1. The selling in the Master Limited Partnership oil and gas pipelines appears to have entered ludicrous speed. Perhaps there are multiple funds blowing off the sector. Or maybe the never-ending decline in light crude oil has become sufficiently scary to otherwise-committed longs that they've decided to abandon ship and recoup what little they can. I honestly don't know.
What I do know, however, is I grossly misjudged the severity of near-term selling.
I introduced Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) as a long idea for higher-timeframe investors in the July 24 Trader's Notebook. But rather than explain why I still like the stock and believe it's worth holding for longer term investors, I'll cut to the chase and simply say I was horrifically wrong on my timing. Admittedly, the chart looked pretty rough when I bought a starter position in the stock on July 22-23. But it looks even worse now.
The fashionable thing to say would be that I began my position a bit too early. Or that the stock looks even better at a lower price. But in the end, the sector -- and ETP -- are simply weaker than I expected. My own plan, taking into account that this was never a trading position, is to remain long and utilize a wide scale. But to be frank, I doubt I'll add additional exposure until I begin to see signs of a sector-wide stabilization.
2. I was shocked to find out how many readers are still looking at coal stocks. Unfortunately, your universe of stocks is quickly approaching zero. The last major player on my radar is Consol Energy (CNX). But as you've no doubt seen, that stock is in a desperate downward race to catch up to its brethren already trading in the single digits (or in bankruptcy).
The bottom line is, I had $14 marked as a decent support level for CNX. But given the complete lack of interest among buyers for anything coal, I honestly can't see throwing much time, effort or money at this name. If you do opt to trade CNX, be aware that my next area of interest, should $14 be shattered, would be $9.20 (or 34% lower).
Any trading or volume profile related questions can be posted in the comments section below, emailed to me at parkcityyeti@gmail.com or posted to my twitter feed @ByrneRWS
