aggiedaniel06 said:
59, you want to see how price action is used to lie to you. Look at the AMZN daily candle yesterday. Long tail to close above the 8 EMA. Super bullish right?
I bet a bunch of people bought AMZN calls at close yesterday.
Took a quick closer look.. wish I had time to dress up a couple of charts but bottom line is that there is no way I would have been buying AMZN calls late in the day Tuesday for several reasons:
- It was the next day after a huge blow off top bearish engulfing candle. Reversals after that action usually take at least a couple of days to confirm. Monday's candle was especially spiky tail up and massive engulfing. It's dangerous to mess with anything after that until it settles down and gets some new short term price discovery.
- It had been very extended from the all the EMAs. Basically it had gotten ahead of itself and needs a few days to consolidate and see if it continues or not. Last thing you want to do is jump the gun on options especially.
- It flushed early in the day into no man's land kinda in between the 8 & 21. Usually when it gets in the middle, it either touches or gets really close to the 21. Looks like that has happened 5 times since April. Each time it tested the clear trend line support that is about 2900 right now (and also the 21 EMA).
- After the big early morning dip, it set up a clear sideways channel on the hourly. All that end of day surge did was put it right back at the top of the channel. It was sideways support just above 3000.
- The daily candle was still red with lower low and lower high. It didn't even get back above either of Monday's close or Tuesday's open. Not a green reversal hammer (like SQ).
- The real tricks were yesterday when 1) it went to 3094 at 8:44. I bet some jumped the gun thinking that was confirmation. It quickly reversed off that. 2) it lost 3000 down to 2075 and didn't go ahead and flush to 2900. instead it quickly reversed back over 3000. So now clear channel sideways ~3000 - ~3090.
- RULE: never buy options at the end of the day. Wait for directional confirmation the next day and enter in the first hour or so of trading if you have any confidence in direction.
You can say that 7/14 looked a lot like 6/29 but there were 2 major but subtle differences. 1) the 21 EMA had been tested (just above) and 2) it had not been nearly as extended as it was last week.
If you're looking for a good AMZN entry, look for a red open V bounce today right off ~2900. I'd think that would be good for at least a nice quick bounce to 3000-3025. Then if you get a good close with a green hammer and 21 test complete, odds are move in favor of trend continuation.
SQ had some somewhat similar action Tuesday but noticeable differences that would have made it a perfect day trade. It flushed straight down to the 21 daily EMA and bounced straight back to the 8 EMA a few hours later. Notice how on the 60 minute chart on Tuesday, SQ had stacked higher lows and higher highs trendline throughout the day. It was rising support throughout the day where AMZN was sideways. It put in a nice green reversal hammer on the daily that had perfectly tested the 21 and closed right on the 8. The hammer got back into the big red candle from Monday and closed over 20% back into it. SQ was clearly the better set up for short term trades. It did have a little flush yesterday but quickly got back on rising support trend. It looks way stronger short term than AMZN.
One other note, if you're buying options at end of day, you better be ready to sell at the open the next day if it gaps up.
This is common action with stocks that have reversed off of overbought extensions. Massive momentum gets extended, runs out of short term buyers, profit takers come in, and then flush to 21 daily EMA for a bounce and some sidewaysish move before momentum continues. Lose that 21 a couple of consecutive days, and the trend is reset.
Hope this makes sense. Could verbally explain in about 5-10 minutes, but writing it out like this 1) makes me think harder and learn plus retain more and 2) gives me a nice fun mid morning break from 'real' work!