Monday, October 19, 2009

Nasdaq (and Dow and S&P) at 2009 High

To the chagrin and frustration for the bears, the stock market keeps going up. Today, all three major indices marked the 2009 high with healthy gains but subdued volume (Op-Ex fatigue, maybe).

Barring disaster overnight (and premarket tomorrow), tomorrow's market looks brighter as Apple (AAPL) announced a blow-out earning after hours (the company sold more Macs and iPhones in any quarter in company's history), and the stock is currently trading over $200.

I haven't looked at Nasdaq chart since June (as I don't have tech stocks like I used to), so maybe this is a good time to do that to figure out whether every bear is saying is true ("the market is topping").

The first thing I notice about Nasdaq is the volume. Unlike other two indices (Dow and S&P500), Nasdaq's volume has remained robust. So far, I don't see negative divergence between RSI, price action, volume, CCI, slow stochastics. This is a very strong chart. About the only thing that makes me nervous is the extremely steep ascent from March low (steepest of the three major indices).

Around March 09 bottom, that was clearly a double bottom formation with handle, and the handle break in late May held. I should have paid more attention to Nasdaq around that time, for obviously easier money was in Nasdaq.

The index is right now between 50% and 61.8% Fib retracements, and 61.8% retracement is a logical target (2251). If 61.8% retracement is taken out (75 points away), it could go back up to 2007 high, I suppose. Some of the index components are already in that territory, about to take out all-time high (AAPL, BIDU, AMZN). Semiconductor sector is not acting well, despite the steller result from Intel (INTC). We'll see.

I don't quite see the topping formation on Nasdaq. The ascent has been steep, yes, but so far none of the indicators show overbought condition or trendline break. I personally prefer it would go sideways for a while, but what I think counts nothing toward making the market.

It's been a scary ride holding long positions (some positions as early as March) but I'm still holding most of them. Scary but lucky ride so far.

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