Can We Buy CNX's Pullback?

Ronald wants to know if I consider the 3.7% drop in CNX, a stock I highlighted earlier in the week, a buyable pullback.

While I would not buy just yet, the stock is still technically sound. Support has not broke and volume on today's decline was within the stocks normal range. OBV still looks good. Ideally I like to see pullbacks head to support slowly and with small price bars, so I won't buy until I see more evidence that backs the idea that today's decline is nothing to be concerned about.

Another concern for this stock is the negative RSI divergence. This is a sign that momentum is waning. I don't use divergences as a primary tool, but they do go into the overall analysis and let me know that I must exercise caution.

This analysis does not cause me to discard the stock from my watchlist. As long as support holds, it's still a bull candidate. However, it does effect my entry. I enter stocks in one of two ways on pullbacks. When I am supremely confident in a stock, I will enter during the pullback, before a confirmation move like a bullish engulfing or long tail candle at support. My other method, when there are more queston marks, is to wait for confirmation.

SNCR: No Longer an Ideal Pullback Candidate

I received an email from a reader who asked if today's pullback in SNCR was an entry signal. My answer was a not so subtle, "Not on your life!"

In last night's chart post, I mentioned that I liked SNCR on a pullback. Those that have been reading me for some time know that I only enter low volume pullbacks that gradually pullback to support.

What we had today was a high volume move with a long negative bar that "engulfed the previous day's smaller postive bar". In Japanese candlesticking vernacular, this is called a bearish engulfing pattern. Of course, as it sounds, this a bearish signal.

What we want to see is an orderly pullback to support that takes a few days to develop. While a big down day like today does not take SNCR off the watchlist, it certainly pushes it down to the secondary watchlist.

ZUMZ Bullish Englulfing Pattern, Steel, Energy and the UFC

I entered ZUMZ yesterday on a pullback to support, and today it looks as though we have confirmation that the stock is going to bounce. ZUMZ printed a bullish engulfing pattern where three areas of support converged (the 50 day moving average, price and gap support). I could not have hoped for anything better.

Conservative traders would argue that yesterday's entry was risky. The safe way to have played ZUMZ would have been to place the stock on your watchlist as it moved to support, and entered only after they type of bullish confirmation signal we received today.


Steel and Energy stocks are high priorities on my watchlist. The two sectors are finally pulling back, albeit after parabolic moves up. STLD, RIO, PDE, VLO, HOC, MT, XTO and DNR are a few of my favorites right now. I've also added two new stocks to the breakout-pullback watchlist.

Off-Topic:
As many of you already know, I am a huge UFC and boxing fan. Saturday night, UFC is showing a good match-up free on SpikeTV. Mirko Cro-Cop against Gabriel Gonzaga. Mirko is known to unleash some of the most lethal kicks in mixed martial arts. Check out the teaser: