edit: This post was made on Wednesday morning, not Monday as incorrectly stated in the title.

I returned home from a short vacation last night & I’ve been catching up on the charts this morning. So far it appears that we still haven’t had any significant technical development for weeks now, with the broad market ($SPX) still trading in a range capped by the 1990ish level & the $NDX tapping up against the 4200ish level which has been the upper-end of the trading range since August 21st.

While I was away, I can see that AAPL came within pennies (11 cents to be exact) of my 117 short entry criteria on Monday (that Short Trade Setup was mentioned towards the end of this post from Sept 3rd).  AAPL still remains a Short Setup with an entry between 117 but no higher than 119 with suggested stops & price targets TBD.

GLD & GDX are trading sharply higher today but the charts are still quite sloppy & I’m waiting to see a little more confirmation on my $USD reversal call before engaging the sector (although I may send out some DUST & NUGT daytrading opps on the @RSOTC twitter feed, should any arise).

Additional market commentary & trade updates to follow. Also keep mind that it might be prudent to hold off entering any new swing trade positions, including AAPL, until after the dust settles from the FOMC announcement which is scheduled for 2:00pm ET tomorrow.

Leading up to & shortly after FOMC announcements, I will typically avoid entering new swing trades, even if my entry criteria is triggered. For trades that I am currently in, I will leave my closing orders (sell limit on longs, BTC limit on shorts) in place while cancelling or widening my stop-loss orders. My reasoning is that FOMC announcements are usually followed by very sharp knee-jerk reactions and quite often, a rip or dip in one direction, followed by a sharp reversal & move in the other direction. I welcome that volatility to close any of my positions at my preferred profit target but pull or widen my stops in order to prevent them from being run on the post-FOMC volatility, re-entering my stops once the noise has abated (typically the following day).