To: Chris who wrote (4986 ) 1/20/1998 7:50:00 PM From: current trend Respond to of 42787
INDEX UPDATE Subject: Tech Stock Options To: +lisa (33708 ) From: +donald sew Tuesday, Jan 20 1998 7:27PM EST Reply # of 33716 INDEX UPDATE ------------------------------------------ In previous post, I had indicated that this week will be crucial to determine direction, especially if we would set lower lows. I had indicated that the previous peaks were: DOW at 7980 NAZ at 1594 SPX at 977 Today the SPX took out its previous peak of 977, and the NAZ closed at 1590 only 4 points short(lets consider that close enough). So for the major indexes, we can probably say that 2 out of 3 were able to break or equal the previous peaks. As for trends, I consider that there are 3 types = UPTREND, DOWNTREND, RANGETRADING TREND, and my basic rule of thumb is not to short in an uptrend/ not to go long in a downtrend/ but in a RANGE TRADING TREND one can go both ways. With the SPX and NAZ great performance today, I can now say that the probability that we will set lower lows for the mid-term/longer-term is now slim and that I can conclude that we are not in an downtrend, at least for the time being. Now the question is are we still in a range-trading trend or an uptrend. Please keep in mind that we will have a short-term pullback soon since the market is overbought, and it could happen as soon as tomorrow, but that is short-term. What is the mid to longer term trend. With the SPX exceeding the previous peak and the NAZ basicly equaling its previous peak, these may be clues that just today we may have reverted back to a mid-term uptrend. Of course, we need further confirmation to be more confident on this call. For those watching MSFT, I now may not do puts at all since the mid-term trend may be changing. I am making the distinction between the short-term trend and the mid/longer term trend. For the short-term trend it still has the bias to the upside for tomorrow, but we should be topping out as early as tomorrow with the pull-back starting Thursday/Friday, and could be as early as tomorrow intraday. If the mid/longer-term trend has changed to be an uptrend, then the reversal of this forthcoming short-term downtrend will not be that strong. For discussion, I am considering mid-term to be 5-30 days. Any comments as to the direction of the mid-term trend, not the short-term trend. Seeya