istock-
Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.
Please don't ask me what I think about a particular chart because then I'll have to bill you and my chart opinions are not cheap. Personal objectivity is the goal here. Besides if I were to give you my opinion for free you wouldn't learn anything. I will say this, you are looking into the right industry groups. However, you are looking too closely at the individual charts.
Back up and I mean literally back up. Expand the chart, move away from your desk, and look at it from across the room. I know this sounds silly but try it. If you don't see anything that's because there's nothing to see. A good chart, long or short, will stand out. When you look at a chart remember that the chart is telling you a story. If you are able to pick up on the right clues the chart will tell you what to expect in the months ahead (nothing like stating the obvious).
I wrote an opinion this time last year on Haliburton. My thesis ran along the lines that the situation overseas would radically shift by June of this year and be detrimental to the share price. What caught my attention was the reaction by HAL on some rather benign news. I witnessed in the stock a phenomenon which I call a "volatility shift". A lot of money had been made in the stock since 2003 and the large bag holders were getting nervous. Fact: "Insiders" buy options for leverage. One of the components of a volatility shift was beginning to unfold, an unusual amount of call buying was occurring in the stock after it had broken an extended uptrend.
The shift is a precursor to a blow off top and allows for the major shareholders to sell into a rising market. Quite naturally you have to get the rally started and no better way than to explode call volume and have some pundit run with the news. As soon as the story hits the rumor pages of Business Week all the real money has already been made and that last lift gives the sellers one last chance to clean out their positions at the highs.
As I look at the current chart the story I see doesn't portend well for anyone long this stock, although some serious money could probably be made on the short side. I'm just hypothesizing here on what could make this stock completely break down. For example, it wouldn't surprise me to see this company come under the scrutiny of Congress. I can envision some legislators in an effort to make a name for themselves lead an investigation into all the missing cash from the no bid government contracts. Now that's something that would fulfill the current distribution I see in this stock.
Wouldn't it be something if that were to happen? I could be a guru and have a future as a puppet head on CNBC!
To quote Rod Stewart, "Every picture tells a story story don't it?"
Just,
my2cents