For the most part as expected the market has been quiet this holiday week.  This is clearly demonstrated by this screenshot of theSMB Radar.  We use color coding throughout each list to quickly assess how In Play any given name is.  Red indicates “hot” and blue indicates “cold”.  I know–we are so clever.  Overall, when you see 90% of the names in the Radar various shades of blue it is important to maintain a conservative approach with respect to your trading activity.

The tickers that stand out from today’s action are REE and APC.  No surprise that REE was on the upper range of many scans as the rare earth names have been very in play recently.  APC shot up today because of takeover speculation.  When selecting new stocks to trade intraday I will often go to the names that are showing up near the top of several Radar categories.

As I look at the 30 minute charts for both REE and MCP, the other hot rare earth ticker, it seems that they both have their recent uptrends intact.  MCP got a bit ahead of itself the other day and sold off pretty hard after a three week 100% move.  These will be names to monitor very closely for January.  Whether they continue these uptrends or break to the downside they will offer great opportunity.