LaBranche Charts: A Decent Upside Trade

With a market that continues to press lower without respite, it's getting harder and harder to find anything you can buy today that isn't a loser tomorrow. Now, as prices push lower eventually there will be bargains to be had. But at what level? That's always the issue and always the catch.

Here's a stock under $5 that is a reasonable idea for buying as it comes back in -- LaBranche(LAB). It operates as a registered broker-dealer and as a market-maker in options, futures, and exchange-traded funds. Back in January, the stock got a huge pop when LaBranche signed a definitive agreement to sell its New York Stock Exchange specialist business for $25 million to Barclays(BCS). It freed up quite a bit of capital and the stock reacted to that. As LAB drifts back into the area where the gap lays in waiting, this is not a bad place to think about taking on some shares.

As always, let's take a look at the stock's three time frames -- the long-term, intermediate-term and short-term views.