BMC Software (BMC) nudges against price channel resistance

Friday’s trade saw BMC Software, a component of the NASDAQ-100 index, arrive at important price channel resistance on the hourly chart.

As usual, let’s begin the investigation with the big picture: the daily chart, covering 4 years of price action (4 y d). With a moment’s work, one can fit a price channel that relatively cleanly encapsulates price behaviour from September 2008 through September 2011, including all the local peaks of the rally; it’s shown below in dashed red lines. While the channel could be a better fit – for instance, by touching the local minimum of September 2010 – it nonetheless does suggest that BMC price action can be modeled by price channels to a relatively successful degree.



Moving on to the hourly chart (180 d 1h), BMC again reveals itself as behaving in accordance with the boundaries of a price channel; virtually all price action from July 28, 2011 to the present fits within a single set of parallel trendlines.



Moreover, the slope of channel boundary lines is a significant definition of support or resistance WITHIN the channel itself, namely in the period of November 22, 2011 to January 11, 2012, when price action continually bounced from a trendline of the same slope as the price channel. This trendline is shown as a dashed red line in the supplied screenshot above, just like the dashed red lines of the larger price channel.

In general, such behaviour is quite often in evidence; well-defined trendlines on a chart often have identical slopes (not merely similar ones). Indeed, a price channel is nothing but the coincidence of two trendlines with the same slope.

Back to the hourly chart, Friday’s price action brought BMC to exactly the upper bound of its 6-month price channel. If the channel is to not be breached, price action has only one way to go. Yet this certainly does not look like a sure bet. Friday’s rally advanced beyond BMC’s one-month high of $33.67, supporting the view that the current advance to the price channel resistance line will pierce that line and continue higher still.

The 5-minute chart (20 d 5m), finally, affirms the original thesis, namely that Friday’s close of $34.01 represents a point of significant resistance; on this zoomed-in perspective, price action has reached the resistance side of a relatively steep 2-week price channel. It’s shown below as a set of dashed yellow lines.



Still, a break upward in price would not be entirely unexpected; for instance, the Price Oscillator index, defined as the difference of current price to its 200-period moving average (with each period, in this case, marking one 5-minute bar) and shown in the lowest quarter of the screenshot above, is still some 30 cents below the past month’s global maximum.

Electronic Arts (EA) in a capitulation sell-off

Electronic Arts is one of very few components of the NASDAQ-100 that, on an hourly chart (180 d 1h), is currently experiencing a capitulation sell-off. Today’s price action may have brought the bearish move to a near-term conclusion.

Let’s first examine Electronic Arts from the perspective of the past few years. Prima facie, EA’s daily chart (4 y D) appears underwhelming; price has maintained a relatively narrow band from November 2008 to the present. That said, a well-defined (though relatively horizontal) price channel can be conjured up between April 2010 and the present; it appears below in red, and it indicates support a dime or two below today’s closing price of $17.74. A horizontal support level at ca. $17.60 is also in evidence.



On the hourly chart (180 d 1h), a different price channel – distinct from that in the daily chart, but similarly well-fitting – indicates support at about $17.60. I qualify this price channel – drawn below as dashed red lines – as robust or well-fitting because it is defined by several points in the data (in this case, 3 points for the upper line and 3 for the lower line) and because it encapsulates nearly all the price action in the period over which it is drawn. Generally, weaker price channels could be defined by as few as three points in total: 2 for one line, and 1 for its parallel opposite.



Confidence in the price channel on the hourly chart is further augmented by soundness of fit of the earlier price channel on the chart, extending over the period of 10.VIII.2011 through 16.XII.2011 and colored grey on the screenshot. A security’s tendency to form and sustain robust price channels tends to be an enduring quality.

The steep, yellow price channel on the far right of the hourly chart is another data point to consider. Formed only over the past fortnight, this channel is markedly steeper than the red channel of which it is a subset. And yet, despite the yellow channel’s steep slope, today’s price action managed to pierce through its lower support line on volume that measured over twice the three-month average.

The sum of these considerations – price action coming into long-term price channel support, price accelerating its downward trajectory (indicated here by breaking support on a steep, short-term price channel), and volume being heavy – strongly suggests the capitulatory end of a bearish move.

Finally, the five-minute chart (20 d 5m) confirms the observation of accelerating bearish price action.



Pursuing a contrarian strategy during capitulatory moves is risky and demands tight and disciplined stop loss orders. Although $17.60 is a logical terminus point for the bearish move, the capitulation may reveal itself to have yet another – still steeper – leg down. Caveat emptor.

Abbott Labs (ABT) approaches support

Abbott Labs appears headed toward support on the hourly chart (180 d 1h). The $54.7-54.8 range represents support from a trendline defined by the lows of ABT price action since August 2011; it’s the red dashed line in the screenshot below.

Additionally, $54.8 is an exceptionally well-defined line of horizontal support, stretching back to October 21, 2011; it’s marked below as a solid blue line.



Zooming into the intra-day movement of the past month (20 d 5m), the $54.7-54.8 range also finds support. A price channel extending from 4.1.2012 currently has its lower line at approximately that price; it’s the dashed yellow line below.



Betting on a bounce in ABT from about $54.8, particularly if that price is reached in the midst of a broad market that is not in significant decline, appears to offer a relatively high probability of favourable resolution.

Home Depot (HD) positioned at resistance

As the New Year equities rally continues to grind marginally higher every day, a number of large-cap equities are at significant resistance levels – and, moreover, often across a variety of charting time frames.

Home improvement retailers Lowe’s and Home Depot are two such examples. In the case of the latter, today’s intra-day high of $43.60 touches price channel resistance on the daily, hourly and 5-minute charts.

On the daily chart (4 y D), the past days’ price action brings Home Depot into resistance from a significant price channel defined by the security’s five greatest price extremes from July 2009 to the present; it’s the yellow dashed line in the screenshot.



Also on the daily chart, the Price Oscillator indicator, defined here as the difference between price and the 200-day moving average, is only $0.95 below its 4-year high, indicating an over-bought market.

On the hourly chart (180 d 1h), the current rally brings HD price action to the resistance-edge of a price channel defined by the stock’s movement since August 2, 2011.



Price action looks particularly vulnerable due to the starkly decreased volatility between 20.12.2011 and the present. To be sure, seasonality (i.e. the holiday season) plays a significant part; yet, no matter the cause, such a lull and complacency very often precede a bearish turn of a market.

Finally, the five-minute chart (20 d 5m) confirms that, from an intra-day perspective on the last 2-3 weeks, today’s price action brought HD to the resistance-end of a price channel.



Of course, the extrapolation of such analysis of Home Depot is probabilistic, as is any attempt at prediction of the markets. Anything can happen at any time; tomorrow, price can pierce upward through the resistance lines on all three chart time frames.

Nonetheless, the positioning of HD’s price action into resistance on a variety of time frames strongly suggests that, false upward breakouts notwithstanding, the next month or two might see bearish sentiment take command, at least temporarily.

Holiday wishes

This blog came to life on February 23rd of 2009 with a three-part mission: to help crystallize my thoughts on markets and travel, to share these ruminations with whomever might care to read them (caveat: such readers would surely be better served by investing their time elsewhere), and to archive these personal considerations and experiences for my own later review.

Some semblance of elegant symmetry exists between this 2/23 christening date and the 12/23 appellation of the present, perhaps rendering as auspicious this post’s design, which aims to be an overview of sorts, an essay for taking stock. Additionally, the elapsed time between incarnation and the present amounts to just a few weeks over the round number of 1000 days – 1033 to be precise, according to the calculator on timeanddate.com – further adding impetus to the idea of thoughtful review.

And yet, there’s precious little to comment upon. The blog has generated few posts (and yes, the author knows who is to blame!) – 37 in 2009 and again in 2010, then a mere 18 in the nearly-elapsed 2011, inclusive of these scribbles.

Limitation in quantity also extends to quality. As epitomized by this review, too much focus appears directed toward aimless verbosity, too little on impactful substance. At least breadth of content has proceeded according to original design, spanning the disparate realms of markets, aviation and travel, with unification indirectly attempted by tie-in to my own experiences. But whether such a collection of less than congruous topics carries any merit besides satisfaction of my own ego remains an open question.

This is where a promise of improved engagement would logically fit; indeed, a hollow allusion to the shortly upcoming season of New Year’s resolutions would beckon. But I’ll refrain from any such statement.

Instead, I’ll offer the comment that, should regular posting of markets-related analytics come to fruition, it would likely meet the original three-part mission of the blog, and quite emphatically at that. I’d better examine my own views, these would be shared with some semblance of a public, and my record would be open to subsequent self-examination. The same could be said of regular output of aviation and travel content.

Perhaps the most emotionally fulfilling motivation for true engagement with this at-once public and private pad is still altogether different. I savour the deliberately, elegantly, purposefully written word. And while I have never taken much interest in literature or composition, I do feel alluring and deeply emotional parallels in reading, say, an expertly edited article in the FT’s Arts section and, on the other hand, intensely experiencing an evocative piece of art or music. All potentially bring about an intense happiness, a flooding of the brain with some neurotransmitter, a sometimes subliminal experience akin even to that felt in romantic pursuits or significant personal accomplishments.

I’m not fooling myself; my own child’s play on this (cob-web filled) corner of the internet, when set against the kind of writing that I find inspiring, is even more inferior than is the painful screeching of nails on a chalkboard vis-à-vis brilliant calligraphy. Making matters worse is that I can’t devote the requisite time to polishing my attempts at a coherent essay. The blog has always been meant as an evening “wind-down” vehicle, a phase-of-day when neither time nor the perfection-seeking motivation is in relative abundance. In any event, my current professional goals center firmly on technical analysis and trading profitability (in that order), not on packaging bits of markets wisdom for wider dissemination.

Those disclaimers aside, I sincerely hope you’ll join me on this journey to more committed and substantive engagement with the markets, et al – and, moreover, that I take up the invitation, too!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, often the most joyful day of the year, individually and collectively, in the Polish community of which I am a part. In that spirit, I wish everyone a most restful and lovely holiday, that each might discover their most hopeful and selfless selves, that generosity and the spirit of communion with others, loved ones and friends and acquaintances alike, might flourish in each of your minds. May you re-evaluate and re-discover, re-think and re-commit.

I will certainly be treasuring the upcoming days’ re-orientation of mind and soul. But all the same, I will return with bubbling eagerness to my great love of the present, disciplined analytics of that bewitching social creature known as the financial markets, upon the resumption of business in the New Year.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Copper, et al, at resistance

Many low-risk trade ideas (i.e. trade theses that are suitable for tight stops) have presented themselves during today's ebullient markets. One of these is to short copper futures (/HG). Here's a chart with 4-hour bars, stretching from early 02/2011.


/HG, 4-hour bars

The upper line of the red price channel is nicely defined, exactly touching 3 important highs. The bottom line is not well defined, though its slope is significant in other portions (not highlighted above in any way) of the chart's price action.

As mentioned, this trade thesis has a tight stop: penetration of the upper line of the red price channel, i.e. about $3.73. One potential profitable-exit point is the lower line of the green price channel, i.e. about $3.52.

Of note, copper futures are normally presented, as is my understanding, in dollars-per-tonne (1 tonne = 1,000 kg, but 1 ton = 2,000 lbs = 907.19 kg). This observation is based on usually seeing copper futures prices quoted in the Financial Times; thus, it's a British perspective. This is relevant as /HG quotes copper in dollars-per-pound; thus, the futures price is not in the range of several thousand dollars, as might be expected, but rather only a few dollars.

DCA-ORD on United: Efficiency and Gemuetlichkeit

This post is a culmination of a trip that began with a MKE-ORD hop on Skywest and an ORD-LGA journey with United.

The return journey from Washington Reagan to Chicago O’Hare was characterized by efficiency and Gemuetlichkeit.

I had been ticketed to travel DCA-ORD-MKE, departing National Airport at 4:35p and arriving at Mitchell Field at 6:55p, with a brief 40 minute O’Hare layover in the interim. Arrival into Milwaukee would be well-timed for connection to the 7:45p departure of an Amtrak train back to Chicago’s Union Station. Anticipated afternoon thunderstorms in the Chicagoland area, however, led United to cancel the 4:35p DCA-ORD flight. I’d been anticipating the move, as United often pares its flight schedule on routes with hourly service when summer thunderstorms threaten. I noticed the cancellation online around Noon and immediately called the 1K desk for rebooking onto the 5:31p DCA-ORD flight, with the ORD-MKE connection deferred until the following morning. Indeed, I called so soon that upgrade inventory still remained on the new flight, allowing me to immediately clear into the F cabin (although this feat was assisted by the equipment on this later flight: a 757-200 with 24 forward-cabin seats).

Being a connoisseur of early morning flights –the blush of dawn, the endless possibilities of a new day, license for copious consumption of steaming coffee – I was thrilled at exchanging my evening ORD-MKE dash for one at 6:44a on the following day. The morning service would likewise connect nicely with a Chicago-bound Amtrak Hiawatha train, and I was looking forward to the rose-coloured light with which the sun might bathe Chicago’s northern suburbs during my time as airborne observer of the lands below. And I knew that, once I satiated my hunger for natural beauty outside my window, I could redirect my charged and rested mind to the crisp pages of the morning’s hot-off-the-press Financial Times.

But these musings on beauty and knowledge would concern the following day. This Tuesday afternoon would bring a different experience entirely: the quintessence of efficiency and comfort between the Washington and Chicago markets, namely a flight with United’s B757 on the DCA-ORD route.

Why do I boldly describe the journey as such? Indeed, I am writing about U.S. domestic, short-haul commercial air travel, hardly a glamorous topic for most. I will attempt a defense shortly, just after I sketch my transit to the airport.

With the 5:31p departure time bearing down with increasing weight, I departed my friend’s Arlington, VA home at 4:40p – a daringly late departure time by even my highly risk-seeking standards. In the half-hour prior, I was mesmerized by investigation of a notable session in the gold futures market – the yellow metal had sharply accelerated its upward trend and suggested itself as being in a short-term capitulation phase – and, subsequent to mapping the price action’s channels over charts of varying time frame, decided to open a small short position in GLD, one of the metal’s ETFs. All this was finally accomplished by 4:40p, and with a slight jog I emerged from chilly air-conditioning and into the oppressive Washington summer heat.

My friend’s apartment is situated midway between the Clarendon and Rosslyn metro stops; thus, after only a few minutes, I was descending into the relative cool of the underground. While riding the exceptionally lengthy escalator into the depths of Rosslyn, I quickly called up the Washington Metro website on my phone, learning that a DCA-bound train would be departing in a mere minute. Lady luck was smiling upon me.

And so, I was at Reagan with a comfortable 25 minutes before departure time. The security line into United’s pier of gates was particularly short, and I was pleased to avoid the full-body scan on this encounter with the “Agency.”



Pleased and relieved at the efficiency of my transit between Rosslyn and air-side Reagan, I invested some of my surplus pre-departure minutes toward changing into a fresh shirt. I then approached the gate, elected to check my large roll-aboard (as I correctly anticipated that the diminutive overhead bins in F would be already filled), and strode aboard among the last of the passengers.

Allow me, reader, a brief, impassioned interlude: flight with a United Boeing 757 between Reagan and O’Hare is a truly singular experience! My accolades are merited by the journey’s combination of superlative iterations of various factors, including airport locations, frequency of alternative services, and aircraft equipment. Thus: Reagan and O’Hare are both highly convenient airports to my destinations in Washington and Chicago, respectively; United is the only airline to offer hourly service from early morning through evening on the route, with nearly all service operated by mainline aircraft and crews; and of United’s approximately fifteen daily flights on the DCA-ORD route, at least one is usually operated by the Boeing 757, a superior allocation owing to its stately and beautiful proportions, generously sized forward cabin, and rich history as backbone of the United domestic network during the recent past.

Turning left at door 2L, I ventured the few steps to the starboard window seat at row 2 and settled in. The haze of time obscures precise recollection of many pre-departure details – I record this account about a fortnight later – but I believe pre-departure beverages were offered and Channel 9 was enabled.

Takeoff proceeded with minimal delay down runway 19, allowing for customary views of the Mall and Georgetown before establishment of a westerly heading. Once the flight crew settled our aircraft at cruise, further beverage orders were taken and the snack basket was offered. The below exhibits of evidence confirm that I ordered a glass of red wine (merlot, if I recall correctly) and helped myself to a package of Popchips (et al).





Landing occurred, if memory serves, on O’Hare’s 22L, with our approach consisting of a gallop approximately above Western Avenue for much of the Chicago’s length before adjusting heading toward the northeast to meet the downwind channel for our runway. Our 180-degree turnaround then took place over the Lake, just off the coast of Highland Park.



The flight’s rollout from 22L positioned us ideally for a short taxi to the middle of the C pier of Terminal One, where we parked at gate C17. Upon deplaning, I made my way immediately to baggage claim, where my gate-checked bag emerged after a reasonable wait of three or five minutes.



In sum, the journey was notable for its efficiency: I left for Reagan less than an hour before departure, experienced no delays enroute to O’Hare, and was retrieving my checked bag only 3 hours after departing my friend’s house in Arlington. The trip was United’s shuttle service at its speediest.

In addition, the feeling of Gemuetlichkeit was palpable, at least for this ardent United lover. It was a pleasure to fly aboard the Boeing 757, the upgrade into the forward cabin was most welcome, and the efficiency cited above further reinforced the feeling of satisfaction.

9 August (Tues), Morning charts

The following is a rapid-fire snapshot of Wall Street's four main indices from the perspective of 5-minute bars.

The charts, being a market-hours-only account of the action, hide the tremendous drama seen in the last overnight session, when S&P 500 futures (/ES) first swooned from a close near 1115 to below 1080, only to rocket to a hair below 1150 a few hours later, all while North America slept.

At the moment, markets remain poised for a major Fed announcement, which some hope will bear revelations of QE3.

S&P 500 (SPX), 5-minute bars:


DJIA (DJX), 5-minute bars:


NASDAQ (COMP), 5-minute bars:


Russell 2000 (RUT), 5-minute bars:

5 August (Fri), Chart roundup

As the markets close out the most volatile week of the year – indeed, price action is eerily reminiscent of the horrors of February 2008 – a look at the daily-bars charts of leading financial futures contracts is most instructive.

/ES, daily bars:


/YM, daily bars:


/NQ, daily bars:


/TF, daily bars:

2 August (Tues), Evening summary

Today’s Wall Street action was a merciless knife through the soft butter of trendlines galore. At the 4p EST closing bell, the S&P 500 was 2.56 percent lower, while the DJIA and NASDAQ gave up 2.18 and 2.75 percent, respectively. Financial futures contracts continued tip-toeing lower through the after-hours market.

Among the casualties was a 9-month price channel on the S&P 500 E-mini futures contract (/ES) – the line is coloured yellow in the chart below. The June nadir of 1252.25 was undercut as well. After-hours trade brought /ES to the round number of 1250 and several ticks below. The next significant price-channel support on the daily-bars chart appears a good distance away, near 1225.

/ES, daily bars:


The gold contract (/GC), sometimes a measure of risk aversion and other times one of risk appetite, today rallied in vertiginous fashion; clearly the zeitgeist of today's session pronounced the yellow metal as a safe harbour. In fact, gold has rallied so much in recent days that the current price -- about $1660 an ounce (yes, already so high!) – kisses a significant upward-sloping price channel on the daily-bars chart. As such, price action is at heightened risk of creating a short-term top.

/GC, daily bars:

1 August (Mon), Evening summary

Markets were whipsawed today in turbulent trade, with S&P 500 E-mini futures (/ES) registering a range of nearly 35 points. Of particular note, the period of 9:30a to 10:15a (EST) saw the /ES contract plummet nearly 30 points, in the process undercutting the lows of last week’s volatile markets. The afternoon saw a rebound, unlike the bearish declines seen on every afternoon of last week, but the indices nonetheless closed lower.

At the close of trade, the S&P 500 settled 0.41 percent lower, the DJIA inched down 0.09 percent, and the NASDAQ slipped 0.43 percent. The small-cap Russell 2000 shed 0.52 percent.

The swift declines of the last six sessions chart in particularly elegant fashion with respect to DJIA E-mini futures (/YM). Consider their 15-minute bars chart below. A single price channel fits many critical points of the data, including today’s capitulation low and the high of the subsequent afternoon rally. Of note as well is last night’s overnight price action: a princely rally. Indeed, such was the futures’ immediate reaction to Sunday’s news that a debt-ceiling deal was tentatively accomplished.

/YM, 15-minute bars:


Shifting to a more macro perspective, there exists significant evidence that today’s capitulation low may be durable. A 4-hour bars chart of /ES supports this thesis of a durable low through a snug price channel (the peach coloured lines in the chart below). Indeed, the slope of this line also carries significance when plotted within the price channel (for instance, as depicted by the green line).

/ES, 4-hour bars:


More evidence for a bullish outlook exists in the precious metals market. Neither silver nor gold are leaping to fresh highs, which indicates that investors are not acutely fearful of a fresh financial crisis. More specifically, silver futures (/SI) continue to ease off the highs reached in the middle of last week: $39.32 (latest tick) versus a high of $41.46 on Wednesday, July 27th. The gold futures contract (/GC) is some $15 off its high of $1637 reached last week.

Nonetheless, the market is in a confirmed bearish reversal: lower lows are in abundance. Caveat emptor.

ORD-LGA on United: Comfort despite delays

This account of an evening flight to New York is the continuation of a trip that began with a morning hop-skip-&-jump via regional jet from Milwaukee’s Mitchell Field to Chicago O’Hare.

After three-quarters of a workday – par the course for a Friday – it was again time to fly. The day had begun with a drive from Chicago to Milwaukee followed by an immediate return journey in the skies, as mentioned above, and it would wind down in the same, ahem, elevated manner.

Boarding pass already in hand, I arrived at O’Hare’s Terminal One drop-off curb some 30 minutes before my flight’s scheduled departure time of 5:30p. The timing was a tad tight, considering that the duration of Friday evening security lines have both a higher mean and variance than the typical case. And such description applies to United’s elite TSA line too, perhaps even more emphatically.

I was unfazed upon stepping into the terminal, however, for just seconds before I received an Easy Update email that the departure time of United 462 would be pushed to 6:01p on account of an air traffic control delay. The security line bared its fangs but bit gently; I was through in about fifteen minutes.

At this point some cooling of my heels was unfortunately in order – my preferred modus operandi for airport arrivals is seamless passage through the security theater, down the concourse, and into the jetbridge either at the precise commencement of boarding (if traveling with a roll-aboard) or upon the reverberation throughout the crevices of the terminal of my flight’s final boarding call.

Some twenty minutes later, around 5:40p, the gate agent finally propped open the Bravo 10 jetbridge door and began United’s cumbersome boarding procedure. Fortunately, I did not have to wait and cringe as the ridiculous litany of mileage program tiers was sequentially invited to rush the boarding pass control choke-point, as I exercised my option of boarding at the beginning of the whole charade. Stepping onboard the post-merger colours A320 aircraft, I found the flight attendants and pilots chatting merrily and stepped expeditiously into my window seat in row two.

Unfortunately, our flight was in a hurry to go nowhere. As boarding wrapped up, the flight deck crew welcomed us aboard and announced the availability of Channel 9; yet no sooner had we pushed back and commenced taxiing, before I heard (on Channel 9) ATC’s instructions for us to hold 90 minutes in the “scenic pad.”

To this passenger at least, the wait was no tremendous trouble. I unfurled the day’s Wall Street Journal and enjoyed its contents alongside a plastic cup of red wine (glassware is generally not deployed by U.S. airlines while still on the ground). To the flight crew’s further credit, a refill was offered, and I also received an accompanying (plastic) glass of sparkling water upon my request. In no time the hour-and-change passed, our engines were restarted and warmed, and we were taxiing to runway 9R.

At this point, I must comment: the air traffic controller working the 9R – 4L pair was quite the pro! The young, female voice was anything but tenderly feminine; indeed, she suavely motored through an interminable chain of commands, all articulated with the speed of an auctioneer and yet with unslurred precision. At one point, she announced a Shuttle America E170 as cleared for takeoff while the preceding Airbus was still lifting its mains off the tail end of the runway. When the regional jet hesitated in commencing the roll, the controller reiterated the instruction, this time with slight agitation and an emphasis of the clearance as being for “immediate” takeoff. The Embraer complied, and only seconds after becoming airborne an arriving E145 glided in for a landing on the same runway.

Soon enough, we too were climbing into the heavens, all the while proceeding down the runway heading of 90 degrees. The sun was now mere inches over the western horizon and the day was cloudless, meaning that the reddish, sideways light that illuminated Des Plaines, Niles, Morton Grove and Evanston resulted in spectacular views. Periodic glances back toward the wing and pulsating turbofan confirmed that the celestial orb was dramatically low and of a fiery orange hue. What a brilliant sight!

In short order, our A320 made landfall in extreme southwestern Michigan, and the colours outside began morphing into the pale reds and haunting violets that might be found in a Rothko work.



The snack service soon commenced in the forward cabin, with the antipasti consisting not of edible offerings but, rather, of service runs that distributed hot towels, linen for the tray-table, and the passengers’ drinks of choice. (I shifted from red to white wine.) Service was efficient albeit not terribly gracious.

The pièce de résistance was the trayed “snack” distributed to each passenger. The offering is stated parenthetically as United’s reservations system terms the service as such (i.e. as a snack), however, in reality - and fortunately - the meal is considerably more substantive. Passengers have a choice between a panini turkey sandwich and a pasta salad with feta cheese. I opted for the latter and was not disappointed.

To be clear, one must expect a United Airlines domestic meal to err on the side of fat and carbohydrates, and my pasta salad was drenched in a fair bit more oil than I’d usually choose to apply. But I was resigned to a less healthy meal than is my norm, and was furthermore quite hungry; thus, I savoured the pasta, crumbled feta, and chopped assortment of cucumber, tomato and lettuce for what it was: an imperfect but appreciated dose of flavor and sustenance. The white wine accompanied the pasta and vegetables well, and its taste featured interesting hints of spice.

The evening’s route:


As the meal service wound down and tray-tables were cleared, I ordered a final beverage – another sparkling water with lime – and, for a change, bit into some intellectual matter: some end-of-the-workweek introspective writing. Output was greased by the concoction of alcoholic potions earlier consumed, and moments after I finished, our flight deck crew commenced descent.

The evening’s journey across space, thought and experience had one more quick, unplanned addition: a hold of one or two circuits in the vicinity of Trenton, NJ. Soon enough, however, ATC cleared our approach to La Guardia’s runway 22, and I savoured the unique crackle and directness of NY Approach controllers as we vectored toward a wheels-down at 10:51p.

Although the journey ended with a delay exceeding two hours, I cannot say that it was anything but comfortable.