$DIA – Dow Industrials ETF (Last:264.35)

I instituted coverage of this vehicle a while back to provide an equity-based alternative for subscribers who’d rather not trade futures. Unfortunately, we’ve been hobbled finding good entry points to leverage puts and calls because DIA only trades during daytime hours.  That means it is most often playing catch-up with index futures, which tend to hit tradeable reversal points in the dead of night. Most recently, over the last two weeks, DIA has failed to reach a red-line resistance at 273.14, a Hidden Pivot we’ve used as a minimum upside target that could have provided some attractive opportunities to get short. In each case, the E-Mini Dow did touch the equivalent ‘p’ during the night session. Another problem is that DIA’s pullback to the green line last Thursday would ordinarily have been used to trigger a ‘mechanical’ buy. In the actual event, however, I couldn’t justify the trade because the high preceding the pullback did not quite reach p.  I am not about to abandon DIA because of the problems noted above, but I wanted you to be aware of why good trades in this vehicle have been few and far between.