The computer I learned to type on was a Hewlett-Packard. I was in 7th grade in Bell Middle School when I had my first typing class. Bell, Florida is quite possibly the smallest city ever, and likely still is. As you know, I’ve lived in the boonies the majority of my life. You know how some people refer to the number of traffic lights in a city to compare its size? Well, Bell doesn’t have a traffic light. Not even one. It has a gas station, a barbeque restaurant, some trees, dirt, and a K-12 school. Needless to say, there wasn’t a ton of diversity in that school.
LOOKING BACK
Even in such a small town, the school did have some amazing teachers. My typing teacher was not one of them. She was nice, but very quiet and soft spoken, and I truly can’t remember her name. It was a memorable class for me however, because I was there when the tragedy of 9/11 happened. I remember her turning on the T.V. and we watched the events unfold. I watched the second plane hit the tower as I gazed across a sea of gray, boxy, Hewlett-Packard computers, with black plastic coverings on the keyboards. The coverings were obviously there to help students memorize the keys on the keyboard. I got an A in the class and what I learned was beneficial for me because now I’m kind of a big deal when it comes to typing and of course, trading. So let’s get to that.
THE TRADE SET-UP
HPQ is in a beautiful Bollinger Band® squeeze right now. $30.00 is a brick wall of resistance for HPQ. I’m actually glad the stock is slowing down here and resting.
The last time I did a write-up on HPQ was back in March 2013 where I mentioned “long was the place to be” on HPQ. Now that HPQ has reached some strong resistance, it’s begun to consolidate. The settings for my bands are 20 SMA with a 2 standard deviation. The bands are currently squeezing, showing very little volatility on this stock, and volatility can and will stay this low only for a short while. This is the tightest squeeze the stock has had since, oh . . . approximately late February 2013.
A close above the 2/21/14 candle would show significant strength in the bullish move. We want HPQ to close above resistance, as that will show confirmation in the move. The stop would go close to $29.50. Target 1 is $32, where 1/4 of your position could be exited, but $35 is the really strong second target. $35.76 is the 100 simple moving average on a monthly chart, which has been respected strongly in the past.
THINK LONG TERM
This will be a longer term trade for sure. Set your stops accordingly, trade in the direction of the trend and be patient. Let’s see how this trade plays out!
