Friday, June 23, 2006

The Correction Continues - Technical Analysis

We are still in what I believe is a correction of the 14 June rally in US stock markets. Even though yesterday's rally exceeded the previous highs it took place on weak volume. Volume only really picked up when the selling off started. Today was mostly down and then sideways. This type of correction is called a "flat" in the terminology of Elliott Wave Theory.

Check out this chart of the NASDAQ 100 index. The stochastic oscillator maps out the waves pretty clearly. And the last wave of the oscillator is clearly pointing down and has some ways to go before it bottoms out. So market timing doesn't work and technical analysis is rubbish? It is still hard to determine a turning point as it happens. Once the move is underway though the momentum is pretty clear. But a rally like yesterday's is just noise as far as the oscillator on a daily chart is concerned. You need to go down to the hourly chart to detect it... and then keep the daily one in mind too. And this is part of the reason why I am thinking of using multiple trades simultaneously some longer term (based on the daily chart) and some shorter term (based on intraday charts). My mutual fund investments would be traded on the basis of a montly chart perhaps.

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