$DNDN is routinely making all time highs and the question I pose this morning is, would you buy it now?

 A lot of people are scared to buy all time highs. They think that since its at an all time high, it can't go higher and maybe its run its course.  

From the weekly chart you can see that it just keeps on making all time highs. 

But the reality is that ONE day it will have reached its all time high and then sell off. The real question then becomes, when has it truly reached its all time high?  No one knows the answer to that question!

So the moral of THIS story is to always use a stop IF you buy an all time high, because you never know if THAT all time high was ITS last!

I wrote about $PMCS back on 1/14/10, the day after it made a nice hammer formation at its 200 DMA.  It made the hammer at the bottom of a trend with very little volume or conviction for me, and I reviewed the weekly chart for additional clues.  At that time I suspected it might test its lower boundary of about $7.94, and it did yesterday.  Too bad I didn't short this one.

Rules of candlestick formations: Volume is always key indicator of how meaningful the candlestick formation is.

I entered Visa ($V) back on 12/22/09 after it made an all time high, with heavy volume, the day before.  It then went sideways for a month and I was finally taken out on 1/22, right below its 50 DMA.  I did manage to move my stop a bit higher over the course of this trade, per my trend system, but lost -0.7R on this one.  Such is life I guess…

I wonder if Chris got taken out of V on Friday as well?

I've been posting a few candlestick chart scans and asking my readers, "would you buy them" here and now or just posting some basic commentary about them being screwed.  Let's take a look at how one of them faired after I wrote about them. Today's review is $NEP, which made a wicked hanging man on Jan 7th, and I thought it was in trouble based on its parabolic move and then hanging man.

Well it was in trouble, see how's breaking down from here? I think its gunning for the $8 area…

Another candlestick chart pattern for your eyes this morning.  SMBL made a nice hammer at its 50DMA and right at the bottom of its trend line BUT volume is unconvincing for me…  So, would you buy it?

And yesterday out of a total of 5 positions.  One position was a good gain (FDM) but the others added up to slight losses; add them all up and I'm down only $5.  I'm not upset, just satisfied my system is working.  Of course I'd hope for more of a gain but sometimes break even is just as good.

Well would you punk?  BIDU made a gap up under heavy volume after the anouncement that Google might leave China.  The first candlestick after the news was a hammer at the top of a resistance line, which brought out the Bears.  But the Bulls broke through that resistance the very next day with vigor.  So, would you buy BIDU here?

My life is extremely busy these days and I've gotten my "trading" down to about 30 minutes every morning, before the market opens. Unless I initiate a new position, my daily trading routine is as follows:

1. Download End of Day (EOD) closing data into my trading worksheet. (5 minutes)
2. Run my strategy through the data (my worksheet does this automatically via Excel Macros) (<1 minute)
3. See which positions I need to move my stops up in. (<1 minute)
4. Log into my trading account and move my stops (10 minute)
5. Post on Twitter which symbols I'm moving my stops up on (2 minutes)
6. Scan of all-time highs (<1 minute)
7. Look through the charts of the new all-time highs (10 minutes)
8. Place candidates on my stock watch list (5 minutes)

Time spent is about 30  minutes every morning.  If I initiate a new position, I'll either place a market order for the open or wait till after 10AM to make a buy and place a stop.  That adds another 5 minutes to my routine.

Have a good weekend all!

PMCS made a hammer on its daily chart, right at the 200 DMA.  Hammers at the bottom of a trend channel are usually an indicator of a trend change.  This assumes some heavy volume, which with PMCS is questionable.  Volume is greater than the day before where we see a gap down, but not as big as when the dam broke back on 10/25.

So we'll look to the weekly chart for additional clues.

It looks like the wick of the hammer is wick on the red filled candle for PMCS this week.  Its testing the 50 WMA on about average volume.  I suspect that PMCS will test this lower boundary of $7.97 again, and possibly go through it because the hammer formation IS NOT convincing to me.

Well would you?  It made an all time high on Friday but the volume isn't overly impressive, relatively speaking.  Well would you buy it?

ITs back to basics for me.  I'm spending more time looking at candlestick formations again for potential clues.  Today's review is MYL.

MYL looks in trouble.  Its had a nice trend run but on Friday it gapped lower on heavy volume and created a nice hammer.  Hammers on up trends spell danger, as the trend could be changing.  Let's keep an eye on this one to see what happens.

While we're at it, lets take a look at NEP and see how its turning out from this past Thursday when I wrote about it looking screwed.

Well the short of it is, it still looks screwed.  It had a nasty gap down and then the Bull tried to hold on.  My guess is that they'll be a further push lower as the Bears want to fill that gap at the $8.00 level.