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Chart Spotlight on Tesla (TSLA) - Decisive Breakdown

Erin Swenlin

Erin Swenlin

Co-Founder, DecisionPoint.com

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I noticed on the StockCharts.com homepage "symbol cloud" that readers were downloading this chart more than Amazon and the SPX (based on size of the font). I decided to take a look. Wow! TSLA dropped more than 6.4% today! There are some real problems with this chart in the short term.



Today's decline broke a steep rising trend that had been intact since December. The breakdown is considered "decisive", meaning it was a more than 3% break down below the rising trendline. Decisive moves are typically initiations and not exhaustions. Note the gap that occurred with today's decline. I am inclined to believe we are looking at a breakaway gap which is considered an initiation to price moves in the same direction--down in this case. The Price Momentum Oscillator (PMO) is overbought and triggered a crossover SELL signal today. The On-Balance-Volume (OBV) tops are showing a bearish confirmation with price tops; both OBV and price tops are declining. The SCTR dropped out of the "hot zone" above 75 which also suggests lower prices.

The weekly PMO is rising on a BUY signal, but the price chart doesn't look bullish. Price nearly reached all-time highs before correcting this week. There will likely be move to test support. The strongest support lies at $180, but I think $240 could also provide support (3rd quarter 2016 high).


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Technical Analysis is a windsock, not a crystal ball.

Happy Charting!
- Erin

Erin Swenlin
About the author: is a co-founder of the DecisionPoint.com website along with her father, Carl Swenlin. She launched the DecisionPoint daily blog in 2009 alongside Carl and now serves as a consulting technical analyst and blog contributor at StockCharts.com. Erin is an active Member of the CMT Association. She holds a Master's degree in Information Resource Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology as well as a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Southern California. Learn More