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The Russell 2000 has been trading sideways for 83-days, breadth hasn't been great, but at the same time, it has not been horrible. Maybe the earnings season will be the catalyst to get the Russell out of its dull drum, maybe it will be Brexit, or perhaps it will be the sell in May and go away seasonality.Here's another view from AlphaTrends.FANG; Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google, have been holding up well and doing a great job masking some of the weakness. According to Fundstrat 40 stocks out of the 500 SP500 stocks are responsible for the entire year-to-date gain in [...]

Now more than ever, there is always a lot of mention of "bad breadth." This is when the indices traded or are holding up a lot better than the majority of individual common stocks.For example yesterday I tweeted that it was an interesting day, the major indices were up, the small caps barely down but yet we had more declining issues than advancing issues, we had more 1 and 3-month new lows than new highs. We also had more stocks down 4% or more for the day than up 4% or more.CLICK TO ENLARGEBut yet the indices masked what was [...]

What do you do when the STOCKGODS bless you with a gap down? If you are like me, you probably determine your positions size based on the difference between the purchase price and your stop loss divided by how much you want to risk. Let's say you have a 100k dollar account and you want to risk 1% of your total capital that equals $1,000. If you your purchase price is $25 and your stop is $22, you take $1000 divided by $3 which equals 333 shares, that is the amount you can buy based on how much you want [...]

Trader's linkfest with some actionable ideas.Don't Fear The Stock Market Crash--Tony Robbins Here is Tony in 2010 with a note of caution--Tony Robbins Best Stocks To Buy In The 2nd Quarter--Schaeffer Research Bull Market Top Checklist--Strategas ResearchTop 10 Best Performing Hedgefunds in the 1st Quarter---@HegdemindSIGN UP HERE FOR OUR STOCK PICK OF THE WEEK.Frank Zorrilla, Registered Advisor In New York. If you need a second opinion, suggestions, and or feedback in regards to the market feel free to reach me at fzorrilla@zorcapital.com or 646-480-7463. See How I Translate My Tweets & Blogs Into Actual 3rd Party Verified TradesWork With MeWe live in [...]

Forget about trading rules and think more about trading guidelines. So many trading rules get thrown around Twitter, it's nauseating. Some rules are from the 90's, some from the 80's, 20's, etc. I think in trading you should think more in guidelines than set in stone rules. The outcomes of trades will have you rethink what you do multiple times throughout the year.The rules are endless; 200-day moving average rule, average down rule, don't let a winner turn into a loser rule, don't buy stocks in downtrends, etc.Your guidelines about trading should be based on the commonalities that drive a [...]

The Small Cap Index (small-cap 600) was up every day this week, five consecutive higher closes. For long-term investors, this is meaningless, for traders it might not be the best time to get overly aggressive, perhaps, slow down for the next 5 days.In the last five years, (up 5-days in a row) it has happened 21 times, the average final return five-day return has been +0.13%. Click to EnlargeTotals and average return for lowest return, highest return, and final return in the next 5-days.Obviously, there is no edge in trying to short, but there is a slight edge in slowing down. [...]

The SPY (SP500) is back at a level that can offer some short term resistance; $236-$237. For traders that can have some short-term consequences, for investors is pretty much meaningless.I have a few stocks on my watchlist today; $BZUN, $V, $GXP, $AMBA, $KEM, $HSIC, $NVRO, $IPGP, $PARR.$V and $AMBA are two stocks that printed inside days yesterday, and both saw some call option activity. I have an interest in these two stocks if and only if they go through yesterday's high.$KEM and $HSIC also look ready to a second leg higher after 3+ weeks of sideways action.The semiconductor stocks have [...]

The great Urban Carmel from Fat-Pitch.blogspot.com pointed out that the average intra-year decline when the SP500 has been positive January and February is roughly -7 to -9%.The reason why he is highlighting only the years in which the market was up January and February is that historically when January and February are up months the market does very well for the entire year.  Since 1950 when the SP500 was higher the first two months 26 times, 24 of those times it was higher by year end. Here's the research by Ryan Detrick.What I found interesting was that most recent pullbacks under [...]

The market had a decent bounce yesterday led by the oil names that have been under pressure since December. We touched on two interesting oil plays yesterday that are due for a bounce LINK.The big liquid names like AMZN, NFLX, FB, AAPL, are still holding up well. Newer names like SHOP, LITE, AAOI, are also acting very well.The less news you consume, the better off you are, and trading should be part of an overall portfolio that also has a passive component.Here's my watchlist for today;I have an interest in these stocks if and only if they go through their [...]

The energy sector (XLE) peaked back in December and its down -13% since then. However, $SN and $WFT are two energy stocks that look interesting to me right here right now.Weatherford International has shown tremendous relative strength versus the sector as you can see in the chart below, it has gained +27% year to date versus -9% for $XLE.The outperformance comes from some key news announcements;The departure of their CEO on 11/9/2016, the stock jumped 31% on the news.The hiring of Halliburton financial chief to run the company on 3/6/2017, the stock jumped 8%.A joint venture with Schlumberger to service the fracking [...]