Wednesday, June 9, 2010

"Iron Cross in the Oil Service Sector" (BH; HAL; RIG; SLB; OSX)

I always think of Fat Hermann and feel a need for umlauts when I see the term.
From Bespoke Investment Group:
Given the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it's certainly no surprise that the Philadelphia Oil Service Index (OSX) is down 25% from its recent highs.  Given the declines, is the bad news already priced in?  According to one popular formation in technical analysis, the answer is no.  As shown in the chart, the OSX index is on the verge of completing an 'iron cross' pattern.  An iron cross occurs when a stock or index's short term moving average (50-DMA) falls below the longer term moving average (200-DMA) while both are decreasing.  According to people who follow technical analysis, an iron cross is typically a prelude to further losses. 

So how good a sell signal has an iron cross been on a historical basis....MORE
To answer that question here's Herr Göring wearing a few of his crosses, including the one-and-only Grand Cross of the Iron Cross: