Surprisingly Strong Retail Sales

U.S. retail sales were up 1.1% in November. The consensus forecast was 0.2%. As a result, stocks and the U.S. dollar are up and bonds down. NQ futures are up 7.75 points at the moment (my positions bought yesterday are now in the money). I was actually worried the retail sales number might be low and sold out of a QQQQ position I bought yesterday afternoon just before the number came out and then bought back in just after for a loss of 3 cents per share (I sold the shares for an 11 cent profit - 3 cents is the difference between my buy and sell prices). Yes, I'm still very jittery.

10:28am

Oh well, the market closed the opening gap... and then some. Sometimes the gap closing trade works and sometimes not. I don't have a good theory about this yet. A lot of traders are watching this triangle:



I think it should break upwards, but at this point we are close to testing the downside.