This stock market can’t break out of the range bound price action

The price action has become very dull among the indices. In fact, this is the tightest 6-day trading range in the last 23 years. For many of you, that is before you ever started trading. Needless to say, what goes up, must come down, and what goes down, must come back up. That gives us nothing more than a bunch of spinning-top candles to deal with on the charts.

Right now, I still think that being long on this market is the prudent action to be taking. But watch this range, if it breaks down and out of it, you’ll want to curb back your long exposure and maybe even add a short position to the portfolio, though I’d be careful about getting heavily short. If the market breaks out of the range, then consider jumping in to the long side or adding to your long exposure. Either way, the market is giving us a nice trade setup here, it is just up to us to wait for the direction it wants to take. 

stock market today

The rising trend line on United States Oil Fund (USO) broke yesterday in dramatic fashion, and now we could be seeing a retest of its lows from November or August. The market hasn’t been too affected by the price action over the past week, but it could eventually start reacting negatively to it if the trend lower continues. For now, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some kind of bounce action in the energy stocks as they are extremely oversold in a short-term sense. 

The CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX), no surprise there, bounced yesterday 4.8%. That tends to be the norm for the VIX when it breaches new territory to the downside, the next day often follows with a hard bounce. 

S&P 500 Chart

stock market range bound

Current Stock Trading Portfolio Balance: 

  • 5  Long positions

Recent Stock Trade Notables:

  • Darling Ingredients (DAR): Long at 15.19, closed at 14.90 for a 1.9% loss. 
  • Apple (AAPL): Long at 143.82, closed at 147.11 for a 2.3% profit.
  • Teradyne (TER): Long at 31.16, closed at 33.03 for a 6.0% profit.
  • UPRO: Long at 92.75, closed at 94.78 for a 2.2% profit. 
  • Murphy Oil (MUR): Long at 28.69, closed at 27.89 for a 2.7% loss.
  • Las Vegas Sands (LVS): Long at 57.24, closed at 56.53 for a 1.2% loss.  
  • UPRO: Long at 91.94, closed at 96.54 for a 5.0% profit.
  • Alibaba Group (BABA): Long at 105.736, closed at 108.22 for a 2.4% profit. 
  • Facebook (FB): Long at 134.27, Closed at 139.23 for a 3.7% profit. 
  • CDW Corp (CDW): Long at 58.65, closed at 58.91 for a 2.7% loss. 
  • Redhat (RHT): Long at 82.41, Closed at 83.53 for a 1.4% profit. 
  • Ambarella (AMBA): Long at 57.15, Closed at 55.52 for a 2.8% loss. 
  • Alibaba Group (BABA): Long at 104.73, closed at 106.05 for a 1.3% profit. 
  • Broadcom (AVGO): Long at 218.63, Closed at 222.71 for a 1.9% profit. 
  • American Airlines (AAL): Short at 44.76, Closed at 44.03 for a 1.6% profit.
  • UPRO  (Day-Tade): Long at 95.35, closed at 96.50 for a 1.2% profit.
  • OZRK: Long at $56.12, closed at $54.69 for a 2.5% loss. 
  • FNSR: Long at $34.25, closed at 34.70 for a 1.3% profit. 
  • UPRO  (Day-Tade): Long at 96.92, closed at 98.03 for a 1.2% profit. 
  • JP Morgan Chase (JPM): Long at 87.21, closed at 89.67 for a 2.8% profit. 
  • Chevron (CVX): Short at 110.03, covered at 111.85 for a 1.6% loss. 
  • Flex Technologies (FLEX): Long at $15.62, closed at $16.57 for a 6.1% profit. 
  • Baidu (BIDU): Long at $174.70, closed at $187.00 for a 7.0% profit. 
  • Ollie’s Bargain Outlet: Long at 33.20, closed at $32.50 for a 2.1% loss. 
  • Corning (GLW): Long at $26.98, closed at $27.45 for a 1.7% profit. 
  • Illinois Tool Works (ITW): Long at $127.74, closed at $129.86 for a 1.7% profit. 
  • Marriott Int’l (MAR): Long at $86.16, closed at $87.51 for a 1.6% profit.