GS – Goldman Sachs (Last:179.23)

We spotted the ugliness unfolding in this stock in real time yesterday during the weekly tutorial session. Goldman was trading around $184, down moderately on the day, but a bearish target at 179.70 beckoned like a magnet.  The stock dove for that number in the final hour, sinking along with most other stocks, and it looked for a short while as though our target would contain the plunge precisely to-the-penny.  Alas, when the support gave way eleven minutes later, after the stock had bounced to 180.38, stop-loss orders sent GS plummeting a further 60 cents in a trice.  Here’s my outlook, posted in response to a query in the Rick’s Picks forumI shun dramatic predictions and those who make them because they are wrong perhaps 97% of the time.  That said, I am alert to the possibility that Goldman’s top last week could mark the psychological turning point that eventually will bring about the dropping of the banking system’s other shoe.  From a technical standpoint, Goldman will create a menacing, bearish impulse leg on the hourly chart — its first in as long as I can recall — if it dips below 173.16 this week.