ChartSmarter Wednesday Game Plan 8/12/15

Markets gave back most of the strong gains we saw yesterday with a very mild rally in the afternoon taking benchmarks off sessions lows at the close. Once again it was the Nasdaq that fell the most dropping 1.3% after being down 1.75% earlier on. It undercut its 50 day SMA and recorded its lowest close in a month. The S&P 500 lost 1% and is now flirting with its 200 day SMA once again, a line that it is very familiar with, maybe too much so. This will be the sixth time that important line is tested in 2015 and each time it has held. Are investors being too complacent? There does seem to be plenty of negative sentiment going around these days, which we mentioned yesterday could be bullish. Bears can tip their hat on mutual funds holding the lowest amount of cash reserves in history (Hat tip @sentimentrader). As always let price be your director. Among sector “winners” Tuesday, all 10 major S&P groups finished lower, were utilities, energy and consumer staples. Two of those 3 obviously are very defensive in nature and give you a good grasp of the mood of the investor. Discussing appetites SHAK reported earnings after the close last night and the stock was certainly volatile today. It now has the look of a bullish flag pattern and below is how the name appeared in our Tuesday 7/14 Game Plan. We added to it today to display the flag formation.