Market Weak, But Opportunities Abound

With all the hysteria about the market this week, is it really all that bad?  Certainly from a point loss perspective, it felt awful.  But, if you look at the chart below, all the market has done is move in a large trading range. Volatile? Yes.  End of the world?  No.

The real trick, of course, is to use the weakness to your advantage. To that end, I look for a logical place to start buying and put a limit order in at my target. One quick trade I did this week was Waste Management (NYSE:WM), a stock we’ve looked at before. Here you can see I bought right near support and sold into the subsequent bounce.

Of course, not every purchase gets turned over in 24 hours, so in times like this, I always buy with the intention of having to hold for a bit. But, I still try to buy near a logical support area, and if I get a bounce, great. If not, I certainly have the patience to view the acquisition as an investment and hold until it’s profitable. United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) is a good example.