Since I posted a few earlier, I might as well post a few updates. Just took profits on my SPXL and TQQQ longs. 

A few setups I'm watching (see charts): BVN for a possible gold breakout, SPXL and TQQQ to break above the highs of the first 60 minutes, and CURE as a possible short (if we break to new lows). I'm viewing these as day trades. 

Possible silver/silver stock bounce/pop - If we get follow through on $USD's bearish engulfing candle, silver could double bottom here and break out of its 6+ week downtrend, causing silver miners to do the same. Here are some charts of SLV and a few miners. Anyone have thoughts on this as a possible setup? I'm thinking of this as more of a day trade. 

Matt's TLT trade (inverted H&S) consolidating just underneath the trendline, FYI. Could break soon. 

SQQQ (from watchlist) has continued to form a very nice bottoming pattern on the 15 min charts. http://schrts.co/KKnKw2

My NUGT short just triggered. It spent the day consolidating above yesterday's lows, and just broke through. http://schrts.co/vs9CVa

H&S forming on 15 min NUGT (and GDX). A drop below yesterday's low and this could really move.

Just got whipsawed out of my longs, although stops saved my bacon. Shorts just got filled. (Possible double meaning there :p ) With the markets likely closing with a third daily shooting star-like candle, we might soon be getting that shorting opportunity after all. 

Tradestation data - Sorry for the novice question, but an answer would help me out. Anyone know which real-time data package I need to subscribe to in order to see the basic ETFs move in real-time (SSO, SKF, etc.) on intraday charts? They move once ever few minutes, so it's likely that my data is delayed. :p   (I've been on hold with TS for quite a while now...)

Yup, XIV looks to be stuck at $9.97. 

Sorry to hear about those of you who lost on those volatile ETFs. Here's a thought on insurance, which might apply mostly to longer-term traders. One of my strategies involves holding longs and shorts for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. To protect those positions, I've been thinking of buying crappy, way out of the money calls and puts to protect them, which are usually quite cheap since there's little chance they'll ever get hit. Say I shorted SNY yesterday, which closed at $41.50. (I didn't, but let's say I did.) I could have then bought the March 16th $55 call for $0.05 each. (You have to admit that that's cheap insurance in case the price skyrockets. Only 0.12% of my entry price.) If the price went to the stratosphere for some reason after hours, my maximum loss would be [ $41.50 - $55 - $0.05 ] / $41.55 = -32%. Would I be happy? Absolutely not! But my losses would be limited, and if my SNY short was only 10% of my portfolio, my overall loss would be limited to 3.2%. Not a great trading day for sure, but nothing I couldn't get over either. So, just keep in mind that most stocks & ETFs have fairly cheap far out-of-the-money calls and puts that you can buy very inexpensively. If it helps you sleep at night, then it's worth it. Just a thought. 

That probably depends on your data provider.

Have a great 27th, Steve!

Personally, I use the depth of the consolidation right before the breakout to gauge a good sell point. Basically, if you measure the depth of the consolidation (I'm usually pretty conservative with that), and then you measure up from the breakout point, then generally one might do well to sell within that space. With this chart, I would personally would have sold about $1 or $1.25 (at most) above the breakout point, or between $11 (or a bit below it, since it's best to set profit targets a bit below round numbers) to $11.25 (where it ended up stopping anyway). However, since today's move was on fantastic volume, I might have sold half near the close, and then kept the other half to see what might happen next. I hope this helps a bit!

Looks great! My only short-term concern is that it's hit the top of a potential rising wedge, spanning the past few months.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=AIG&p=D&yr=0&mn=11&dy=0&id=p39672357557&a=216777655

I'm not worried. It did break down yesterday, which strengthens the bearish case significantly. Plus there's quite a bit of resistance and moving averages above (and very little below). So, even if it manages to close above the lower support, it's got a gauntlet of resistances to contend with above before it can begin a meaningful uptrend.

You mean I get more shares to compensate if I bought the stock after the ex-dividend date but a bit before the dividend is paid? It would make sense for there to be some automatic compensation, since otherwise people would simply short between ex-dividend and the payout date and make some quick cash. And I think we all know that there's no obvious automatic gains or losses like that in the market. In any case, it'll be educational. Thanks!

Yup, you're right. I should have checked. (Guess that tells you how few dividend stocks I've owned!) So does that mean if I buy the day before the dividend (on Dec 2nd) that I get the financial shaft, since the price automatically goes down by the amount of the dividend, but I bought after the ex-dividend date? (If that's the case, why in the world were so many people buying in the few days before the dividend was paid? That was some pretty big volume!)

Ok guys, here's a tough one. On December 1st, I bought shares of CTL pretty much near the close of the day, at a price of $43.88. According to IB and stock charts on that day, that was the close of the day, and the price I bought. HOWEVER, yesterday, I checked out the chart on StockCharts.com (see the link), and it NOW says that the high of that day was around $43.25ish. In fact, it looked like the entire chart (that day and the whole history) has been adjusted down by about $0.60. Clearly the stock on the chart is currently higher than tehe high of Dec 1st, yet I'm showing a loss since I bought it at $43.88. Does anyone know what would cause an entire chart to go down by $0.60? It's not a big deal, but I'm very curious what happened. Thanks!

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=CTL&p=D&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&id=p73461913129&a=216238379

CTL is looking pretty good. Broke out of an ascending triangle yesterday on 300%+ volume. Might be of interest to a few of you, especially if it retests the breakout.