Stocks are paying a modest price today for the recent rally, though tepidness more than anything is what seems to have set in. As such, traders need to tighten their focus on the stocks that are moving the best. Right now, those names appear to be Dana Holding Corporation (DAN), Hard to Treat Diseases (PINK:HTDS), Teton Energy Corp. (TEC), and American Science & Engineering Inc. (ASEI). Let's review each chart in detail.
Teton Energy Corp. (
TEC) is rallying sharply again today, after making a similar move yesterday (and despite a nasty downtrend for the better part of the previous three weeks). Though we've seen more than a few fake-outs of late, this breakout move actually has legs.
The key here is volume - as it usually is. Teton Energy are drawing a heck of a lot more buyers with this upswing than the number of sellers we saw with the pullback. In fact, TEC is on pace to exceed yesterday's accumulation with today's even-strong buying effort.
As for a target level, we'd have to be crazy to aim for anything other than the high s around $0.75 that Teton Energy shares hit not once, but twice in the last few months. If TEC can move from $0.45 to $0.75 though, that's not a bad ride.
There are several support and resistance levels we could discuss for
Hard to Treat Diseases (
HTDS). Rather than open that can of worms though, we'll just point them out on the chart and let you study them for yourself.
Instead, we'll just mention that the resistance lines are holding up a lot better than the support lines for Hard to Treat Diseases. The steeper (rising) support line broke last week. There's another one currently at $0.0109 (and also rising), but at more than 20% below the current price of HTDS, that's of no real comfort to current or potential owners.
With all that being said though... Hard to Treat Diseases shares do have one thing going for them... the selling volume has been light. Until we see a decisive distribution day, we can't actually act on our bearish expectation for HTDS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sign-up for Free to Receive Future Commentary and
Trading Alerts on ASEI, DAN, HTDS and TEC. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Like Hard to Treat Diseases,
Dana Holding Corporation (
DAN) has a slew of important support and resistance lines that we're not even going to bother discussing in any great detail. We'll just point out for the first time since July the stock failed to make a higher high with the October peak of $7.14.
Though one of the support lines has broken as of today, the second one at $6.27 is still intact for DAN. If it goes though, the next checkpoint is the gap Dana Holding Corporation shares left behind at $3.63 in July.
Also like HTDS, we've not seen significant selling volume from Dana Holding over the last two days. Last week's buyback was pretty weak though, and paled in comparison to the bearish volume we witnessed in late September. That's the long way of saying it's more of a question of 'when' for DAN, rather than a question of 'if'.
Though it's up slightly today as it was yesterday, the volume behind the recent rebound from
American Science & Engineering Inc. (
ASEI) has been pathetic. As such, we have to think the prior downtrend is going to be resumed sooner than later (though we've yet to see it pan out).
Bigger picture, ASEI is trapped in a trading range between $60 and $70. Though we're short-term bears, it's all moot unless American Science & Engineering shares can actually break under that support level. On the other hand, American Science & Engineering offers a fairly liquid option market, and a five point move wouldn't be bad for a relatively cheap near-term put.
Here's how we're playing it.... don't step into ASEI on the upswing. Wait for a key downside reversal clue, which should rekindle the downtrend. And, be savvy as $60 is approached. If it breaks down though, ka-ching.
If you'd like to know of any changes in our opinion of DAN, TEC, HTDS, or ASEI (or if we officially recommend them as trades), be
sure to sign up for our free newsletter today. It's delivered 2 to 3 times per week.
