Trade Ideas for 01/26/09

The market's in one of those situations where an equal number of people ardently believe that it's finished a final correction and will soon slingshot higher as believe that it's about to break down to new lows. Recent history (i.e., last summer) suggests the latter course, but the market is famous for defying patterns and taking off in a new direction. For example, did anyone notice that the gold-dollar link has been turned upside down? Both have been rising, whereas the pattern had been for the two to have an inverse relationship.

Who knows which direction the market will pick next? Is the bad news now accounted for in the collapsed stock prices, or is there far worse to come? Is that a bull flag on the chart of the S&P, or is it a descent in progress? It just comes down to how you look at it. Kinda like the picture above. (What do you see, a young woman or an old crone?)

What I do is wait for the market to make a move and then jump aboard. Unfortunately, in the chop of the past week we've gotten fake-outs from both the long and short side, so now we are positioned in anticipation of what's to come, rather than being on the sidelines until something happens. Nevertheless, the right attitude to take amidst the uncertainty is to wait and see. Make sure to sell at the sell-stop and keep both the bullish and bearish possibilities in mind.

Current Holdings
Ticker	Basis	Closing Price	Perf.	Sell-Stop	Additional Exit Guideline	Chart
DOG	75.33	74.10	-1.6%	72.77	N/A	Chart
SH	79.23	77.58	-2.1%	75.32	N/A	Chart
AER	6.21	5.83	-6.1%	5.29	N/A	Chart
BEAV	9.07	9.04	-0.3%	8.31	N/A	Chart

The current holdings list is starting to look redundant (SH & DOG, AER & BEAV), so here are some totally different ideas for Monday.

New Trade Ideas

Ticker	Entry	Exit A	Exit C	Chart
IVN (Ivanhoe Mines)	3.01	2.59	N/A	Chart
AAPL (Apple)	90.01	86.49	N/A	Chart
ICO (International Coal)	2.53	2.27	2.13	Chart

Please refer to "How To Trade The Ideas" (right-hand side) to read this table.