SPY Technical Analysis - Click to enlarge

We’ve all seen S&P 500 and the general market sell off in the past since March of 2009.  Each time though, the bulls shrugged it off and came back even stronger.  Time after time, the bears were caught and the bulls prevailed.  By Q4 2009, no longs believed the sell-offs will last.  And they were right.

Almost a year later since the March ’09 low, we’re facing a similar situation: another sell-off.  Many still believe longs are taking a break, and that they are simply waiting for another entry point.  However, people are starting to take more caution this time around for the bullish side.  The sentiments I see aren’t as positive as they were previously.

We saw the market dip below the 50 day moving average in July ’09.  It was a teaser for the shorts.  The market did it again in November ’09.  Another tease.  Now the market is doing it again, with legit force.  Third time’s a charm?

No one knows for sure, but what I am doing is paying close attention to the support lines shown in the chart.  If the third support line is broken, there aren’t many notable supports left for a while.

In my opinion, it’s a very promising site that could add a ton of value to both the consumers and the professionals.  When Yelp first launched in 2004, I knew it had a lot of potential for the consumers and the businesses.  A few years later, I can’t imagine now going to the restaurants without reviewing them on Yelp first.

I see a similar value to be offered by Investimonials.  However, like many review sites, it’s faced with the “chicken-and-egg” challenge.  Without the users adding reviews, the site offers no value.  However, without the site adding value, the users aren’t encouraged to participate.  It’s definitely a daunting challenge for the founders of Investimonials.com.

It’s been a few months since the launch, and I’m looking at its progress.  Unfortunately, the site hasn’t progressed as fast as I had expected.  Most of the product reviews only boast 1-3 reviews, which usually doesn’t help determine the true value very accurately.  However, I do think the site still has a  lot more potential to grow for the following reasons:

1. The founder of Investimonials.com is Timothy Sykes, the penny stocker who manages a successful business leveraging his blog.  He is a businessman, and he knows how to market.  At a minimal, he has a ton of advantage over someone new with minimal experience in the industry.
2. The site offers great ways to encourage user participation.  By adding additional reviews, users can earn IV bucks that can be turned in for real products.  Although many of the physical products are products sold by the founder Tim, some of the membership prizes are attractive.  (see below)  The Kirk Report especially is a very valuable membership in my opinion.
3. The guys at Investimonials added immediate value to the users by listing over 3,000 financial products before the launch.  That’s definitely a lot of work, but this is truly what it takes to make a site like this successful.  To overcome the initial “chicken-and-egg” stage, the site has to have initial value.  The team knows this.
4. Well built platform – I can tell Tim put a good amount of investment into building this site.  This is no pre-bought web template.  Although still pretty basic, the site offers good features that require a reasonable amount of development work.

Bottom line, it’s too early for us to get much value out of the site.  However, I do believe this site has a ton of potential for usability down the road.  Let’s come back in a year and see where it stands.

Using the Labor Department’s local area unemployment statistics, Slate presents the recession as told by unemployment numbers for each county in America. Because the data are not seasonally adjusted for natural employment cycles throughout the year, the numbers you see show the change in the number of people employed compared with the same month in the previous year. Blue dots represent a net increase in jobs, while red dots indicate a decrease. The larger the dot, the greater the number of jobs gained or lost. Click the arrows or calendar at the bottom to see each month of data. Click the green play button to see an animation of the data.

So how is this “recovery” happening again?

January 2007

January 2008

January 2009

January 2009 October

Now investors like us can choose to put money in their trades and simply watch your investments grow.  You know exactly what they’re trading, how they’re performing, and what their trading strategies are.  Furthermore, you can choose to opt out anytime you wish.  The cost? Less than 1.5% management fee on average and a few cents a share for brokerage fee (Interactive Brokers).

kaChing already has over 2 million dollars invested in it as a SEC RIA (Registered Investment Advisor).

There’s an array of investors waiting for your investment.  Some are amateurs, and some are RIA professionals.   So whether you’re looking to be the next Genius or want to perform better following these Geniuses, give it a shot.

Features Offered:

Public Groups

Desktop users are able to create or join individual groups that are topic specific, some examples include groups centered on a specific trading style or focus. Group members are able to send private messages directly to the group or to multiple groups that don’t appear in the rest of the stream.

Customizable Streams

Desktop users may block people from their stream; this gives members full control over stream customization.

RSS Streams

Desktop users can create a stream from an RSS feed. Simply copy and paste the RSS url from any site and receive the updates right in StockTwits Desktop.

Multiple Tabs and Moveable Streams

Stocktwits Desktop offers users the ability to customize their layout. Streams can be moved around and ordered with a simple drag and drop.

StockTwits TV

Stay tuned to all your favorite StockTwits TV shows with the built in video player. Watch Alphatrends, UpsideTrader, Investing with Options, and all of our programming live, while you read Real-time messages from the StockTwits community. Users will find the full schedule of programming it listed right in the application.

Web Browser

StockTwits Desktop has a built in web browser, so users can click links and view pages without ever having to leave the application! If you prefer to open the link in your own browser, we’ve provided a button for that, as well. We’ve also provided a button to simplify sharing links.

If you haven’t tried the application, definitely give it try.  They’ve really done a good job asking themselves “what are we missing in our trading lives?” and addressed them beautifully.  Great design, great interface, great features, and above all, great community.  Whether you’re a day trader or a long-term trader, there’s something you can get out of this application.

You can also check this page out for more detailed video instructions on “How To”s.
http://desktop.stocktwits.com/help

Now out of print, it goes for quite a sum over at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Margin-Safety-Risk-Averse-Strategies-Thoughtful/dp/0887305105

Enjoy!

Taken from their recent posts:

Pretty much what I expected to happen today – we are at an inflection point plus it’s the Friday before OPX. So, what’s better for those cattle prod wielding market makers than inflict just a bit more theta burn while we wait for a conclusion of this bear market rally saga?

Tonight I find myself between a rock and a hard place. The wave count right now appars quite clear – we seem to have completed an {a}-{b}-{c} and are now completing Minor C of Intermediate (Y) of Primary {2} – this scenario is marked in orange labels on the chart:

Taken from Evil Speculator

Personally, I myself do not feel confident about any of the bearish scenarios that are floating around out in the EWT blogosphere, but I do recognize the potential that, wave count be damned, we might just suddenly drop tomorrow.

So the man behind Evil Speculator thinks we’re going further up.  Well he also shares a separate scenario indicated in blue that is bearish:

I usually never do this but tonight I decided to also show Steven Hochberg’s counts (he’s the author of the Short Term Update and resident editor at EWI) – his is labeled in blue. Basically Steven prognosticates that we painted a flat after the September 25 low, which completed today and that would mean that we’re now ready to drop into a long third wave. So, his count would be that we are in Minute {ii} of Minor 1 of Intermediate (1) of Primary wave {3}.

I deeply respect Steven and it pains me to say this, but I think his count is a stretch at best. Also, the Dollar’s drop today did not help the bearish cause and I have a hard time believing that this market will turn before the Dollar finds at least a temporary floor – thus far the wave pattern on the ole’ buck looks incomplete and we could easily drop below 75 before we finally push into a meaningful rally.

Here are the good news: In regards to Orange vs. Blue we should know very soon – perhaps even by tomorrow. On the chart above I have pointed out the confirmation lines for each scenario. As you can see the orange doesn’t have that far to go.

Indeed, with the option expiration nearing us, this week should help us understand whether the market will make new highs or start retracing.