Opening Position
December 2010
Where did 2010 go? Were we having that much fun? I had to look at a chart of the Standard & Poor’s 500 to remind myself of everything that happened this year. Early in the year we had the Greek financial crisis, during which we could see the low that the market hit in early February. Then the S&P 500 moved up and hit its April highs. By July, though, it had given up all those gains and then some. Not only that, the lows we saw at the end of July could very well be the head of an inverse head & shoulders pattern. From that point on, prices followed the typical pattern, with the right shoulder forming toward the end of August.
There was a strong resistance level between 1120 and 1125, but the S&P easily broke above it. The next resistance level was the April highs. Although there is no way to accurately predict if the markets will hit those levels, as I write this at the end of October, the way the chart appears currently suggests that it is quite probable that prices will reach those April highs. If they do and break above that resistance level, we could see further upside on the S&P 500. If they don’t, then there is the possibility of prices falling to as low as the 1020 levels. Each year brings unexpected events to the markets, no matter what the fundamentals are.
As we move toward 2011, I would like to tell you about a change that is taking place in Stocks & Commodities. Starting with the January 2011 issue, we will be moving some of our print sections of the magazine online. These include our Traders’ Tips and Traders’ Resources. These sections will be available to all readers via our website at www.traders.com. This will reduce the number of pages in the printed version of the magazine, but don’t worry, you will still receive the same amount and quality of content that you have received for the past 28 years.
Those of you who already access the Traders’ Tips section online know the benefits of this transition. Over time, we intend to continue to enhance the features of our online content so that it becomes more dynamic and interactive. We hope your experience with our online sections is a positive one, and thank you for your continued support.
Wishing all our readers a wonderful holiday season!
Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan, Editor