Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday - the Night Owl Trader is one year old today. I really can't believe it's been a year already. It's been work putting together at least a little bit every night, but it's also fun and serves as my trading diary. If anyone else out there gets something out of it, so much the better. And I know I do have some folks out there reading, so I do appreciate that too.

Since starting the blog a year ago, I've added a few features, like the at-a-glance swing trend arrow and little chart snapshots, plus occasional features like the Chart of the Week and Weekend reading. Finding the time to do this on a regular basis is the hard part. I don't know how Dr. Brett Steenbarger managed to do his Trader Feed blog every day.

Anyway, let's move on to tonight's installment. Yesterday I noted that the Dow had put in a bullish engulfing pattern candlestick. This is generally a very high probability pattern, and so it was today with the Dow closing up 30 points despite the fact that most of the economic news today missed expectations. Tomorrow should be interesting, being options expiration Friday.

Modulo that, I quote the Stock Trader's Almanac:

"Day Before President's Day Weekend, S&P Down 16 of Last 19; February Expiration Day, Dow Down 7 of Last 11"

Ouch! That doesn't sound too promising. However, remember that the last few years have featured the worst market since the Depression so that certainly skews the numbers. And judging by the futures, all three of which are up nearly 0.1% right now (at 1:20 AM EST) I'm just not getting any serious negative waves from the market at the moment.

Also, the closes from last Friday through Tuesday formed a support line around 12,275 which you can see in the daily chart here. Yesterday closed above that level and today both opened and closed above it. The VIX meanwhile bumped up against its 40 day MA and retreated. Its own indicators are looking overbought. So all in all, despite tomorrow's historical reputation, I don't see much to be negative about. If we do in fact go higher, I will start a new up trend then.

Trades

Today, I sold my entire position in AMD at 9.34 for a small profit. It closed at 9.44. It's had quite a run recently and this was one of my trades that turned into an investment. I was just tired of this name and think I can do better elsewhere. I think it may be pulling back tomorrow anyway.

I also unloaded my AUY at 12.31 for break-even. It closed at 12.36 but put in a hanging man and is looking at least short term overbought to me right here. This trade just wasn't a good entry. I'll be looking to buy it back lower. Meanwhile the gold index $HUI is looking toppy too.

And finally I added a bit more HIMX at 2.55 and ZTR at 3.53 to my low price/high yield portfolio.