Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Recognizing Range Markets With Sector Behavior


If you click on the quote board above, you'll see the recent readings of daily changes--as measured from the market open--for the 40 stocks in my basket. Five highly weighted stocks are taken from each of the eight sectors I track each week: Materials, Industrial, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Health Care, Financial, and Technology. Note how the board is a mix of green and red. That is typical of range markets, as we see sector reallocation dictating flows of funds, not general directional (trending) revaluation across sectors. Recognizing a range environment early in the day is helpful both for identifying potential points reversal around range extremes, such as this morning's reversal once we tested yesterday's price highs.
.