Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Market Recap For Tuesday, 12/21/2010

The S&P 500 has been up for 13 of the 15 trading days thus far in December, and it is acting like it is never going to go down again. Volume is slowing but breadth is improving, and the key leadership stocks such as AAPL, NFLX and CRM are acting better. It is a relentless uptrend that is beating up the serial top callers despite all their good arguments about why a reversal is going to occur at any moment.

If volume slows the closer we get to the holiday, the risk of a higher level of volatility will increase. That can cut both ways. It can shake you out of some good positions, but it can also provide for some favorable entry points and quick flips if you stay vigilant.

In the old days (before the crash in 2008), we actually tended to have more volatility within the uptrends, which is good for active traders. Since March 2009, the uptrends have been amazingly lopsided. You just don't see a lot of easy entries, and it is a real bear killer because they don't even get the chance for very minor gains.

That is the environment we are in. With the holidays fast approaching, and end-of-the year portfolio shuffling occurring, there will probably be some opportunities.

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