The TSLA Trade Setup You NEED To Know!Even if you did not know anything was going on this week... NASDAQ:TSLA had an amazing long setup on Monday. I posted about it then and wanted to make a followup educational video because it was so amazing! It was a setup I HAD TO TAKE because it was all my rules come together!
Traders need to know these individual components:
Earnings Pullback
Gap Levels
50% Retracement
Spike
And when some or all of them come together you take the trade
50retracement
Bitcoin Short Position UpdateBeen short INDEX:BTCUSD since April with AMEX:BITI (Proshares Bitcoin Short ETF). The media writes "reasons" that Bitcoin is down each day but real reason Bitcoin is down any day is the failure to confirm new ATH in April.
I do somewhat lament my bearish bias because I missed a good long off 50% level in this liquidation but I'll go into why I remain bearish in this post.
Zoom Monthly to see why Bitcoin is bearish: No one buying.
"ETF inflow" reports don't matter. On-Chain analysis doesn't matter.
To reach fabled 6-figure levels investors need YOLO in with reckless abandon. Clearly not happening in price action.
Technically this manifests on the chart with monthly bars trying but failing at the 2021 ATH. Also at a basic technical level lower highs and lower lows.
For the second time in this post-ATH-fail range Ichimoku Bullish breakouts have failed and Bitcoin has gone confirmed bearish.
Ichimoku is a best used trending strategy so it sucks when this price action happens but over time has proven itself effective in managing long term positions. Long term holds should be OFF right now in its current Ichimoku trend state.
So where is BTCUSD going?
Back to the ETF Launch.
Either by karma or irony... markets have a tendency to punish overhype. It would be the most irrational (thus market rational) thing for price to return to whence it began. This is where I begin taking profit on my short. I may even be interested to get long depending...
Monero back in "Fair Value"Of all cryptocurrencies I see Monero KRAKEN:XMRUSD differently as a good "store of value" which is private. That makes me a little looser with my trading guidelines for other assets. Monero has also proven difficult to trade in recent years... it has had some volatile swings but overall has broadly kept its value.
The recent cryptocurrency downtrend, led by Bitcoin, has finally caused the otherwise resilient Monero to break back into the 140 range. 140 on Monero for the last several years I have seen as "fair value" to accumulate. This is also the 50% Retracement of the recent trend and the Volume Profile Point of Control.
XYL Multiple Levels of SupportAlso on my morning Spike scanner came up NYSE:XYL (see below for the spike on the 30m timeframe).
I especially like this Support level as it has many matching components:
50% Retracement Level. My bread and butter. The most important Retracement Level.
Volume Profile node. Not the POC but a key level of price and volume here.
Ichimoku Cloud. A long flat SKB with the Lagging Span far away from crossing into bearish territory.
This is the Spike that triggered me to look and find price acting such a way at Support:
The take profit target is easy to find; the POC on the Volume Profile for the bullish trend. The stop is between the current VP node and the next significant one (which could be next support but no reason to take that much risk).
Bitcoin Spike at ResistanceBitcoin HELD the Last Support noted in my Idea last week. That save INDEX:BTCUSD from going bearish. However, it is not out of the woods yet.
Today Bitcoin spiked the 50% Retracement Resistance at 64652. This sets up a short trade where if the high of the spike is broken "you know you're wrong" for a low risk/high reward trade. If the Spike high is broken... Bitcoin may trend bullish and even resume the full bull trend onward to 100k+. However, if this spike is a reversal and price retests the lows of last week, this will trigger a full trend flip to bearish via the Ichimoku cloud.
Trading Bitcoin FuturesTo keep actively trading Bitcoin short... I am watching and trading Bitcoin futures. This morning there was a 30 minute timeframe Spike right at the level I have been watching since after the ETF launch: the 50% Retracement of the "Sell the News" phase. I am looking for price to hold this level as Resistance and retrace at least back to 41000 in short time.
Higher Timeframe Update:
The area of Resistance that is the 50% of the ETF Selloff is where Bitcoin has retraced to over the last week. On Monday 1/22 I was able to hedge my Puts by selling shorter dated Puts against them to hedge and offset theta. I closed them yesterday.
Broadly, Bitcoin is still in this battle zone from the ATH to the November 22 low.
Mainstream Adoption
Back in the old days... Bitcoin was best traded spot on margin on exchanges. Now, all the reputable exchanges are KYC and the new ones popping up would never fool an old timer like me into putting money there. I have even received spam here on Tradingview from exchange reps trying to get me to do affiliate programs. No, never. Bitcoin is now a heavily traded asset with countless derivatives. It is truly mainstream.
JP Morgan Short off All Time HighWith the stock market making new All Time Highs fresh new opportunities for contrarian trades are going to be somewhat scarce. Thanks to a viewer on my Livestream (every Friday on Tradingview: 4pm EST UTC-5) I was made aware of a short setup I like on NYSE:JPM
Context
This price action is happening at a test of the past ATH set in November 2021. Last week the Earnings announcement pushed price intraday above the high only to close well below the key Resistance level of the former ATH. This is a false breakout signal or as I like to identify them as: Spikes.
The Spike
The Spike occurred on Earnings. I have found that false breakouts on earnings have a very high probability of signaling a reversal. The significance value (135% ATR) is within my rules. It took until the following week for price to actually pull back to the proper entry point of the Spike bar's Tenkan Sen value at 172.48. What these factors mean I go over during my Livestream.
The Trade
How I am expressing this trade is in a combination of short shares and Puts.
In choosing my Put strike I look for where I see price going as a target via technical analysis. In this case it would be the 50% Retracement of the bullish trend around 155.
For expiration I consider the prior bullish trend that got price up to the high I am reading as a false breakout to enter. I project the time that trend took, add an additional month as a time buffer, and then typically take that expiration. Unfortunately, an option expiring in March as this technique would suggest puts the expiration too close and just before earnings.
A note about options and earnings: In the 4 weeks prior to earnings very typically a stock's options will experience a rise in IV (implied volatility). This rise in IV and the Greek Vega can increase the prices of all options often offsetting the value lost to theta time decay. This is a very advantageous condition if a trader is long single options. Therefor, I chose the April expirations to give myself the potential for the IV push. I will likely close the options the day before earnings regardless of where price may be. Options are a coin flip.
Opportunity on PFEA viewer on my Livestream Friday brought to my attention that Pfizer NYSE:PFE is coming off a major low (COVID Low) and has done a pullback to the 50% of the Impulse Move off said low. This is why I love doing Livestreams and having a trading community... idea crowdsourcing!
I like these setups especially as the S&P 500 and many stocks within it are making new 52 Week highs leaving many wondering "what's a good reward/risk at this point?"
The pullback on the Weekly bring price to the 50% of what I call an "Impulse Move" off the low: the first major reaction to confirm that price is respecting a low. See the Daily chart below for a lower timeframe view:
I would not want to hold the position if price breached the major low. My first Target would be the 50% Retracement of the Bearish trend at 40.32. This sets up a proper 3 to 1 Reward/Risk Ratio. I will likely express this trade with shares purchased but may seek to buy Calls as well.
Wallgreens Long for 2024This morning I received a volatility alert on $NASDAQ:WBA. The stock had earnings today and the resulting price action was bearish down to a significant potential support level.
The Trade
The Weekly the Ichimoku 9-period (red line) shows that short term 50% level as it goes flat providing a Weekly entry point. The risk is that price makes another major low. In my trading toolbox I call this setup a "TS Recap." I discuss these during my Weekly Livestreams here on Tradingview. I was able to enter my position earlier this morning and price has responded favorably by the time of writing (fill before you shill).
The Context
Since November 30, 2023 NASDAQ:WBA has had a bullish trend off the recent major low. I call these type of moves "Impulse Moves" because they represent significant buying over a short period of time that have the potential to be the first move of a full trend reversal. I look to take them as trades (or long term positions entries) when they perform a pullback to their 50% Retracement. This is what it looks like on the Daily timeframe:
If we go up to the Monthly we see that NASDAQ:WBA is doing this price action at historic, 2008 and 2000 lows. This is a significant point and worth the risk for a long with a time horizon to span 2024.
Bitcoin Spike on DailyOne of my primary technical analysis trading tools is that of False Breakouts or as I identify them; Spikes . I have found that when prices moves quickly in one direction only to return in the opposite direction within the same or following candle this indicates a potential reversal with a high probability. The corollary to this concept is that if price does then break that "spike" bar the trend can be confirmed.
The Spike
I have been watching the price action of Bitcoin exceptionally close over the last few weeks as the 2023 bullish trend approached and has stubbornly held a major Resistance. On the first US market open trading day of 2024 Bitcoin made a push to break the recent consolidation. However, the following day Bitcoin price reacted with a nearly -10% drop. Such a daily move is not uncommon in Bitcoin but where and when it happened is significant.
I operate under the logical thesis that if something is bullish... it should GO. There should be no such major rejections if the trend is strong. To have such a sudden rejection qualifies as a "Spike" and I created an indicator that identifies these for me to filter out the noise. That is exactly what happened at this point and place in Bitcoin price action.
This spike bolsters my conviction that the 2023 bull trend of Bitcoin has reached its zenith.
The Levels
If this spike proves to be a bearish reversal then the supports I identify based on past price inflation and 50% Retracements are:
35,400
30,700
If price surpasses the high of this week significantly the next level of Resistance is the March 2022 high of 48,200:
Expressing the Trade
Contrary to popular memes there exists already Bitcoin based ETFs. Rather than deal with the theta decay aspect of options the symbol AMEX:BITI is the SHORT Bitcoin ETF. The price action is distorted but it also exhibited the Daily Spike price action. This instrument is the one I will use to express bearish trades on Bitcoin going forward.
I talk about my Spikes as a trading concept often during my Weekly Livestreams here on Tradingview. You may also follow my last few years of Bitcoin price action analysis in the links below to see how we got here. Trade wisely!
Netflix Identifies ResistanceWe have been watching this stock for a while during my weekly Livestreams (Fridays 4pm EST UTC-4). Last Friday, we noted that NASDAQ:NFLX has pulled back up to retest the 50% of the July Weekly Spike price action. This is happening following a long bullish recovery trend up to the MAJOR Weekly 50% Retracement Resistance of the November 2021-May 2022 bear trend.
The price action has defined itself clearly with the July high. The risk and wrong occurs with a breach of the July high. With this in mind we can define a high risk/reward trade to at least a 3 to 1 down to 257 and possibly beyond to retest the major low from 2022.
Implied Volatility is below average which is good for options. However, this is NOT a trade that can be effectively expressed with low duration expiries even though it might be tempting due to the high cost of the stock. To express this trade one must go well into 2024 expirations or short shares.
Bull Market Faces First TestToday's economic news was jobs data which in fact came in worse than expected.
"In July there were just 8.827 million job openings, the first sub-9 million print since March 2021. It was also the 3rd biggest miss on record!" -Zerohedge
Yet despite this news the stock market rallied significantly higher. The market responding positively to bad news is a fundamentally bull market phenomenon.
In the technical context what the market has done through the month of August was a -5%+ correction. Statistically, in any given year there are on average 3 -5% corrections. In March we had the first and now as the market rallies it is very possible we have seen the second.
The correction stopped just where it should; the 50% Retracement of the May - June rally. It has now come to test today the 50% Retracement of the move down. As of writing it does appear that it will close above this level which suggests a retest of the July high. Breaking this high is likely due to the strength of the bull trend of 2023.
Rivian 'Dead Cat Bounce' Over?I have been getting a lot of questions from followers about NASDAQ:RIVN in recent weeks. One of the favorites of the 2021 EV stock craze the share price has done not performed well since the IPO. This recent very bullish move has gotten a lot of attention but I think it has come to an end.
Price Action
Like most of my setups I am looking at RIVN hitting a major 50% Retracement this one being from the downtrend starting in September 2022 through April 2023. That Resistance at 26.71 was hit yesterday and today's price action shows reluctance to test and break it. I have been looking for a pullback to this bull trend to its own 50% Retracement at around ~20 and it may be upon us.
The Trade
Earnings are coming up on August 8th. That sets up a nice window for monthly options of the August 18th expiration. Since 20 is the approximate pullback level it also makes for a proper strike. That means Aug23 20 Puts will be the choice to express the trade. If price breaks the recent high I may look to cut them as they should maintain their premium with earnings getting closer. I also do not typically hold through earnings but rather try to close the day before to avoid the 50/50 probability of the binary event.
The Narrative
I still see the occasional Rivian on the road but as of late I have become a Tesla Maxi. Tesla had record production and delivery for Q2 2023 but every other EV manufacturer is struggling according to recent reports. The market as a whole has enjoyed an optimistic bull run since March and is due for a pullback.
Target-ing (TGT) a LongThe Setup
Target NYSE:TGT has had a very bearish fall off All-Time-Highs over the last 2 years. It has finally retraced the entire length of its run from the 2019 Pre-COVID High and returned to it as potential Support. Price MUST hold here or else continue down to lower levels in the "Valley of Risk". It is worth a trade off this level.
The Trade:
Today on the opening 30 minute spike we got such an opportunity for a low-risk entry. The price spike had an acceptable ATR Clearance per my rules and happened on the 50% Retracement of the June low to June high. The first Target is the June high with a following target of the 50% Retracement of the 2023 bear trend around 153.39.
Bitcoin Barely Touches SupportSome interesting news developments have transpired related to Bitcoin this week.
On Monday, The SEC sued Binance with 13 charges. On Tuesday, The SEC sued Coinbase NASDAQ:COIN . The regulators have been busy this week going after the biggest crypto exchanges. It's almost as if we need a monetary system outside of government interference...
What does this mean for traders and investors right now? In the context of 2023’s price action the fallout from these announcements is insignificant and completely in line with technical analysis.
I have been watching for this pullback in theory since the last buying opportunity in March to see where and when the rally off the Banking Crisis FUD did its first major Retracement. The financial media focused on Bitcoin attributed the rise from early March to people putting faith in Bitcoin above the US Dollar system. The salient point that they all miss was that in the event of a market risk shock Bitcoin fell as a risk asset.
I’ve had the level 25280 marked since the high at the top of the FOMO hype rally following Balaji Srinivasan’s Twitter “bet” that Bitcoin was going to $1,000,000 in 3 months. It would have been more profitable for people if he had made this buy call in March (as I did with less narrative flare) but it really came in the moment of the 5th Eliot wave when the latecomers are looking for a reason to chase and make such fluff go viral.
Srinivasan still has 24 days to be correct… who knows?
This week’s news dip missed my marked level (and alert) by $51. It could still hit but because it was so close I am making this update post. I must stress how key this Support level is to the 2023 trend. Just as a breakout from the Ichimoku cloud followed by momentum confirmation signaled the year’s bull run… the opposite signal should be taken as its end. At this point in time and price should that level 25280 be breached by closing a few days below the 2023 trend would be over. However, as the reaction is currently bullish, the price is still likely to climb to retest the 30k range.
Trade wisely.
Norwegian Cruise to get back above water?When's the last time anyone has looked at cruise lines?
I remember back in 2020 cruise lines were the "value trade". It worked for a while after the pandemic drop... the price of these stocks recovered. NYSE:NCLH did a recovery back to the 50% Retracement Resistance of the drop itself... but could not quite get its head back above water. Yet another in a long list of examples of why 50% Retracements are so powerful.
The price action over the last year has setup higher lows and higher highs. This gives some confidence to a true recovery.
This morning I was alerted to the stock by an opening 30 minute price spike and false breakout of the last week's range. This sets up a good reward/risk trade with an entry at 12.51.
Gold Bugs Squished?I've been talking about Gold COMEX:GC1! hitting a major high for my last two Livestreams (catch them Friday at 4pm Eastern after the market close). The current price action warrants a standalone post.
Each Livestream for many months has had at least one person ask what I thought about Gold. It was very simple: Gold was trending UP to test the major Monthly highs. In many of my social market chats about two weeks ago my gold bug friends began getting very excited. I urged caution. Price MUST break the high and confirm the breakout before getting long at this major Resistance Level. Now it looks as of gold price is respecting this monthly high from the last few years.
To be contrarian I had to short Gold (using AMEX:GLD ) based upon a Spike setup from Friday May 5th's high. Last week price pulled back and "should have gone" to retest and break the high. It did not and returned back inside the range. This sets up a short. I also know from taking market sentiment that a lot of traders may have gotten a bit overly optimistic. This could setup for a good pullback to at least the 1850 Level.
Home Depot "Plunges" to SupportAll media invokes sensationalism to get clicks and views to see their ads. Some really play into the doomer mindset of their readers/viewers by selecting stories that amplify the theme of the world/economy/dollar ending and that the next crash is right upon us! I've been reading these headlines every day for over a decade now and it's just the way modern journalism works. As a trader I aspire to cut through the noise and negative bias (and sometimes the positive bias) and ask the more objective question: "what does the price action suggest?"
Home Depot NYSE:HD had earnings today and while the news was negative the overall long term trend (on the Weekly timeframe) has not changed. The key low of COVID and All Time High trend has defined most stocks for the last two years and may continue to define them for up to a decade. This past trend sets up a 50% Retracement level around 280.62 which Home Depot stock price has stubbornly held with an auction zone for a year of price action by now.
Digging down through the lower timeframes the price action sets up a potential low-risk post-earning trade. The price action of the open poked below the near term low but failed to follow lower.
What I would look for is price to hold today's opening action and NOT break the opening low. That sets up a stop for a reversal of this oversold condition while the broader price action on the Weekly is at a major Support.
TSLA: "In hindsight it was inevitable"Some of my trading friends on social media thought I was crazy to short Tesla NASDAQ:TSLA in February after the January 2023 rally. To me it was obvious. There was a confluence of 50% Retracement Levels that I absolutely had to take a short. When you have a large trend ALWAYS mark the 50%. Take off the other Fibonaccis as they will confuse you. Once you study the 50% (and finish this article) I believe you will understand.
I have fully internalized the lessons of "Trading in the Zone" in that "Anything Can Happen" but... it was going to get to 160 no question in my mind. Let's talk about why/how to me it was obvious by using simple price action analysis. My goal is to teach readers how to use this tool and how it is so powerful.
History Lesson
The most important price action in this story is the BIG rally from the 2019 lows. In case you were not trading nor reading the financial news at the time... nearly every "expert" was talking about how Tesla was soon to go bankrupt. Billions of dollars were put into shorts, Long Puts and Short Calls betting on what was a very crowded narrative trade at the time. It make lots of sense... their balance sheet was abysmal. What no one realized nor took into account was the tax credits Tesla was selling to other car manufacturers. That saved the company and as things looked bright for Tesla the shorts got absolutely crushed. Then as the post-pandemic trading craze got underway the new narrative was that Electric Vehicles were going to replace all gas powered. That narrative (as all do) blew off in November 2021 and setup the all time high.
What this did from a price action perspective was setup the 50% Retracement Level 213.38 (split adjusted). This was going to be the level to hold to continue the bull trend.
That level did in fact hold and setup a double bottom in mid 2022 confirming its existence and validity.
The Narrative Fails
2022 was not a bull market. The 0% Interest rate world that fueled growth was not to continue. The level was broken. Tesla entered what I call "The Valley of Risk". This is when an instrument breaks its trend 50% and there are no more valid supports to hold nor reverse it. You never know where the bottom will be.
Hope is Kindled
Eventually Tesla bottomed and benefited from the January 2023 broad market rally and secular theme of AI. It returned to the level that had been support before. At this point traders should look for a level which was confirmed as prior Support to become Resistance.
The Trend is your Friend Until...
Additionally, the bear trend that led to the bottom setup its own 50% Retracement Level. When BOTH line up you have a POWERFUL level. It was at this point "I had to short" despite the questions and protestations of those that were enjoying the gains of a +100% rally. It's hard to step off those good times and see what was obvious.
And Now...
Just as in each step before the target for the short was the 50% Retracement of the 2023 Rally. Now, I am out of my shorts. I will be looking for longs off this level continuing to play this one simple tool of price action.
Trade wisely!
Taking a walk with ON'sThanks to one of my Stream viewers @Casey_Louis for bringing NYSE:ONON to my attention. Many folks in my family love these shoes (my nephew even has the toddler versions).
I like the initial survival of the 50% Pullback to $20/share. Now price is heading up for another leg. I do not like the breakout for myself... the reason being the initial IPO price just slightly overhead. This is yet another reason why we DO NOT BUY IPOs... very often you get a much better opportunity!
How I want to play it: I want to look for a pullback to the next 50% Retracement level at $24. I hope we get it because trendy consumer goods have a good track record of yielding big gains.
TFC in the "Valley of Risk"Preface and Disclaimer: I have a long term stake in Truist Financial Corp NYSE:TFC :(
I wondered "why" Truist, company I have held for a very long time (when it was BB&T) would have been caught up in this contagion of small bank risk fears. An article by Seeking Alpha sheds some light on it:
seekingalpha.com
TL;DR, over the weekend analysis dug into their books and found that Truist was exposed to some of the same risk factors, namely low yield securities, as Silicon Valley Bank NASDAQ:SIVB . It is not existential risk, as Truist has a much better Deposit ratio than SVB, but it may impact the bank's profitability in the future.
This fiasco is an example of why I do not assume bankers, Wall Street analysts, or "whales" operate at some vastly greater intelligence.
In hindsight... buying up tons of low yield treasuries does not seem risky. But once something happened... suddenly EVERYONE realizes how risky it actually is and now EVERYONE is paying attention. There are thousands of people earning high 6 figs to look at and data crunch these numbers every day for months and only NOW realize they have a systemic risk problem.
In my own analysis which I study and try to apply dispassionately I too can look back in hindsight at the price action of NYSE:TFC and see a clear warning sign I missed.
In the summer of 2022 TFC was hovering around the 50% Retracement Level support from the COVID low to All Time High. I study and trade this key level every day on every timeframe. It's a technical analysis that I have learned to trust.
By October 2022 price had clearly violated and broken the level as a part of the broader market selloff. This bearish trend that persisted through 2022 was not secular to TFC or banking. What it should demonstrate though is a secular lack strength to HOLD its own trend despite market conditions.
Often price will hesitate and/or recapture said level... consolidating around it.
The damage to the bullish trend though is already done and if one ignores these warnings the position is in danger of falling into what I call "The Valley of Risk" where there are no more supports until the last major low (The COVID low) and sometimes even beyond. That is where TFC has fallen today on this recent FUD.
I still believe that TFC is a strong bank. This move down has put it into some spectacular dividend yield territory (6.45% as of writing). For a pure dividend play for me it is a hold. But as a technical trader I put this in my catalog of examples of how a bullish trend gives ample warning of failure before it truly drops.