No Change in Chart Patterns - Wait and Watch

Not much change in the Nifty chart patterns today. The Nifty traded in a very narrow range today - a total movement of only 33 points between the high and the low - not even a movement of 1% during the day. After a whole day of trading, the Nifty managed to close in the green but did not make any change in the chart patterns. Individual stocks, however, showed some interesting movements, some of which have been analysed below.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. As seen above, the chart looks exactly similar to the one shown yesterday, except for the last blue candle seen today. Today, as seen, was a narrow range day and also a harami, which after an upmove signifies that a short term reversal may be coming. So, nothing much to comment there on the Nifty and our view still remains the same that it should come down to the trendline before we think of buying again.

Attached above is the daily chart of Ambuja Cements which showed a decent increase today. As seen from the chart, the price came near the trendline which was providing support near 200. The stock made a low of 201 today and reversed from there and made a high of 207 before ending the day at 206.10. This candle signifies that the short term downtrend in Ambuja may have ended for now. It may be a low-risk buy at the current levels with a stop loss of 195 and a target of between 220-225 can be expected in the coming days.

Pasted above is the daily chart of Sun TV which showed a big downward movement of more than 6% today and closed the day at 343.45 against yesterday's close of 356.60. This movement comes after a small double top formation which will be confirmed below 338. Also seen on the chart are the RSI and stochastics indicators which show a bearish divergence along with the corresponding highs on the price chart. I expect Sun TV to move down to the trendline between 323-325 before any fresh buying opportunities may exist.

On the daily chart of Havell's, as seen above, a large candle showing a downwards movement, and the kind of pattern seen seems to suggest that there is more to come. The stock may find some support between 607-610 but eventually will have to break that support and may go right up down to the trendline to find support between 550-560. Stay short on Havell's below 600.

This is a pattern which I love to see, as seen on the daily chart of Oriental Bank above. This is called a Flag pattern and is so called because it looks like a flag, as can be seen from the trendlines drawn. A flag pattern is a continuation pattern and the confirmation of this pattern on the OBC chart means that the stock may continue to go up and it may have a target of 350-355 on the upside in the days to come. The only thing that scares me is the bearish divergence seen in both the RSI and the stochastics.

Seen above is the daily chart of IRB. As seen from the chart, the price of IRB showed a big downwards movement today closing Rs.22 in the red at 119, a movement of over 15% in a single day. Not only did it show a big red candle, it also closed below the good support of the trendline at 123. It now has a target of between 85-90 in the coming days. It may either go there directly or it may show a bounce-back back to the trendline at 123 in next 2-3 days. The RSI also going below 40 signifies that there is no support expected near the trendline at 123.

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Rangebound Now, Expected to Go Down

The Nifty opened at 5715 today, tried to go up, could not sustain the upmove, went down all the way to 5681 thus losing almost 40 points from its intraday high but recovered a bit to close at 5691, 26 points in the red. This downward movement may have been triggered by the world situation still looking grim and the European markets showing a weak trend during the day. The Nifty, though looking weak, has still not taken a decisive downmove, but sooner or later, will.

Attached below is the daily chart of Nifty. As seen from the chart, it is moving in a tight range between 5635 and 5730. Since the day we suggested that the downward movement has started, Nifty has not been able to break its high on that day. Of course there have been up days (3) and there have been down days (9) during this time (12 trading days) but none of the days has showed a positive sign. I'm surprised that the Nifty is still holding on.

As seen from the chart above, a decisive downward movement can be expected only when the Nifty breaks below the lower end of the range at 5635. And the blue trendline is going to provide support to the Nifty near 5470 levels. A break below the trendline is sure to make us see lower values for the Nifty but it is too early to comment on that now. As seen from the MACD attached with the chart, we can see that in the last 15 days, it has been sloping downwards suggesting weakness in the Nifty. Even the RSI not being able to cross 60 despite 3 tests suggests that there is no strength left in the markets.

Attached above is the daily chart of Pantaloon Retail, which has today shown its weakest closing of 186.75 since 18th Sep 2012. The next supports that I see on the charts stand at 177 and then 166. I reckon, it may be a good idea to sell the stock for these targets maintaining a stop loss of 200.

Attached above is the daily chart of McDowells, which is again showing a lot of weakness but still holding on. As seen from the chart, the stock is finding it difficult to go above 1300. It has a bit of support near 1200 but there is a bearish divergence seen on the charts with the RSI and the slow stochastics. The downward sloping MACD also shows weakness and it has already given us a sell signal on 12th Oct 2012. If you have holdings in the stock, it is a good time to exit while fresh short positions may be built up below 1200 with a target close to 1050.

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Core Portfolio vs. Trading Portfolio

It was the time, many years ago, when I met a friend and asked him whether he owned stocks of XYZ company, which was quite in the news those days. And his reply, somehow, stumped me. It was a reply, which I didn't completely understand that time, but once I did, it carried a lot of meaning. His simple reply was that he had it in his trading portfolio but not in his core portfolio. And I didn't know what he meant. And when I asked him, he told me.

He told me that one should always have two portfolios. One - the core portfolio, the one which one should never touch and two - the trading portfolio, which requires your constant monitoring and modifications. This is what he meant. He said the market consists of all kinds of companies, some which are fundamentally very good, some which are fundamentally very bad and the inbetweens. Some companies are always in the news, maybe for the right or perhaps the wrong reasons and such companies always attract a lot of speculative interest. Such speculative interest brings in a lot of volatility and some good opportunities to make money.

Even though the opportunity to make money may exist in the short term but it may not be a very good company to hold for a longer term. And the stocks of those companies which you do not intend to hold for long should be disposed off as soon as your trading objective is fulfilled. Some people may have a trading objective of a 1% return in a day while others may have an objective of 5% in a week and still others who have an objective of earning 10% return in 2-3 weeks. And that's exactly how long these people should retain their stock. As soon as they get their desired return they should sell out and book their profits.

Of course, like the biggest traders and investors, you too may get caught on the wrong foot sometimes. You may have bought shares of XYZ hoping to get a return of 5%. The stock did go up 2% after you bought but then fell back down. You being a wise and a "patient" investor know that it will give you a profit if you hold on to it long enough. Two years down the line, your investment is down 50% and the stock has just become a part of your "core portfolio" and probably, it's always going to remain there even if the company goes bust. Don't you think that had it been a part of your trading portfolio, you would have got rid of it when it went 3% or 4% or 5% below your buying price? You probably would have.

That is the problem with most of the people who lose money. Their portfolio consists of shares that were "once in the news" but are down in the dumps today, it consists of shares they are "stuck" with and most of them do not have any shares which should really have been invested in. At the beginning of the millennium, when dotcom companies were the flavour of the season and when Microsoft was going great guns, the great investor, Warren Buffett was asked if he had invested in Microsoft. And his reply was that he didn't invest in shares of companies having a business he doesn't understand. And since he did not understand computers, he never invested in Microsoft. That doesn't mean that he did not make money from Microsoft. He did because it was part of his trading portfolio and it was in whenever it was in the news and out whenever his trading objective was fulfilled.

Remember, to make a company a part of your core portfolio, you must understand why it must be held for long term. You must understand the reasons and the logic behind your investment and only then should you make it a part of your core portfolio. And to make it a part of your trading portfolio, you don't need to understand anything. All you have to do is to dispose it off after your desired return has been achieved. A trading portfolio needs to be looked at daily or twice a week, but a core portfolio needs to be invested into and forgotten for the next 3-5 years. Unless, of course, something drastically goes wrong with the company that you have to dispose it off otherwise.

I hope I have been able to convey to you the difference between a core portfolio and a trading portfolio. In case you still have a question, why wait? Just go below this post and leave a question in the comment box and I'll answer it right there.


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Downward Movement Starts

The Nifty opened stronger about 30 points up on Friday but heavy selling to the tune of Rs.650 crores by Emkay Global on behalf of an institutional client led the Nifty to touch a low of 4888.20, down 899.40 points (more than 15%) below the previous close. It is said that the quantities entered by Emkay Global were erroneous and that’s what sent the Nifty into a diving spree. You can read the complete story here. Such lows/highs made by the indices and stocks due to erroneous trades should be ignored and that’s what we are going to do today. Ignore the lows. But the fact that institutions are prepared to sell worth Rs.650 crores indicates that smart money may be getting out soon. 

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty and shows that on Friday the body of the candle completely shadows the previous day’s candle and has formed a bearish engulfing pattern. Ignoring the freak low made by the Nifty, the close itself was about 40 points lower than the previous day. This is fully in conformation to our previous view that a correction may be on the cards and that it is a time to remain cautious. As mentioned earlier, a downward move at this stage may take us to levels of 5400 or thereabouts. However, there may be minor supports inbetween at 5695, 5645, 5535 and 5435. The Nifty may go down all the way to 5400 or find support at one of these levels. 5435 looks the most probable to me at this stage but we’ll just let the market decide as to how low it wants to go. 

Attached above is the daily chart of HDFC Ltd. As seen from the chart, HDFC prices lost ground on Friday losing almost Rs.40 in a day. This downward move not only brought the price closer to the trendline, but also has shown a bearish candlestick pattern, which suggests that further downside may be there and the prices may not find support near the trendline. This view is confirmed by the MACD and RSI, both of which show a bearish divergence with the price. HDFC has shown the weakest closing since 9/11 (11th Sep 2012, I mean), the last one month. I would suggest a sell on the scrip once the trendline is broken near 740-742 with a stop loss of 775. One could expect a first target of 691 and you could continue the sell position for a second target between 660-665. 

Attached above is the daily chart of Gold alongwith my favourite choices of indicators, namely the RSI and the slow stochastics. Another one of my favourites, the trendline is also plotted on the chart. As shown here, Gold has been in an uptrend since the beginning of the chart, with regular corrections inbetween and now, after a deep correction, it has come very close to its trendline which tells us that we may be close to an intermediate term bottom. Also supporting it is the slow stochastics which is now moving below 20. By measuring the Fibonacci retracement of the rise from 30098 on 7th Aug 2012 to 32783 on 13th Sep 2012, it was found that the 61.8% retracement level is at 31105 and that is where Gold seems to have found support. Some possible scenarios that come to mind is that Gold may go down one more day next week to touch the trendline (between 30850-30900) and then rise again. The second possible scenario seems to be that Gold may hover at the current levels for the next few days and wait for the trendline to come and touch the prices. And the third possible scenario, and maybe the most probable one that Gold may start rising from here itself since it has started showing a series of reversal candlestick patterns on the charts. 4th Oct 2012 saw the formation of a bullish hammer while 5th Oct saw the formation of a harami. I would be a buyer in Gold with a stop loss below 30700 and wait for targets of 32000 and above. 

An interesting fact to note is that in the international markets, Gold has risen almost $50 from 13th Sep 2012 from $1730 to $1780, a rise of 2.9%. In the Indian markets, however, Gold has fallen from 32783 to a low of 31041 during this period, a fall of over 5%. You must be wondering, why this disparity and shouldn’t Gold be trying to play catch up now? Well, not exactly, because the US Dollar in this period has fallen from 55.375 to 52.115, a fall of over 6%. So, even though, in dollar terms Gold has gone up and in rupee terms, it has come down, it can be safely attributed to the falling dollar. Now comes the tricky part. Gold may be in for a bit of a correction (downwards) in the international markets in the coming days, and so will be the dollar (upwards). If both happen simultaneously, nothing much is going to happen in Gold in India. If Gold falls and so does the dollar, Gold in India may go down further. If the dollar starts improving and Gold continues to go up, we may be in for a sharp recovery. In this light, I wouldn’t go about keeping targets of 33000 and above but be more realistic and will probably book my profits near the 32000 levels. In rupee terms, frankly, I don’t see an extremely bright Diwali for Gold but a slightly moderate one. 

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Weakness Still Visible on Nifty... Time to Remain Cautious

The Nifty on Friday opened with a gap up opening and never looked back. After opening at 5684 and went up to make a high of 5735 at around 10:30 and after that it was all a consistent slow and steady downtrend for the index. It finally closed at 5703 to close about 54 points in the green but about 30 points off its high. Considering that the opening itself was 35 points up, closing 54 points up does not show any significant strength.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. As suggested on Thursday, the Nifty was waiting for a correction and weakness is already visible on the charts as a bearish divergence was there between the price and the RSI. But a correction was not what the market wanted. The market wanted to deceive some more buyers before going down again. While the Nifty has gone up today, it is still not showing strength. The divergence may continue one more time. But it is at these times that the buyers need to remain cautious. Every rise in the Nifty should be used as a selling opportunity.

Seen above is the daily chart of Nickel on MCX. As can be seen from the downward sloping yellow trendline, Nickel has never crossed 980 since March of this year completing 7 months now below that trendline. Notice that all this while the RSI has never gone past 60 except in the end of August which was really the first sign that Nickel is back in an uptrend. September finally saw Nickel prices go above the 7 month old trendline but overall it was a rangebound month for Nickel. The prices have remained above the trendline, yet finding significant resistance at 980. The RSI, however, is showing no signs of weakening and is showing a lot of strength till now. Looking at the pattern and the previous moves that Nickel has made, it seems that the moment 980 is broken through, Nickel is looking good for a target of 1030-1035. A stop loss of 930 should be maintained for this purpose. 

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A Correction on the Cards

The Nifty closed a quarter of a percent down today losing about 14 points from its previous value. After a reasonably decent opening at 5673, it continued to move up in the morning trades to make a high of 5693 before noon. It remained in the positive till about 2 in the afternoon when the bears took over and pushed it into the negative territory. A last ditch effort to remain in the positive came in the late afternoon trades but could not sustain and the Nifty closed at 5649.50, 14 points in the red.

Attached above is the daily chart of Nifty. Shown on the chart is a trendline sloping upwards connecting the early June, late July and early September lows. Also shown on the chart are two indicators, the MACD and the RSI. Another line is shown connecting the last two most recent highs and a corresponding highs made by the RSI in the same period. As can be seen from the charts, the Nifty made a higher high while the RSI failed to do so in the corresponding period, thus showing a bearish divergence. The RSI has turned downwards and has just penetrated its 9-period signal line, indicating a sell, albeit mild. In the last 20 days, the Nifty has gained almost 500 points without any major correction, a gain of almost 10%. At this stage, a correction is long overdue and signs of weakness are already visible on the charts. A downward correction may take the Nifty back to the upward sloping trendline which could provide support to the Nifty close to the 5400 levels. A steeper downward move could take the Nifty down to the dashed blue line which lies at 5360. This is the line which has provided support to the Nifty once and resistance to it 6 times in the last 9-10 months, a very significant support indeed. So, till we get to that point, it's just a sell on rise market and when we get to 5400 nearabouts it's going to be converted into a buy on dips market.

Seen above is the daily chart of Silver. Silver in the last 45 days itself has shown a rise of almost 12000 points, a rise of almost over 20%. By the looks of it, and using the Elliott Wave Principle, I think we have just entered wave 4 of this uptrend. And if this is a wave 4 then I would expect that the correction would not be very deep (maximum 38%). Secondly, according to the rules, wave 4 should not enter the price territory of wave 1 and the highest point of wave 1 was 56337 and we are a long way from there. A 38.2% retracement, as shown can bring Silver down to 60142. The 23.6% retracement level lies at 62255 and the last 3-4 days, even though have shown a spike below that level but never has Silver closed below it in this correction. This suggests that this 62255 may be a tough level to break. The two consecutive green candles in the last two days show that the price is ready to move up again. An upmove from this point may see Silver finding resistance near 64000 levels and if it crosses that, it can go right past the previous high of 65670 too and my next target for Silver then would be around 68000. But it all depends upon whether the wave 4 correction is complete yet or not. And believe me friends, only time and the markets can tell that, not mortals like you and me. All in all, by the evidence that we've got till now, I would be a seller in Nifty and a buyer in Silver. 

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The _____________ is BACK!!!

Whenever movies come out with a sequel, they always have almost the same names but some words are added/changed to signify that it's a sequel. For example, when the new "Golmaal" came with a sequel, it was named "Golmaal Returns", and thus, the sequel to "Hera Pheri" was named "Phir Hera Pheri". It was probably taken from the naming of English movies. Like when the sequel to "The Mummy" came, it was named "The Mummy Returns". But the most famous phrase of them all was in the promos of Terminator 2 when it was said that "The Terminator is back". It was repeated last week when Harbhajan Singh routed through the English batting order and Sir Vivian Richards commented, "The Turbanator is back, and with a vengeance". And it is going to be repeated again and I don't know who's going to give what name to it, but friends, I'm very happy to say that I'm back. 

 And obviously, the question must be going through everybody's minds as to where was I all these days what was I doing. Well, it's a long story and I won't go into the details. But I'll just say that I was busy with opening a few other verticals in my business. I wanted to start sharing my knowledge by teaching Technical Analysis and I started my own Technical Analysis Academy. I wanted to share my knowledge with people all over the world and I've started writing a book. I wanted to contribute in the improvement of people's wealth and I've started giving research calls in MCX to our paid clients. So, if you can bear a commercial, anybody who wants to subscribe for the research calls in commodities (MCX) or if you want to enrol in the next batch of the Technical Analysis course that we are starting, do send in your queries to vikas@sharma.es and I'll get back to you. 

 Yes, I'll be back with my view on the markets and my view on selected stocks and commodities from tomorrow. But my view would be limited to positional views. The intra-day views, of course, would be given on a paid basis. But one thing is for sure, whether you pay or not, this blog is going to be free and you would love reading the posts on a daily basis. So, keep visiting. And yes, please do subscribe to my posts, so that all posts are delivered free to your inbox and you don't miss any useful analysis of the markets in the future. 

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