What’s the market stage?  What’s the confirmation indicator saying?

This set up was there and waiting and pre-confirmed…prectically daring traders to take the long position on a break out through resistance.

General Electric (GE) has been consolidating above and just above the 42.00 level.  Prices have not been able to climb much higher at the current resistance is 42.15.

With the horizontal resistance overhead, the uptrend line support is likely to be tested and a break lower would trigger a potential short entry.  That short will likely find some support around the 41.50 price level - but if this level does not attract buyers look for GE to follow through to 41.00 with the next likely support level being 40.80,

The S&P500 conitnues it march to all time highs as the Non-Farm Payrolls number and revision certainly lit the fire that was already there.  If you’re looking to find S&P500 support as it climbs, look no further than the rising wedge that has formed on the 240 minute chart.

The 1,540 is currently near term support and the small retracement we’ve seen from below the 1,550 level is actually encouraging as no healthy uptrend can persist without corrections.

This uptrend is likely to persist higher but do not underestimate the resistance at 1,550 as this level and even though it is currently trading at 1,555.  I will be looking at the market close to see if the pros are willing to keep 1,550 support going into the weekend.  The jobs number is likely enough to keep prices at these heights.

Keep in mind that Bernanke is going to shift attention to the U.S. Dollar and protecting the Dollar from lower lows means that the rate cuts have to end.  Inflation and a falling Dollar…that will be the talk from here on out.

 The daily chart bounce for a short off downtrend resistance is climbing to an entry opportunity.

Bu the intraday charts offer a better if not “micro-managing” view into the bounce.

Corrective entries require patience but often it is this very patience that make for a good entry - and a good entry makes for an easier trade — so the bounce we were waiting towards the 30.oo whole, round number level in KBH went to 29.49.

Pending Home Sales missed. A -2.0% was expected and we got a -6.5%. KBH was up on this data. Uh-huh.

The bounce could be agreat opportunity to short KBH as it heads into the downtrend line resistance. That area is near 30.00 which will also be resistance. Low risk entry - keep an eye on where KBH finds sellers. If it rallies over 30 - don’t try in step in front of the train.