Trade Lesson: Stock Market News Is Garbage
Last week, the media was pushing doom and gloom. TV stations like CNBC were bullying the average investor to sell or short the market. This past Monday, the markets ripped higher on a "mention" of a possible Euro bond from Angela Merkel, the head of Germany. Tuesday, the markets paused and many traders started to wonder if the move up was a one hit wonder. After the bell, news hit the markets that many banks like Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) had their credit rating downgraded. This sent more shorts into the market and investors running for cover. Today was destined to be a bloodbath, or so the average investor though. Yet, here the markets sit, the Dow Jones Industrial Average up over 400 points.
Investors and traders are lost because they listen to the news. One day the markets collapse, the next day they rally, one hour there are credit rating downgrades and a near collapse in Europe, the next the Federal Reserve and other Central Banks are saving the day. It is virtually impossible to trade off of news. The news is garbage and cannot be used to make money consistantly these days.
So what is the answer?
The answer is the charts. The charts never lie and always dictate the future. To give examples, lets talk about last week. Just last week, as the doom and gloom hit its highs, average traders were selling and shorting the market. The market was clearly going to bounce. This allowed for long alerts on the Semiconductor HOLDRs (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SMH) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). In addition, a long was given and triggered on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) at a price of $117.65. Today, the SPY hit a high of $124.50. That is a monster gain of $6.85 in less than five trading days.
The S&P 500 had a pause day yesterday. After a huge move on Monday, a pause day is known as a bullish signal. If you looked closely at the 60 minute S&P 500 chart, an amazing bull flag had formed as well. All signals were pointing to another monster up day. After the bank credit rating downgrades, the average traders once again thought the downside was obvious. However, if you just followed the charts, you would have been on the right side of the markets and made money.
Never be a bull or bear, be an neutral investor and trader who trades based off the charts.
Gareth Soloway
InTheMoneyStocks