Hedge Against Speculation

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Archive for March, 2008

Mar
28

THANKS FOR TAKING ME ON

dylanblog

I would first like to thank Richard for inviting me to be a writer for hedgeagainstspeculation.com. I will try to come on once a week or so to add my two cents to the knowledge pool that he is trying to build. I will usually pick out a couple of stocks from my watch list that I find interesting, and will analyze them, and discuss various entry and exit points. I trade both in options and stocks, and have no problem trading to the downside or the upside. Wherever the price is going, I will be following right behind. And I will try to keep my charts as uncluttered as I can, but I’m not making any promises.

The big question on everyone’s mind is when is this down market going to turn around. I wish I knew, but looking at the S&P500, following Thursday’s action, it looks as if it is coming down to some general support at around 1320 after hitting its head off resistance at the 1350-1360 area. Look for the S&P to test the support. If it holds, I may indicate that the market may be turning from bearish to neutral in the near future. If it breaks through that support, the next two levels of support lie around the 1280 and then the 1250 areas. Breaking the current 1320 support would indicate that we are still in an overall bearish market.

spx1.PNG

I have several stocks that may be interesting trades. Some will be stronger than others depending on how the market moves. The first is VIP. I was long this stock ever since it successfully tested its $30 support back in mid November. It eventually made up to the mid 40’s before the market started to turn. It successfully tested the $30 support a second time and rose up again. There is a big candle stick on December 11 providing resistance at around $38.50 (I have found that large candle sticks like that, which are formed on heavy volume can often provide new support/resistance lines). The stock now sits at its $30 support. I have two different interpretations of this chart. To the down side, we have a possible head and shoulders formation, with the first shoulder peaking in early November, the head peaking at $45 in late December, and the second shoulder peaking at $38.50 in mid February. If the $30 support is broken on good volume, you can anticipate a move down to $20 over the next couple of months. If the support holds once again, and the stock starts to turn up, it may turn into a channeling stock over the next several months. Look for it to rise and hold above $31.50 for an entry point on this stock. It is also interesting to note, this is the #2 Cell service provider in Russia, and has not been directly affected by the sub prime mortgage mess. I recommend keeping this stock on your list for this reason as well as the fact that it has some well defined support/resistance lines and has some very nice movement. Remember, it’s not the name of the stock that matters, it’s the change in price.

vip1.png

The second stock worth taking a look at is MCK. This stock, like many has been in a downtrend over the past couple of months. This stock has had some nice price movements over the past couple of years, establishing some well defined support/resistance lines at multiple price levels. It is currently forming the trough of a double-bottom reversal pattern in the $51.50 area. Look for this to move up over the next couple of days. A bullish position can be taken if it breaks above the $55 level on good volume, with strong resistance levels at the $56.50, $61, and $62.50 areas.

mck.PNG

Other stocks currently on my short list of ones to watch are CELG, DNA, FLS, STP, AYE, AOC, XNPT, LEH, and EBAY. Interesting note, EBAY is nearing resistance at $31.50. Look for it to rebound down off of this and test support at $28.50 for a potential buying opportunity.

Happy Trading

Dylan
Dylan
dylan@hedgeagainstspeculation.com

Mar
24

BULLS vs. BEARS, MY PREDICTION

richardblog

After some fierce fighting between the bulls and bears in the past few trading days, I have come to the conclusion that the bulls are ahead. But will they win this battle? I wouldn`t bet on it. If we close above 1360 in the S&P500 early April, expect a bull run. The push up will test the 1400 mark and if we get lucky we will break this level. This bullish sentiment could last up to two months and what happens after this rally depends on economic variables. I have, and will continue to think bearish…so if you`re asking for my opinion, I think after this run up we will jet to the downside. I`m expecting this run to the downside to be a very nasty one, one that will be testing some low lows before heading to the upside for good.

scmar23.png

As you can see, there are many variables involved…so if the S&P doesn`t break the important 1360 level in the near future, none of this will happen and a new strategy will have to be formed. Anyways, as mentioned in one of my previous posts, I will be blogging less the following month because of finals. But do come back because I`ve hand picked a few of my favourite writers to guest write for Hedge Against Speculation so this blog will still be updated regularly. Oh and feel free to chat with me, drop a comment or enter into this month`s contest! There have yet to be any entries for my April contest, so come on people, the more entries I get the bigger the prizes will be in the future!!

(If you`re interested in becoming a guest or permanent writer for Hedge Against Speculation, email me: richard@hedgeagainstspeculation.com Ask about the benefits you get for being a writer on HAS. Further, if you`d like to donate a prize to my current or future contests, simply email me. Being a contest sponsor is a good way to promote your product or website.)


Richard
richard[at]hedgeagainstspeculation.com

Mar
19

CONGRATULATIONS __________ !

richardblog

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate The Wild Investor for winning Hedge Against Speculation’s first ever contest. For winning, http://thewildinvestor.com gets a free Performance Ad Spot starting March 20 to April 20, 2008.

Thanks to the good turnout, Hedge Against Speculation will now be hosting monthly contests. So let me introduce you to April’s contest: 

(updated 3, 24, 2008) PRIZE: To please ALL my readers, I edited this month’s prize. Not all my readers own or want to promote their website, so this month’s winner will get to choose either prize 1. or prize 2.

1. A 125X125 Performance Ad Space for one month.
 or

2. $5 sent through PayPal.

RULES: To qualify you must do one of three tasks:

(1) Subscribe to my RSS feed or email Newsletter.

      & submit a rating and review of my site on TIMLINKS. It’s easy, this takes less than a minute to do.

or 

(2) Vote for me on Blogger’s Choice Awards. You will need a registered account to do this.

      & submit a rating and review of my site on TIMLINKS. It’s easy, this takes less than a minute to do.

or 

(3) Drop your card on my Entrecard.

      & write a recommendation for my site.

After doing one of these three tasks, please reply to this post letting me know which task you performed with your name/email.

Once you have done all this your name will be posted below with a number. Of the names listed, a random number will be picked with this number generator, and the person with that number will win the prize. 

1. Chris
2. Kitty
3. Fil
4. Dylan
5. Cody 
6. James
7. indocontest

TIMEFRAME: All entries must be entered by April 19, 2008. I will select and announce the winner the following day. The winner will be contacted through email and once I receive confirmation their ad will be displayed immediately.

For those of you interested in donating a prize to this contest or my future contests, please email richard@hedgeagainstspeculation.com Being a contest sponsor is a good way to promote your product or website. 

For my latest post on the stock markets, go here.

Mar
18

I’M NEUTRAL GOING INTO A BIG DAY

richardblog

It is becoming increasing harder to predict daily or even weekly moves in the market with all this volatility. So much happens each day that you need to be around a computer for the full trading day. If you’re in the same boat as me and just don’t have the luxury to watch the markets 24/7, then I would suggest limiting your trading. Forget diversification, and narrow your watchlist to under 6 stocks.

“Diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.”-Warren Buffet 

If you’re not sure what’s going to happen next, just take a breather and sit out for a bit, holding cash is a position too. Anyways, let’s take a look at last week’s action:

mar14indices1.png

I was anticipating a sideways market this week. By Friday, the markets were flat but price movement was far from being horizontal…the markets fluctuated up and down daily. The bulls were unable to follow through and break the 1325 level in the S&P; therefore, I took this opportunity to go short. Due to this volatility I took profits Friday morning. Looking back on it, I wish I was still holding it today, but holding anything over the weekend is dangerous.

As my title states, I’m neutral going into tomorrow. “The Federal Reserve is primed to aggressively cut a key interest rate even lower on Tuesday, racing to contain spreading financial fires that threaten an economic meltdown.”-Yahoo!  But will they? Inflation will get pretty bad, and the dollar will continue to fall if they do. But honestly, it doesn’t matter where this market is heading in the short-run. In these market conditions, I am not going to expose myself to any risk. I would much rather take small profits than get stuck on the wrong side of the fence. But if you’re itching to play, take a look at this chart:

scmar17.png

We didn’t sell off like I wanted it to today, instead we got a hammer. This is a bullish indicator as it indicates that the bulls were able to fight off the bears. So taking tomorrow’s variable out, we should be heading higher towards 1300. Due to all the resistance above 1300 I don’t forsee the index going any higher, we still need to test some lows before retesting those highs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mar
14

A NEW LAYOUT TO GO WITH MY .COM

richardblog

Welcome to my brand new layout and domain! My .blogspot.com blog will no longer be updated, you can now find me at http://hedgeagainstspeculation.com With the new traffic I’ve been getting, a change was needed…so I left Blogger for Wordpress. I’m not sure about you but I’m much happier with this site now…there is some stuff I need to do though, and unfortunately, there is some stuff you might want to do. With this change, those who have bookmarked me may want to update their favorites list with my new .com address. Also, I would appreciate those who added me to their blogroll to update my new .com address as well. To all my readers, please subscribe to my feed or subscribe to my newsletter via email. Stay connected with Hedge Against Speculation!

 
Oh and you may have noticed that I’m now using Entrecard, so if you’re a webmaster, feel free to drop off your card or buy an Entrecard Ad from me. Also, I have some new Ad Spots for sale…go to “Advertise” for more details. Lastly, my current “WIN A 125X125 AD SPACE” contest is still going on…remember the contest ends March 19, 2008! Seeing as I got a good turnout for my first contest, I will be hosting a new contest every month, so come by my site in the near future.

That’s all for now, leave me a comment telling me what you think of the new layout and domain. One more thing, if the subscriptions don’t work, please let me know…stay connected with Hedge Against Speculation!