5 Technical Setups to Trade for Breakouts

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- As rough as last week's market action may have been, it looks like Mr. Market is trying to one-up himself this week. Just one day into the new trading week, the S&P 500 has already shed an ominous 6.66% -- not too far off from the 7.19% that the index shed in the entire previous week.

As shares look to bounce this morning, investors are caught wondering whether this will be the end of the selling. I wouldn't be eager to go long just yet.

Although this market may seem possessed (particularly given yesterday's loss in the S&P), don't think for a minute that the price action in stocks is hocus-pocus. With the right tools in tow (namely technical analysis), herd mentality of stocks in August becomes a bit more comprehensible. And money is still being made on stocks.

Related: 5 Rocket Stocks to Buy on Selloff

Take a look at the trades I pointed out in last week's column, for example. All three of our short-side setups triggered last week, generating potential profits of 9.2% on Crown Holdings (CCK), 13% on Dell (DELL), and 18% on Time Warner (TWX). In each of those cases, the key to success was to find the price when supply overwhelmed demand for shares, and short shares when that price got breached.

This week, we'll aim to do it again with five new technical setups.

Remember, technical analysis is a way for investors to quantify qualitative factors, such as investor psychology, based on a stock's price action and trends. Once the domain of cloistered trading teams on Wall Street, technicals can help top traders make consistently profitable trades and can aid fundamental investors in better planning their stock execution.

Here's a look at this week's setups.

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