Commentary:
Stocks gapped down sharply at the open yesterday but rallied steadily throughout the day to close near session highs. Still, for a third consecutive day all five major indices lost ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9% while the S&P 500 lost 0.7%. The S&P MidCap 400 shed 0.6% as the small-cap Russell 2000 and the Nasdaq shed 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.
Market internals ended the session bearish. Turnover increased by 10.7% on the Nasdaq and 17.9% on the NYSE. Further, declining volume held the upper hand on both major indices. On the NYSE declining volume outpaced advancing volume by a ratio of 3.7 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by a factor of 2.0 to 1. Despite the bearish internals we are not inclined to classify Tuesday as a distribution day since price action resulted in the formation of a reversal candle on both the Nasdaq and the NYSE.
On September 1st the ProShare UltraShort Euro ETF (EUO) broke above its downtrend line that had been in place since June of 2010. Yesterday, on a massive burst in volume EUO formed a breakaway gap, and established a higher high (compared to August 8th high). If EUO can put in place a higher low on its next pullback, we are likely witnessing a trend reversal in this ETF. We will be monitoring EUO closely for a potential long entry.
The iShares MSCI EAFE Index ETF (EFA) has been showing relative weakness to the broad market. Over the past two weeks as the S&P 500 rallied above its August 17th high, EFA was unable to set a new high. Further, EFA undercut support of its August 8th swing low yesterday as the market reversed well above this key mark. This divergence between the broad market and EFA suggests that the next test of yesterday’s low could result in significant selling in this ETF. We are monitoring EFA for a possible short entry.
The market actually showed signs of resiliency given the breadth of the morning gap down yesterday. Nonetheless, market volatility doesn’t tend to bode well for bulls. Further, there continues to be an absence of market leadership and until this situation is corrected we will continue to pursue opportunities on the short side of the market.
Today’s Watchlist:
There are no new official setups today. As always, we will send an Intraday Alert if any new trades are made.
Daily Performance Report:
Below is an overview of all open positions, as well as a performance report on all positions that were closed only since the previous day’s newsletter. Net P/L figures are based on the $50,000 Wagner Daily model account size. Changes to open positions since the previous report are listed in red text below. Please review the Wagner Daily Subscriber Guide for important, automatic rules on trigger and stop prices
- Per intraday alert, sold ERY to lock in a quick 11% gain and covered EWM for a small gain (scratch).
- Reminder to subscribers – Intraday Trade Alerts to your e-mail and/or mobile phone are normally only sent to indicate a CHANGE to the pre-market plan that is detailed in each morning’s Wagner Daily. We sometimes send a courtesy alert just to confirm action that was already detailed in the pre-market newsletter, but this is not always the case. If no alert is received to the contrary, one should always assume we’re honoring all stops and trigger prices listed in each morning’s Wagner Daily. But whenever CHANGES to the pre-market stops or trigger prices are necessary, alerts are sent on an AS-NEEDED basis. Just a reminder of the purpose of Intraday Trade Alerts.
- For those of you whose ISPs occasionally deliver your e-mail with a delay, make sure you’re signed up to receive our free text message alerts sent to your mobile phone. This provides a great way to have redundancy on all Intraday Trade Alerts. Send your request to [email protected] if not already set up for this value-added feature we provide to subscribers.
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Notes:
Edited by Deron Wagner,
MTG Founder and
Head Trader