Zak’s weekend post – Video killed the bull market!

As part of my recent media blitz (all terribly exciting luvvies you know!) which involved on Monday with meeting up with my good friend and fellow contributor to this magazine – Dominic Picarda, we recorded a video on the major markets including the FTSE, S&P & Gold that I hope you find interesting. Here’s the link – http://bcove.me/ij7bsfig

I have to admit that it has been a friendship which had a shaky start, given that when we first met I still regarded myself as both young and “with it” (not anymore!). However, when we did first meet, Dominic revealed that he used to watch me on daytime TV (probably the Money Channel) when still at college. On that basis, and having missed the obvious point that young Mr Picarda was merely being polite, it became ever more apparent to me that I am something of a dinosaur now!

However, the man is so clearly overloaded with brains, it is almost impossible not to respect his views and his knowledge on the markets, economic  matters and in fact beyond. We have been in touch regularly ever since. Therefore I was thoroughly chuffed to be invited to do a video this week and go through the major markets such as the T Bond, Gold, and the FTSE 100. Of course, between the time of the broadcast and now I have been sweating it out in terms of whether the markets would tank (or spike) and make my comments appear as wise as infamous weatherman Michael Fish at the time of the 1987 Crash when he said there would not be any hurricane…

What would be pleasant is if the lows for stocks as well as the currencies / commodities came in today, November 16th. This would be something of a coup, if only on the basis that it is probably still a couple of weeks too early for any end of year rally to begin. Indeed, I explained to Dominic that while a December year-end rally is a highly likely event, this makes the prospect of a November bull flushing out manoeuvre precisely as we are seeing today all the more likely. It is ironic of course,  that after the November flush out and the Yuletide rebound begins,  most of the traders have been struggling all year to earn a crust. Having left their trading platforms they typically are not around when the easiest opportunities are there to be taken…

From a fundamental standpoint, it is not difficult to be a fan of Gaming stocks at the present. At the very least, it is difficult for a company in this area to go wrong, unless of course one of your punters have a mega win. However, in the case of Paddy Power (PAP), with revenue growth of 23% over the last quarter, it would appear that we are looking at a company which is in an uptrend on the daily chart. Indeed, today we have seen a narrow bear trap rebound from below the floor of a December rising trend channel at €53. Adding to the technical excitement has been a “blink and you missed it” rebound off the 200 day moving average of €51.61. The view now, especially with the latest test of a RSI support line in the oscillator window, is that while there is no end of day close back below €53 we would be looking for a 2 to 3 month target for the stock as high as €63 at the top of the rising 2011 price channel.