TUES. AUG. 11- Slowing Down...

Once again, the Blogger software is not working properly so I will send the watch list out via e-mail as I did yesterday.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the past several weeks, I’ve harped on the importance of earnings the bulk of your summer income during earnings season because it was going to get much harder in all likelihood. It has been crucially important for each of us to have work very hard, getting in on time, studying/knowing the news, and of course trading with precision for several weeks now. Well, welcome to record summer heat on an August Manhattan Monday. The markets yesterday for the first half of the session traded in their narrowest intra-day band of the first three hours of a day (on extraordinarily slow volume) of any day this year-to-date. Approximately 90% of the S&P 500 members have reported their quarterly earnings, the government is effectively going to be shot down for the month here on out as Congress takes off, and many hard working people take their vacations (or staycations). Furthermore, the market has had a huge run so a pause in the rally is not only likely, but needed…if you’re running a marathon, you’ve gotta stop/slow down every now and again for some water at a minimum. So, where does that leave us day traders for the next few weeks? The answer: trying to gently pad on if you’ve done what you’re supposed to do from Independence Day onward and scrambling if you haven’t. The correct mentality (one made much easier to have if you’ve had a decent trading summer/traded the earnings, stayed before and after the close, et al) is to simply trade the limited news of the day in selected spots. Do not get in early to anything (as I learned yesterday one more time again as that mistake took out about ¼ of my day); wait for set-ups, pay even stricter attention to the newsflow than normal, and don’t scalp. If you’ve not had a good trading summer (usually caused by things such as not trading proper set-ups in being impatient, holdings positions against you, and not taking the time to properly analyze the markets/news of the day), follow the advice noted in the aforementioned sentence. This of course is much harder said than done because you tend to feel the need to make a living…and with prices not moving, it becomes so easy to overtrade and simply lose small…but non-stop. The bottom is to do the things you should be doing with tremendous precision, stay away from any scalping whatsoever, and please know the limited newsflow because the news-centric stocks are likely going to be the only true plays from now until the kids go back to school next month.

Markets in Asia were generally higher overnight with the Hang Seng and Nikkei closing up about 0.5%. In Europe, prices are generally down about ¼% to ½%. Commodities and currencies are quiet. There is a palpable quiet on Wall Street this morning as traders await the result of a record amount of debt being auctioned this week as well as commentary from the Fed tomorrow. Look for a muted session overall with prices on both sides of the unchanged line yet with movement in many of the microcap stocks as the watch list below is quite big. There will be opportunities, but please focus on the stocks in the news and only at the proper trade times at that else you will likely get chopped up net-net.

Reiterating-
Please understand that if the ideas do not get to the hoped for set-ups cited below, more often than not, one should not blindly trade the symbol next to said idea.

If the whole story is not there -
If something is good, assume either a short thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified.If something is bad, assume either a buy thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified-
Good- The following stocks have good news and/or a strong technical pattern

FLR- beat earnings estimates and raised earnings guidance, but missed revenue guidance

MR- good earnings

QSFT- good earnings

DFR- great earnings

SLXP- good earnings

RWC- great earnings

LGF- good earnings

ARRY- positive phase I trial

FNM- closed on its high after terrific earnings

RTK- closed on its high after terrific earnings

DRL- closed on a high

JRJC- closed near a high

NEP- closed near a high

CHDX- closed near a high

CGA- closed near a high

UTA- closed near a high

HSR- closed near a high

SSP- closed near a high after posting great earnings

SDTH- good earnings

RAX- good earnings

WEN- featured on “Mad Money” last night

ANDS- ANA 773 demonstrated significant antiviral response in phase I trial for Hepatitis C patients

BPI- good earnings

SEED- good earnings

AGM- good earnings

HGSI- priced target raised to 30 at a brokerage house

AVNR- Zenvia drug met primary endpoint in phase III trial

ANPI- Angiotech's licensee (Cook Medical) announced CE Mark Approval and European launch of Zilver(R) PTX(R) stent

Bad-The following stocks have bad news and/or a weak technical pattern

FRPT- bad earnings

NUAN- bad earnings

MTXX- bad earnings

SGEN- share offering

PETD- bad earnings and share offering

BG- share offering

RINO- poor earnings

HPT- share offering

FOSL- bad earnings











Earnings:

TUES AUG 11 BEFORE

AGM BR FOSL

HRP KONG MBT

TUES AUG 11 AFTER

AMAT CLWR CREE

PAAS SQM VVUS

WRC WX




Good luck today.

Epiphany Trading, LLC

http://www.epiphanytrading.com/

Erik R. Kolodny- Chief Markets Strategist
Brendan P. Byrne- President
Joseph R. McCandless- Managing Partner
D. Timothy Seaquist- Managing Partner