OK, what are the "talking heads" saying is the reason for the "rally" on Friday afternoon. Miraculously undoing the "down" day on Thursday! How long do the morons in gov't think they can manipulate the markets? I know volumes are MUCH lighter these days - only a matter of time before full capitulation and ALL of the players leave, because there is NO logic to the markets! Just like the "great" auction on Wed/Thu of Treasuries - markets only down a few points after those fiascos? Oh, wait, I forgot - the market should be close to break even for the week - only MINOR things happened this week - like the total fu^king undoing of ALL forms of capitalism in the US - with the bondholders in Chrysler ( you know - the "secured" lenders of money to a corp.) being beheaded and placed behind Uncle Sam and the unions in the "restructured" Chrysler!!! -gastropod
Look from around 3:30 P.M. Eastern - nothing but up - "green shoots" I guress ;-) What was the "rally" from 3:30 about? Was there some great news that came out or some piece of economic data? Outside of the BS of "short covering" or some crap - the market went up - why? -gastropod
Who cares why it went up? The talking heads always come up with some BS reason. Bottom line is, it went up because there were more people buying than selling...supply/demand. Keep it simple
If you trade fundamentals expect illogical moves time after time. If you trade technicals, things might make more sense, after you understand price behavior. Pay no attention to the news.
A lot of institutional money does its buying in the last half hour of the day. Many of these players are entering the market for the longer term and a lot of stocks are still considered "bargains" at these prices. They are buying the "dips" and by the end of the day yesterday many fundamentally strong companies' stock had dipped. My advice to you is to follow the crowd no matter how irrational they seem to you. If you follow the crowd with your hands out, you will find money in your hands at the end of each day. If you want the crowd to do what YOU think they should be doing, go ahead and do it and see if they believe you and follow you. If not, STOP, turn around and follow the crowd again! Trend or counter-trend, there's money to be made, just make sure you're doing what everyone else is doing.