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By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis
Free After-Hours Analysis
The S&P 500 tumbled nearly 5% in what would normally be classified as one of the worst days in stock market history. Today, it seemed like just another routine midweek dip. As callous as it sounds, 5% crashes don’t feel all that dramatic after experiencing -7%, -10%, and -12% plunges over the last few weeks. It’s almost gotten to the point where we could find ourselves saying, stocks “only” fell 5% today.
The financial press claims today’s selloff was in response to Trump’s new estimates of 100,000 to 240,000 American deaths from Covid-19. While that excuse sounds plausible enough to satisfy newspaper editors, the simple truth is today was little more than a natural snap-back from last week’s towering 20% rebound. These 100k and 200k estimates have been floating around for days and are actually far less draconian than the 2 million fatalities that were initially projected. Trump’s update didn’t surprise anyone who is paying attention and it sure didn’t catch the market off guard. The truth is today’s move was nothing more than the natural ebb and flow of supply and demand. But rather than take place over 1%, 2%, or 3% increments, we are seeing 5%, 10%, and even 20% swings. This is routine stuff, just super-sized.
As for what comes next, expect more of the same. Last week’s towering rebound consumed a truckload of demand and now it is time for the sellers to take control. Unless we see these social-distancing efforts have a dramatic impact on infection rates over the next few days, expect the market to slip back to the lows. Whether we bounce above, at, or under the prior lows has yet to be seen, but we should expect more down than up over the next handful of trading sessions.
That said, this is still an incredibly volatile market and that means big moves in BOTH directions. Just because we will retest the prior lows at some point doesn’t mean it will be a straight line getting there. Expect volatility to remain off the charts and the best trading plan includes taking profits early and often. Hold a few hours too long and today’s profits turn into tomorrow’s losses.
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM
By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis
Free After-Hours Update
It’s been a historic few weeks with this viral pandemic sweeping across the globe and grinding the world’s economy to a halt. While those headlines dominate the financial press, it’s easy to forget about the other things going on in the market. It seems like forever ago, but TSLA was the hottest trade less than two months ago. While the world has largely moved on to bigger things, this trade matters for the people still holding it, so let’s take a look.
Along with everything else, TSLA’s stock plunged in late February. But as is often the case, the higher they go, the harder they fall. At one point, TSLA was down nearly 65% from those heady highs. While it seemed inevitable this stock would tumble from those unsustainable levels near $1,000, no one could have predicted the tsunami that was coming. This was an unprecedented global catastrophe that pummeled all stocks, not just the highfliers. But that still doesn’t justify someone holding this thing as it shed nearly 2/3 of its value.
While I was skeptical of the frenzied buying that propelled this stock up nearly 100% in just a few weeks, it was obvious to most this was too good to last. If it wasn’t a global pandemic, it would have been something else. That’s why it was critical to protect our profits by following this up with a trailing stop. Not long after the stock bumped up against $1k, it tumbled back under $800. That would have been a good place to lock in some profits. The stock did a good job clawing back above $800 over the next few weeks, but that second violation of $800 was definitely our signal to get out.
Rather than “hold and pray”, we should have locked-in profits and waited to see what comes next. As individual investors, our greatest strength is the nimbleness of our size. We can jump in and out of full positions with a few mouse clicks. If we don’t take advantage of this ajility, we give up one of the few advantages we have over the larger institutions.
That said, hindsight is 20/20 and the horse is long gone. What owners really want to know is what comes next. While I like these big discounts in the other high-flying FAANG stocks, it is hard to feel the same way about TSLA’s future prospects. Without a doubt, this was a momentum story and the momentum has clearly been broken. The giddy buyers are long gone and won’t be back anytime soon. While I could see the FAANG stocks returning to their all-time highs over the next several months, it is hard to see TSLA getting back near its highs for a long, long time.
Now don’t get me wrong. This is still a great company with a great story. The stock will do well, but well is a relative term. While we will most likely return to the pre-bubble highs near $600 over the next few weeks, I wouldn’t count on anything above that for a good long while. There are a lot of people who have lost a lot of money in this stock and it will take them a while to admit defeat and get out. Until then, expect this to remain rangebound between $400 support and $600 resistance. Once these retakes and holds $600, we can revisit it as a buying opportunity.
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM $TSLA
By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU
Cracked.Market University
One of the things I learned a long time ago is that while I’m pretty good at trading, when I’m wrong, I tend to be really wrong.
I’m an optimist at heart. It’s almost a requirement to surviving the markets over the long-term because we definitely go up more than we go down and bull markets last a lot longer than bear markets. That said, when things go south, they south in a hurry.
While I tend to give the market the benefit of doubt, I always have a plan for being wrong. The most obvious example is starting every trade with a sensible stop. But beyond this tactical technique, I also need a mechanism for recognizing when my outlook is flat-out wrong. When what seems like a buyable dip is really the next good shorting opportunity. Or what looks like a great short is actually the next great buy.
The most expensive mistakes we make are when we think the market is headed one way but it is actually going in the opposite direction. This is when we need to be the most open-minded about our outlook and the quickest to changing course.
I was looking for last week’s huge bounce to fizzle in a near-term pullback. As I wrote previously, “one day up, the next day down.” While that approach worked brilliantly for the first few weeks of this selloff, it stopped working late last week. Rather than alternate daily between losses and gains, the gains started piling up day after day. Cracks that should have triggered another waterfall selloff ended up bouncing even higher instead.
I could have gotten stubborn and dug my heels in like so many other traders that were skeptical of last week’s 20% rebound. But when my initial short trade didn’t work as planned, I had to acknowledge that I could have this backward. When the market refused to collapse in a waterfall selloff Friday, that was a strong indication it wanted to go higher, not lower. When the market opened strong this morning, rather than argue with it, I saw this counter-intuitive strength as a buying signal. Rather than argue with the market and lose money, I plugged my nose and bought the strength instead.
I still expect this market to pullback very soon (maybe tomorrow is finally the day), but as long as this keeps going up, my trading plan is going to keep forcing me to buy it. And for that, I’m thankful.
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM
By Jani Ziedins | Weekly Analysis
Free Weekly Analysis and Lookahead
This was one of the most volatile weeks in S&P 500 history with the highs and lows spanning more than 20%. The moves were so dramatic in fact, the index actually started a new bull market after climbing 20% from Monday’s lows! (Also making this the shortest bear market in history.)
These are strange times. I was there for the dot-com bubble. 9/11. The housing crash and financial crisis. I even have memories of 1987’s Black Monday. But few things compare to the levels of uncertainty we are feeling today. 1987 blindsided market participants and few things are as shocking as watching 9/11 unfold in real-time. But neither of those events affected Mainstreet the way Coronavirus has completely and totally shut down the global economy. Everyone was numb after 9/11, but most people resumed their lives after a few days.
Not today. Governors are instructing, if not downright ordering, citizens to stay in their homes for at least two weeks. And that is just the start. No one knows how much further this could go. Stocks rallied this week after Congress approved a $2 trillion dollar stimulus package and the Fed assured us they have “unlimited ammunition” to combat this economic slowdown. That was good enough to launch stock prices 20% above Monday’s lows. But can these things solve our problems? No…not even close.
This week’s rebound was more of a massive relief-rally and short-squeeze than a vote of confidence about our “new” outlook. While it was definitely nice to see the stock market string together a few positive days, our situation is not any better this Friday than it was last Friday. In fact, in many ways, they are worse now because this virus continues expanding at an exponential rate and this week’s shelter-in-place orders had a minimal impact on the growth curve.
As nice as it felt to see the market put together an impressive performance this week, we are far from out of the woods and should expect this historic volatility to stick around for a while. At the very least, expect prices to retest the lows over the next week or two. Maybe we find support at the prior lows. Maybe we don’t. Either way, hopefully, anyone who was savvy enough to buy this week’s rebound is also savvy enough to lock-in a big portion of those profits before they evaporate. Investors can buy these discounts for the long-haul, but traders need to be extremely nimble because today’s profits will turn into tomorrow’s losses if we allow ourselves to get greedy.
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM
By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis
Free After-Hours Analysis
The S&P 500 produced its first three-day win-streak since early February. Congress agreed to a $2 trillion stimulus package and the Fed assured us they have “unlimited ammunition”. Those headlines were enough to launch stocks nearly 20% above Monday’s intraday lows. Looking beyond this relief rally, the bigger question is if these government interventions are enough to solve the market’s problems or if this strength is just another fleeting bounce on our way lower.
Three days ago bears were gloating over their investing prowess. Today it’s the bull’s turn. And so goes the swinging pendulum of sentiment in this violently volatile market. While it was definitely better to be a bull today than a bear, is the Coronavirus epidemic really solved? Did our politicians actually accomplish anything more meaningful than adding $2 trillion to our national debt? Ummmmm, no. We are in much of the same place we were Monday…and last Friday…and the Friday before that. Nothing has been fixed but at least some issues have been addressed…if only marginally.
These constructive headlines were at least good enough to stem the cascade of relentless selling. That said, we shouldn’t expect prices to race back to the highs anytime soon. The world is still gripped by fear of a killer virus and all the economic damage that goes along with these extreme preventative measures.
As I wrote on Monday, this market is incredibly volatile and that means huge swings in BOTH directions. One day’s gains become the next day’s losses (plus or minus a day or two). In periods like this, if swing-traders are not taking profits, then they are taking losses. Rather than gloat over the corpses of your adversaries, be savvy enough to realize that if you hang around too long, your corpse will soon be the one underfoot. While giving up on a winning trade is always hard to do, if you don’t, the market will take all those profits back.
I warned bears a few days ago and now I’m warning bulls. Lock-in those profits and be ready to go the other direction. The next big swing is just around the corner.
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM
By Jani Ziedins | Free CMU
Cracked.Market University
As crazy as the last few weeks have been, far and away the most critical factor determining our success is timeframe. One person is buying with both arms while another is shorting like mad. Who’s right and who’s wrong? As strange as it sounds, they could both be right and make a ton of money from their seemingly contradictory trades. The secret sauce is timeframe.
I bring this up because in these short, after-hours posts, I often neglect to stress timeframe when talking about positions. While it is often obvious given the context, for new readers, I want to make sure everyone understands how important this distinction really is.
Two days ago I wrote a post about the safety of buying these levels and yesterday I told readers the opposite thing when I said this strength was shortable. The difference between these two posts is the first covered long-term investing while the second exploited the market’s daily gyrations.
Despite how it sounds like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth, I still believe both of these cases are as true today as when I wrote them. Anyone buying these discounts and holding for 12+ moths will see some really healthy profits. When prices finally reclaim 3k, whether a person bought at 2,300 or 2,400 will be fairly insignificant. The most important thing is they were busy buying discounts when everyone else was desperately selling them.
On the other hand, if a person wants to lock-in short-term profits next week, I would definitely suggest shorting today’s strength. This market is stuck in a choppy basing phase and one day’s gains become the next day’s losses. While today’s stimulus headlines were great and worthy of a 10%+ pop from Monday’s lows, now that we are at much higher levels, chances are good the next move is lower.
As strange as it sounds, I truly believe a person should be both buying and shorting this market. The distinction comes down to whether they are doing it with their long-term investments or in their short-term trading account. (You use both strategies, right?)
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Tags: S&P 500 Nasdaq $SPY $SPX $QQQ $IWM
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