Wednesday’s trading continued to be on the erratic side, as smooth moves were replaced by several entries with quick stops. As such, we will be looking to lighten up a bit on Thursday and ride out some of the initial earnings jitters with reduced position sizes.   That being said, there are still a few stocks that stand out as having the potential for some tradeable moves.

In the brokers (XBD.X), Etrade Financial Corp (ET) took a Fast Ball hit on Wednesday and looks to have some room to move on Thursday. We will watch both sides on this one and look to enter on support/resistance moves into either of the Wednesday tails.

Etrade Financial

Legg Mason (LM), also in the brokers, had a bad day of its own, losing 17 points Fast Ball move that has the stock perched to retest July 2006 lows around 82.50. On Wednesday LM took a two notch downgrade after a negative pre-announcement triggered downgrades from Freidman Billings Ramsey, to underperform from market perform, and Merrill Lynch, to sell from buy. We will look for any sign of weakness on Thursday.

Legg Mason

In the semiconductors (SOX.X), Advanced Micro Devices had a Double Header pop today and will be on our long side radar on Thursday pending continued strength in the semis.

Advanced Micro Devices

Texas Instruments also bears watching, as the stock had a Fast Ball rally on Wednesday and should also benefit from continued semiconductor strength.

Texas Instruments

Adrian Manz is the author of Around The Horn: A Trader's Guide To Consistently Scoring In The Markets and is co-founder of TraderInsight.com. Email him at adrian@traderinsight.com.