Stock Market Weakness and More Weekend Ideas

* Stocks in a Downtrend - Regular readers know that my measure of Technical Strength is a quantification of trending behavior in a stock. I follow a basket of 40 stocks from the S&P 500 universe; these are selected equally from 8 major sectors and represent many of the most highly weighted stocks within those sectors. As of Friday, my Technical Strength Index was an extremely low -2360, a level seen only at the August and November bottoms. All sectors are in solid downtrends, with the exception of Energy. In all, there are 3 stocks from my basket in uptrends, 2 neutral, and 35 in downtrends.

* Re-Viewing Yourself - This, my friends, is the kind of merciless self-analysis that is typical of people I work with who are very successful in the markets. I don't know what to respect more: that Charles engaged in the soul-searching or that he posted it.

* Good Reading - Abnormal Returns returns with more fine links, including a perspective on the bond market/stock market divergence. Trader Mike's Jan 4th post explains why he sees the potential for a lot of pain in the near future. Larry Nusbaum combs the Web to review the trading week.

* Favorite Blogs - Tim Sykes offers his top 10 list; I'll have a post on his interesting book shortly.

* Googling for Sentiment - Very creative post from Trader's Narrative uses Google data to track trading sentiment.

* New Blogs - Many thanks to Mark for his post and for his Trainee Trader blog site. I welcome hearing from traders starting new blogs, especially ones devoted to education and training. Also check out the psychology insights at the Trader's Edge blog.