Stock of the day: Alibaba
19 September 2023
The e-commerce giant, Alibaba, offers a salient lesson in market unpredictability this September. For those monitoring its performance, the month commenced with the promise of local highs. However, the optimism was short-lived as the stock's trajectory took a downward spiral right from the outset. Nearly every trading session witnessed the stock establishing new lower lows, a pattern that persisted undeterred.
Fast-forward to yesterday, and the situation took a turn for the worse. Alibaba not only hit monthly lows but surpassed its August lows, plummeting to levels unseen since the 7th of July. Technical analysts would recognize the significance of the recent developments. Alibaba's stock price breached the confines of the symmetric triangle pattern delineated by green lines on the chart. In technical parlance, this "escape" from the triangle triggers a sell signal.
The prevailing sentiment, as of now, leans bearish with eyes set on October lows as the potential next stop. However, markets are inherently fickle, and this sell signal will be rendered moot if Alibaba's stock manages to revert back into the triangle and subsequently breaches its upper boundary. For now, though, such a turnaround seems to be on the fringes of probability.