Bracing for a Bounce

Everyone has certainly turned bearish in a hurry, and after last week's decline, rightly so. In fact, on "Bulls & Bears" this past weekend, fellow panelist Toby Smith needled me by saying: "A few weeks ago he was bullish, and now he's bearish!"

Now, if I had been just a bit quicker, I would have come back with: "Yes,when the market's going up, I'm bullish. When it's going down, I'm bearish. Wow, what a concept!" But, of course, I haven't been quite that quick since my college days, so I came back with my normal drivel.

Still, even though I might be bearish for the next few weeks, it doesn't mean I'm bearish each and every day. In fact, I'd look for a bounce today as the chart below shows.

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Today, the Nasdaq, Utstarcom (UTSI - commentary - Cramer's Take), Avid Technology (AVID - commentary - Cramer's Take), priceline (PCLN - commentary - Cramer's Take), Microsoft (MSFT - commentary - Cramer's Take) and NetEase (NTES - commentary - Cramer's Take).

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Charts produced by TC2000, which is a registered trademark of Worden Brothers Inc.

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And that is the final word from the U.S. Treasury, where I loved the comment Paul Kedrosky made in his column about last week's decline. "People want badly to blame John Snow for the mini-meltdown." All I can say is that Paul must run in different circles than I do. In my neck of the woods, not one person in 100 could tell you who John Snow is!

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Gary B. Smith is a freelance writer who trades for his own account from his Maryland home using technical analysis. At time of publication, he held no positions in any securities mentioned in this column, although holdings can change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Smith writes a daily technical analysis column for RealMoney.com and produces a daily premium product for TheStreet.com called The Chartman's Top Stocks. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send your feedback to Gary B. Smith.