With seasonality at gale force, AMZN still couldn’t achieve our modest 1529.92 target in the final days of 2018. Tax selling will be out of the way now, however, and we should see bulls hit our benchmark on Wednesday. Judging from the stock’s timid behavior Tuesday night, though, its handlers aren’t taking any chances. They will wait for news ahead of the opening that could conceivably drive a short squeeze — the only source of buying strong enough to temporarily dispel the clouds that have sat over Wall Street since early October. If buyers overwhelm the 1529.29 target, that would be bullish. However, they’ll need to push the stock above December 19’s 1584.53 peak to generate the kind of impulse leg on the hourly chart that suggest the rally has staying power. _______ UPDATE (Jan 2, 5:41 p.m.): Although bellwether AAPL is getting schmeissed in after-hours trading, AMZN would trip a mechanical buy signal if it fall to the green line at 1492.62. Since initial theoretical risk with a stop below ‘C’ would be more than $3000 per round lot, I’d suggest doing the trade via a ‘camouflage’ set-up only._______ UPDATE (Jan 3, 10:28 a.m.): Despite Wall Street’s big selloff this morning, the ‘mechanical’ buy noted above has performed well, rallying $46 after dipping just $2 below the 1492.62 bid. The stock is making it harder for AAPL’s sleazy handlers to shake out more widows and pensioners this morning. AAPL has traded only slightly below the 143.36 target I sent out last night, when it was getting demolished for lowering the Q1 outlook._______ UPDATE (Jan 3, 10:15 p.m.): AMZN somehow avoided getting crushed today and would in fact trip a ‘mechanical’ buy signal if it pulls back to the green line (1492.60, stop 1460.00). Tentatively, we’ll respect the Furies by paper-trading this one. ______ UPDATE (Jan 4, 9:05 a.m.): The stock pulled backed to 1493.87, a millimeter from the green line, before vaulting $36 to a so far high of 1530.00. The paper gain on four round lots held overnight would have been around $14,000. The 1590.38 D target of the pattern is still in play.