Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Pullbacks and Reversals

This is part of my continuing study of GE and NYAD divergences that may serve as high probability tells for intraday scalps of GE. Although my initial tests of GE and QQQQ divergences still offer trading opportunities, my research over the past 2 weeks has led me to conclude the $NYAD is a much more reliable GE counterpart. This is probably due to the fact that the Qs reflect the average momentum of 100 Nasdaq stocks, while the NYAD reflects momentum of the entire 6400 issues in the NYSE, therefore making the NYAD a lot harder for market makers to game than the Qs.
What was interesting about today's action was the 11:00 slope reversal in th NYAD, while GE continued to climb, then falter, then climb again to noon when it began a 4 hour descent, punctuated by several pullbacks to the downsloping GE trend line.
One indicator that is helpful capturing these short term pullbacks is the parabolic SAR, which I typically set up with a minimum step of .05 and a maximum step of .2. Most platforms provide the parabolics, although the default settings may be a little different. The white arrows on the chart above designate the parabolic triggers for today's GE overhead pullbacks. Used as either a confirming or leading signal, the parabolics can help keep you on the right side of a trade.

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