The Art of Simple Trading

US Retirement Prospects Not Improving

What are your thoughts when you think of retirement?

The VRTX Victory Lap

I’m not a big fan of victory laps… especially in the trading arena.

Why?

It’s far too easy for them to come back and haunt you…

More important, it’s just not necessary.

However…

I happened to catch sight of this today…

That’s not bad work from 26 May 2017.

I even posted this chart of #VRTX on Facebook today…

So that’s it…

That should be plenty of victory lapping for the next 2 years or so.

Trade…

How To Trade FULT – 14 July 2017

How To Trade FULT – Fulton Financial Corp — Weekly Chart

  How To Trade FULT – Fulton Financial Corp — Weekly Chart

  How To Trade FULT – Metrics As of Close 14 July 2017

  How To Trade FULT – Profile [Via Yahoo Financial]

Fulton Financial Corporation operates as a multi-bank financial holding company that provides banking and financial services to businesses and consumers. It accepts various…

A big swath of financials report earnings before the cash market opens tomorrow morning.

If the numbers and forecasts are good, the market should take off.

JPM

  JPM Stats

  WFC

  WFC Stats

  C

  C Stats

  PNC

  PNC Stats

    FRC

  FRC Stats

The market should be driven by what these companies say tomorrow morning.

Trade well…

The Trader

How To Trade SEIC — Monthly Chart

  How To Trade SEIC — Weekly Chart

    Company Profile (via Yahoo Finance):

SEI Investments Co. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides wealth management, retirement and investment solutions, asset management, asset administration, investment processing outsourcing solutions, financial services, and…

How To Trade SCSS - As of Close 29 June 2017

How To Trade SCSS – As of The Close 29 June 2017

One of my favorite circumstances to look for an entry into a stock happened today.

The broader equity market was down (substantially at 1 point).  And some stocks bucked the overall mood.  In that circumstance, I like to examine stocks that made substantial moves to the upside for opportunities.

SCSS fits that bill today.

The company isn’t…

How To Trade CP

Canadian Pacific Railway is poised to stage a run higher out of its recent congestion zone.  While the stock has been moving higher for some time, experience suggests a move out of this congestion structure could be significant.

  Company Profile [Via Yahoo Finance]

Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a transcontinental freight…

How To Trade FAANG As of 9 June 2017

How To Trade FAANG Now

So the 2nd beach trip officially opens the summer for TAOST.

There’s lots of noise and gnashing of teeth due to the performance of tech and more specifically FAANG on Friday.

Look at the image above and calm down.

Yes, Goldman Sachs Research threw cold water on tech…

“This outperformance, driven by secular growth and the death of the reflation narrative, has created…

How To Trade CNC [Centene Corp] – As of Close 2 June 2017

How To Trade CNC

I wrote about CNC in early 2014 (you can see that post here).

The stock has done well since then (don’t be fooled by the price level… the stock split 2 for 1 in February 2015).

It feels like it’s ready to challenge the all time highs yet again.

If that look doesn’t convince you, maybe this one will.

For those of you who don’t know, this is one of my favorite patterns.

Company…

How To Trade Texas Roadhouse – TXRH – As of 1 June 2017

Here’s my opinion on how to trade TXRH.

The stock is positively structured on multiple timeframes.  

It recently filled the gap created on May 2nd and started to bounce.

With sales growth of 10% over last year and 17% over last quarter, the market is responding positively to Texas Roadhouse.

I would buy the stock anywhere around these levels with a stop below either 1 or 2.  

If price does break…

How To Trade VRTX As of the close Friday 26 May 2017

How To Trade VRTX

  Company Metrics:

  Company Profile(via Yahoo Finance):  Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines for serious diseases. The company focuses on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) and advancing its research and development programs. … The company was founded in 1989 and is…

How To Trade SNAP As of 11 May 2017

How To Trade SNAP

Here’s a look at the newly public social media video platform following its first earnings report as a public company after yesterday’s close.

The short of it (no pun intended… well not really anyway) is that the numbers and fundamental metrics were not good.

Daily Chart

SNAP as of 10:27 Thursday 11 May 2017

  Metrics

  The Trader Says

After pricing at $17 per share, opening…

This is the kind of nonsense that makes people feel hopeless

about their future and retirement.  Look here…

“We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.” 

— Jeff Bezos

We would add the company profile here… but let’s just say it’s a company that sells books… and a few other things, online.  

As for the quote above, it seems Bezos and crew nailed it on all fronts… and the stock reflects…

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” 

Mark Zuckerberg

FB is what’s known in technical circles as a beast.  

And the products (identified in the description below) “ain’t half bad” either apparently.

As the cover chart for this post shows, over the past 4+ years the stock has run from…

“I think a lot of times when people talk about merchants, it’s almost a nostalgic look back at the time where the world moved at a very different pace, and information was very different.” — Eddie Lampert

How to catch a falling knife… aka how to catch a falling stock.

2 Words…

You don’t.

We’ve had a negative view of Sears Holdings for quite some time now... And check out this facebook post from…