Today is April 12th and the market went to sleep today, literally.
What a slow boring day on wall street as far as the major index’s are concerned. From the opening bell the market traded roughly 2 points higher and 2 points lower until the last few minutes of the day and ended up closing at the low for the day. That is not usually a good sign. The position of the close is very important each day, with the last few minutes of the day key. The reason is, it shows what the current true value is for the index at that given moment and it is the end of the day that sets up so many trade positions for the next day. If the market would not have sold off just those few points at the end of the day, it would have changed literally hundreds, even thousands of trade positions for the first 30 minutes of tomorrows open.
The close shows the end result of the whole days struggle, long and short. Who won? I would call it a draw, with a slight edge to the bulls today. The S&P futures were flat, no gain, or loss. The cash dow was up 8 points and the Nasdaq was up 3 points. That may not say a lot for some, but seeing the last move of the day was coming off and we closed at the low as I mentioned, it will have an impact on the open and it could be to the downside at least for the open, we will see. The after market is currently off as I speak about 3 points as it is anticipating tomorrows lower opening just as I was mentioning. A lot can happen between now and tomorrows open, but the pressure is to the short side currently.
I did some trading today, took 7 trades and with the last couple was able to pull out into positive territory, picking up more than my daily goal. I did take a position into the after market as the momentum was to the downside and seeing I was a little short for even a single daily goal, I elected to hold it over. It worked out for me but I don’t like to do that. There is the 15 minutes after the close at 1:15 West Coast to 1:30 where you are unprotected if you elect to hold an position over. If you have a stop in place and go into the close after 1:15, your stop will be dropped and you are exposed for that 15 minutes until the market re-opens. Usually nothing earth shattering happens, but at times you will see gap re-openings working in your favor and possibly against you. Today’s re-opening was uneventful at first, giving me a chance to reset my stops and see if the momentum continues, it did.
I see some key area’s I have marked on a chart from the link below. Selling will start coming in with a greater velocity at around 1176 and it should really pick up at a break of 1171. This market has been all one way for some time now, and I would like to see it continue, but if we hover above those numbers and break them, I am pretty sure the selling is going to pick up for at least a spell. We may see a reaction rally back up if it in-fact it breaks down, but be careful here. The market does have some room to breath, but it is on thin ice. Current price -4 points at 1188 from the close of 1192. So, again, the market does have a little room here, but it will need to prove itself once again, very soon. Trade safe.
(Daily Chart S&P futures, Dow , Nasdaq)
www.screencast.com/t/Y2ZlOWNkOTQt (Today’s Equity Chart)
Related posts:
- Good Price Action Moves for Slow Market
- Price Rejection off of 1193, second attempt on Election day?
- Today’s Early Price Action
Tags: closing price of the day, lower opening, re-opening, the close, the open
Please log into the site.