The ERY long/XLE short trade exceeded the suggested stop by 5 cents yesterday on a just this one 60 minute candlestick close, which was the 2nd to last candle of the day & the only 60-minute stick to close below 19.55 yesterday. A stop is a stop & as such, ERY has been moved the Completed Trades category with a 6.1% loss on ERY & about a 2% loss on XLE. Previous & updated 60-minute charts:

I also wanted to share my thoughts on the broad market. Not that I’m pulling a hard 180 but at least until we start to move away from the sideways trading range that the market has been in recently, I’m going to focus less on broad market analysis instead placing even more effort into timely & actionable trade ideas. There are times when there is good & easy money to be made swing trading the broad markets (i.e.- strong trends) & the next one may very well be right around the corner, in which case I’ll pick right back up with frequent updates on the broad market. Until then, there are just too many very clean trade setups on individual stocks & sectors out there to get bothered caught up trying to be certain if this is still a bear market rally or a post-correct bull market rally to new highs.

Normally I do put a good deal of effort on trying to assess not so much the current trend, but more importantly, where the market is heading in the coming months in order to align my trades & market bias accordingly. However, 2016 so far as been marked by sector rotation, with the broad markets essentially flat YTD yet numerous highly profitable trading opportunities so far on both the long & short side in various sectors, individual stocks, & even the broad markets on the swing short down into the Jan/Feb lows & the long reversal off the bottom. I don’t plan to completely stop market updates as I know that some prefer to stick with trading only the broad market tracking vehicles, be it ETF, futures, options, etc.., but I did want to share my thoughts, especially as I know that sideways trading ranges, such as the one the market has been in for the last month, can be very frustrating & if not recognized for what they are, can also lead to losses from over-trading & continually second guessing your positioning (if trading broad index tracking instruments) as the market isn’t doing what you expected.