Leaders Index 7-14-14

The market opened strong today and held most of those gains through out the trading session. The COMPQ rose .56% while the SPY was up by .48%. The COMPQ closed in about the middle of it’s intraday trading range while the SPY finished near it’s high. Volume was higher across the board so this counted as an accumulation day. The NDX closed at a new high for the move as there was strength in tech stocks. Leading stocks had a good session as well with the leaders index climbing 1.62% on slightly lower and below average volume. The index has now regained most of what it lost last week on news out of Europe. The gains of the last two or three days show that we may repeat the recent pattern of quick sharp sell offs that are followed by rebounds to new highs. In the current QE environment it is proving almost impossible to get any real correction. The damage to quality growth stocks last week means that few stocks are in good patterns right now. It is a very difficult market in which to hold stocks as these declines are usually enough to force sales of positions to cut or avoid losses. Really worth while gains have been almost non existent. The fact that there were a good number of attractive breakouts and virtually none of them produced strong gains makes one unsure of the rally. At this point if you are going to go back into this market if the major averages go to new highs the ETFs might be a better choice than individual stocks. Jerry