Leaders Index 4-17-19

[Jerry Samet]

The market opened higher today, but couldn’t hold the gains. The major averages saw their highs in the first five minutes of trading and spent the rest of the day working their way lower. The Nasd averages held up a little better with a .05% decline in the COMPQ while the NDX gained .34% on strength in tech stocks. The SPX declined .23% while the semiconductor stocks continued to rally. The SOX made a new high with a gain of 1.56%. All the major averages finished low in their intraday trading ranges, showing that little buying came in. Volume was higher across the board as large institutional players sold stocks today. This, combined with the decline in the SPX was enough to produce a new distribution day on the New York averages. Leading stocks were lower today as well with the leaders index falling 2.14%. The index closed near the bottom of its trading range but held above its short term 9dma. Volume was higher, so there was distribution in quality growth stocks today. The action of the market was overall negative today. The major averages opened strong and ended weak, not what you want to see. There was real selling in leading stocks today with the large decline in the leaders index on higher volume. The declines were pretty widespread as many components of the index suffered real declines. Overall the picture is still positive and the rally is not showing real signs of being in danger. The major averages and the leaders index remain above short term support. The market is having a little trouble breaking above resistance at the old highs, but this is not unexpected. Stocks and major averages often consolidate or pull back a bit at these levels. The rally is still intact and the odds favor an attempt to get to new highs. There will be no update tomorrow as the market is closed on Friday and I am taking a long holiday weekend off. The updates will resume on Monday.
I will be giving a presentation at a group named TradersMeetup on Tuesday Apr. 23rd. The topic will be the leaders index. I will go through the process of how I create a new leaders index and how it is used. It should be a good meeting and it is a good group of mostly professional traders. It will be held at Fire Station #59 11505 W. Olympic Blvd. in west L. A. 90025. It will start at 7:00 PM and run until 9:00 PM. The meeting is open to all. The web site for the group is http://tradersmeetup.net . If there is time I will also go through a big winning trade in GPRO. I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend. Jerry