ShadowTraderPro Swing Trader

The ShadowTraderPro Swing Trader is your every morning dose of market reality brought to you from the resident geniuses at ShadowTrader. Each issue contains a full report on the prior day's action, including market internals, technicals, and what sectors were hot and cold. Each issue also includes the ShadowTraderPro Model Portfolio, which updates members on what stock plays STPro is currently engaged in officially, as well as provide a daily list of long and short setups for more self-directed traders and investors.

Good morning traders. One of our main swing trading rules is to never carry a position through an earnings announcement. However, we are not opposed to entering a trade that breaks out as a result of a positive earnings report. Virgin Media, Inc. (VMED) has formed a bullish consolidation pattern and will release earnings before the bell this morning.

Please observe the price below.

A positive reception to earnings by the market this morning will most likely push VMED out of consolidation. Our alert is placed at 24.65, but there is a chance the stock will gap higher on good news. If so, use some caution and observe the 5 and 15 minute charts to gauge the strength of follow through or lack thereof.

This brings up a perfect reason to check out Peter's video in the education section at www.shadowtrader.net on How To Trade Opening Gaps. Commentary on gap plays begins at the 4:57 mark of the video.

When we say "under the hood" we mean market internals, ie: what was really happening behind the scenes. ShadowTraders who listen to our daily broadcast every day live on the thinkorswim platform know that all closing figures on the major averages should only be interpreted in the context of market internals. Look for convergences and divergences in the breadth, a/d line, and trin figures below to either confirm or cast doubt on what all those talking heads on TV are telling you.

The ShadowTrader Sector Trend Score matrix is a proprietary method of assigning values to twenty five sectors that are a representative cross-section of the market as a whole. The heat map in the trend score column defines the current strength or weakness of that sector using a proprietary weighting formula. Sectors bolded in green and red are the two sectors that experienced the largest absolute gain and loss in trend score over the prior day. We strongly urge subscribers to read the full explanation of the meaning and calculation of the trend scores in the Swing Trader User's Guide.

ShadowTrader Sector breadth ended mixed yesterday with 13 sectors closing higher and 12 ending lower. The broad market, as a whole, has taken a rest over the past two days and brought itself out of an overextended condition. This has occurred in spite of XOI and XTC putting in a sixth consecutive higher close and XNG making its fifth higher close yesterday.

Up and coming economic and corporate data that may move markets this week:

This section is for self-directed traders and investors who like to "do it themselves". Every trading day, Bulls and Bears will list long and short equity setups with defined entries and stops. Note: A listing in this section does NOT necessarily mean that the stock will end up as a part of the ShadowTraderPro Model Portfolio. Plays listed here change daily and are not managed or tracked by ShadowTrader unless traded via MyTrade posting.

Long Ideas

Short Ideas

The matrix below shows all current ShadowTrader Pro plays in the Model Portfolio. The Model Portfolio contains only those plays that are sent out in real-time via posting to MyTrade or text message to your phone. Bulls and Bears plays above are not actively managed or tracked. Current open positions are on top, with positions that were closed in the current calendar week on the bottom. Closed positions are moved out of the matrix on Monday mornings and posted in our performance page here.

To get the most out of your subscription and for detailed instructions on how to structure your own portfolio, read our Swing Trader User's Guide

OPEN POSITIONS - week of 02/06/12 - 02/10/12
sym	dir	size	date entered	entry price	date closed	exit price	target	stop	status	mark to market	p&l points	p&l capital	capital commit
HLF	long	150	02/03	58.50	n/a	n/a	62.00	55.45	open	59.21	0.71	$107	$8,775
	Breakout from consolidation

CLOSED POSITIONS - week of 02/06/12 - 02/10/12
sym	dir	size	date entered	entry price	date closed	exit price	target	stop	status	mark to market	p&l points	p&l capital	capital commit
DELL	short	600	02/01	17.41	02/07	17.90	16.50	17.90	closed	n/a	(0.49)	($294)	$10,446
	Exited trade as broad market persisted to the upside
TOTALS:	150	open shares (open capital committed doesn't include closed trades)											$8,775