Webinar

January has been gangbusters for stocks, giving us a good reason to look at a bigger picture than usual. With Europe sinking into a deep recession that has now engulfed Germany, and U.S. corporate earnings presumably past an important peak and consumer confidence plummeting, we were surprised to find some compelling rally targets for the broad averages that lie well above current levels. There were no juicy trades to be found during this hour, but even a lack of opportunity held its lessons.

We took a geopolitical tour this time, pondering Switzerland’s entry into the global devaluation Olympiad. Other charts you can see here implied that interesting times will be with us again in 2013. We wrapped up this session with a ‘camo’ trade in Feb Gold that worked out nicely.

The Dow was in the throes of a 300-point surge when we looked in on it during this session, and bullion was up sharply as well. Naturally, our focus was on getting a piece of the action, and we did so with results that will be of particular interest to those interested in sharpening their camouflage-entry technique.

With the goal of legging into bullish ‘butterfly spread’ in Apple, we took a close look at the stock’s intraday charts as well as the options grid. AAPL was trading for around $530, but our strategy was tied to expectations of a quick rally to at least $600. Under the circumstances, acquiring a January 590-600-610 butterfly makes sense. Our goal is to do this at no cost, or perhaps even for a small credit, leaving us with no risk. Is this possible? Indeed it is, for reasons that should be clear to you after you’ve reviewed this recording.

This session featured the epiphany of a hitherto unrecognized E-Mini S&P target at 1337.75. There were several ways to get short, but as you will see, the decision we made hinged as much on guts as on coldly mechanical reasoning. Incidentally, two days later the trade was solidly in-the-black. At least one student who attended the class ‘did’ the trade, which he shared in the chat room in a timely way.

How does one trade a $700 stock in the final hour? Very carefully, of course, as this 8-minute recording makes clear. In a tout disseminated the night before, I’d suggested using camouflage to get long in Google. Using the one-minute chart, here’s one approach that would have worked, although the trade was subsequently stopped out.

A short position we’d initiated two weeks earlier in the E-Mini S&Ps had gotten stopped out this morning, producing a $4600 gain for anyone who traded as instructed. Although there were good technical reasons to infer that the stock market’s weakness would resume after Thanksgiving, if the rebound in Apple continues, it could conceivably turn the broad averages sharply higher as the new year begins.

The impulse leg rule is one of the simplest and most powerful tools in the Hidden Pivot arsenal. Using it to manage stop-losses is a trick that even novices can do successfully, often with results that would rival the most sophisticated risk management systems. This recording contains some of the most detailed advice I have offered to date on the subject.

The election will have enormous consequences for investors. From a technical perspective, and to put it mildly, it doesn’t look good for the broad averages. However, a detailed technical look at some popular stocks during this one-hour session revealed that there will be bullish opportunities nonetheless in certain stocks, including Facebook, Priceline and Amazon. Gold futures, meanwhile, look like they will meander sideways at best. If you’re looking for forecasts that are bold and precise, I invite you to review this post-election look at the markets using Hidden Pivot Analysis.