Wednesday, October 6, 2010



It's the 22nd Consecutive week of outflows from Mutual Funds which leaves the net retail investor having taken out $76 Billion dollars out of the market. While the S&P-500 rallied 8.76% in September, if you count the last day of October (5.64% in September alone), during the same period, $20 billion dollars were pulled out of domestic stock funds.



The action since July looks like a time-bomb ticking ever closer to detonation.

Add to that insider selling, this week alone accounted for $414,489,481.00 in 67 stocks while insider purchases accounted for $177,064 in 2 stocks. ORCL insiders alone have sold $358,302,300.00-that's over $358 million in two weeks.

Here's this week's chart...


Yet the market heads higher yesterday. Forget about what smart money is doing, retail and insiders alone could have easily crashed this market without the Fed's POMO program. If POMO was meant to draw investors back into the market, it's clearly not working. If more likely it's meant to give insiders a sort of “golden parachute” then it's doing a marvelous job. If it's meant to simply avert disaster, whether that means keeping the market at status qua or trying to move it higher, it's done a pretty good job, but at a hefty price tag.

At some point the music will stop. Look around, if we get better then expected initial/continuing claims, it's almost surely because people who have exhausted their benefits drop from U3 reported numbers in the report to U6 unreported numbers. Their still there, their still jobless or underemployed, they just aren't counted in the headline number.

Banks are entering a whole new mess, the foreclosure “get it done, no matter how you have to do it” mess. I lost count but I'll try to find it, of just how many states are considering a moratorium on foreclosures sales, etc. The liabilities here including lawsuit, legal fees, fines, etc could very well lead to the next wave of banking financial crisis. It's always the one you didn't see coming that gets you.

We haven't talked about pension funds in awhile, but the problems there on all levels from city, county, state, federal , corporate, are in deep, deep trouble. This has roots that extend everywhere from consumer confidence to GDP.

If you believe that smart money sees value at these levels and are accumulating, I'd like to hear the reasons. The Fed/s have done a lot to prop up the markets in anticipation of things getting better. You heard the rosy predictions of what the stimulus bill would do for unemployment and the credit markets and everything else; none of it has come to pass. Things have not gotten better, yet the market continues to whistle past the graveyard. Even if we assume that the market is in the process of putting in the H&S top that's on the charts of the major averages, still it's way over inflated.

The question is, when does the music stop and who is holding what when it does?

3C has shown this type of market action -the real market action- for quite some time. The first signs of trouble were October 2009, about the same time we started forming our current H&S top.  


The way I see it, you have two choices, one is to not take any risk and exit the market completely and sit in cash-CASH IS A POSITION and it's an edge you have over Wall Street. The other is to take risk, the market pays you to take risks. You have to decide whether you want to be long or short this mess. If you believe the Fed will continually pump this market and can keep it aloft as other disasters begin to explode-like the ones I've mentioned above, and you believe that their priority will be on the market rather then throwing resources at these disasters I've mentioned, then you may want to go long.

3C has been showing institutional money and probably other money, exiting the market in droves. 

I want to show you just how dislocated the 2010 era has been
 The Dow 30 Daily 3c chart. Note the sharp drop during 2007 at the market top, before that it was making higher highs confirming the trend. I told you that the first signs of trouble were in October of 2009, that's around the time the H&S top pattern(like the 2007 H&S) started to for. The recent rally has 3c sharply lower.
 on a weekly chart, we can see confirmation to the left with the green arrows-higher highs with price, then the 200 tech melt down. We see the accumulation in 2002/2003 that kicked off the next bull market and again at 2007 the negative divergence, 3c refusing to follow price higher. The next white arrow shows the accumulation starting the 2009 rally, but look how sharply 3c has fallen off recently in the current top formation. This leads me to believe we are going to see a sharper, more dramatic move down then we have seen in either of the two previous tops. 3C is near where the 2009 rally kicked off, prices are 65% higher. This is a serious dislocation.
 The NASDAQ 100 1 day chart, showing the 2007 top, accumulation at the 2009 bottom/rally and a serious trend of distribution throughout. I've called this a bear market rally the entire time, just like the first bear market rally we saw after the 1929 crash. If you are surprised by the distribution line sloping down like that, don't be. The point of a bear market rally is to sell inventory, not to buy into it. On this chart, 3C is at new lows, even considering the price highs of 2007.
 The NASDAQ weekly rally, look at the confirmation at the green arrow of the massive secular bull market, the top here happened quickly so the red arrow is small, it was like a peak. You can see the 2002/2003 accumulation for the next bull market, where housing was a big leader as well as oil, this is why the NASDAQ didn't have the same performance and shows earlier distribution into 2007. The S&P did make it to the 200o highs, the NASDAQ wasn't even close to making it to the 2000 highs, so this is to be expected. You also see the 2009 accumulation and the vertical drop of 3C currently hitting lows not seen since the 1980's-AGAIN, a serious dislocation in the markets.
 The S&P-500 daily chart, the 207 divergence is not marked but it is clear as 3C did not make the higher highs price did in 2007. Look at the relative position of 3C during 2009, we're 65+% higher, but 3C on the daily is near the same levels as the 2009 lows. Another serious dislocation.
The S&P-500 weekly chart. You can see the 2000 top, the accumulation at 2002/2003, good confirmation during the bull market from 2003 until 2006/2007, signs of trouble started. So you see, 3C can also call confirmation, in essence saying this is a good, strong rally, making higher highs with price. If you look close, the higher highs at the 2009 low are apparent-this is accumulation. Now we see an almost vertical trend down making new lows beyond anything on the chart.

This is how serious this situation is. I do believe we are on the edge of a cliff that may be worse then 1929. After that, I think it's likely we'll see something most people have never seen, a secular bear market. 

So as we look at the SPY from day to day wondering when the current month long rally will end, keep in mind the larger picture. Perhaps something amazing will happen in our economy in the next few years, but the trends developing are worsening, it's not just a housing/credit crisis anymore. I think some of the extremes that we see are caused by interventionist policies that allow smart money to exit the market as the Fed drives it higher. I think there will be a cost to pay for that, but it won't be Smart money on Wall Street that pays the price.

You can say I'm fear mongering or whatever else you like, but I have used and posted this indicator on every major crash we've had since 1929. We've seen some ugly readings that led to the crashes, but never have I seen such a serious dislocation of the indicator. Even without the indicator, lock me in a closet for two years, tell me what's going on in the US and the world and ask me to guess where the stock market is. My guess based on the fundamentals would be, "we are in a serious bear market". What would your guess be?

I'll try to get some new trades up tonight, it's been a long, long day, but if anything interesting pops up, I'll put them up. PLEASE set alerts for these trades, there are already a ton and you could miss a great trade b not knowing it triggered. As I said, there are free resources to do this. If you need help finding one that works for you, please email me. The fact is, there are a lot of stocks taking a dive right now, despite what level the SP-500 is at. It's easy to manipulate these averages with a few stocks, even when the majority are going down.

This chart alone, of the NASDAQ Advance Decline Ratio sows clearly that trend.

as does this one

or this one...


The point is, there are trades working now, you don't have to wait for the SPY to turn down, there are plenty of big name stocks already well on their way.

I'll run some scans... til then, always think RISK MANAGEMENT FIRST. That's why the link to the risk management article is at the top of the site. You can never read it too many times.

16 comments:

Quality Stocks said...

Assets in exchange-traded funds listed in the U.S. climbed to a record high in September of $906 billion as the investment category saw net inflows of $27 billion for the month, the largest since December 2008, Birinyi Associates Inc. said Wednesday.
Year-to-date inflows to ETFs through September totaled over $75 billion, the National Stock Exchange said earlier this week.
Notional trading volume during September in exchange-traded funds and notes was $1.3 trillion, representing 30% of all U.S. equity trading volume, it added in its monthly ETF update.
--John Spence, "ETF Assets Top $900 Billion For First Time", MarketWatch.com, October 6, 2010.


They have been net inflow in ETFs it just depends which number you chose to realize. Very few realize this fact

Alesund said...

Great post Brandt.

If a 1929 type crash occurs, then the US Dollar should again be the safe haven of choice along with the Yen and maybe the Swiss Franc. Nothing else would be spared in my opinion. Commodities would be crushed including precious metals. I think a major crash is what the world needs. We need to reset the world economy and start over. Maybe that's what 3C is indicating will happen.

Quality Stocks said...

So I guess that about evens it out..... and we cannot stop talking about that point and the manipulation there.

Brandt said...

Interesting that it's into ETFs.

Quality Stocks said...

Brandt and Mr Pink are having a interesting back and forth on the effectiveness of C3. I feel that C3 is an amazing tool that Brandt shares with us and gives us a huge advantage in the marketplace. It shows in advance what to expect for future market moves. What it does not show is the timing of those moves or the length and height/depth they will move. Brant never claimed that 3C does this yet Mr Pink is trying say it should. Well it does not work like that as Brandt has explained repeatedly to no avail in Mr Pink eyes.

It showed us this bounce we are in. Brandt told us to be ready and it would be scary. It did not show us how long or where it will stop.

It is showing us that the current move will stop and reverse back down. It does not tell us how far down and for how long or when.

So what can we do to improve our odds in trading. Argue whether it is a good tool? How does that help? It is a great tool; it works, repeatedly showing that a trend will reverse when smart money fades it to the up or downside.

So what you should spend the time we waste arguing the effectiveness is the timing of the tool. We also waste a lot of time here talking about the POMO and why it holds or does not hold up the market. I don't care. It does not help us make money. We know they cannot hold the market it was proved in the 07-09 bear move where markets lost half the value. They could not then nor now hold it. Give me Q3 4 5 6 7 or 8 they cant do it.

So let s ask important and focus on important questions like:

1) What is the avg time it takes for a move to take hold on major trend changes in hourly and daily C3's.

2) Is the time it takes different when they are accumulating or distributing?

I would take a complete day of no updates and no answered email from Brandt if he could devote his entire day to those two questions as it would benefit us all more than one day of updates.

Can anyone come up with other questions that could help us to answer how long and how high and when a move will go up and then reverse?

This is what we should focus on. We know C3 works to let us know in advance that a change is coming. Lets see how we can tell when it comes and how long it will last.

Just my thoughts.
QS

JC said...

QS, I agree 100% and think that we should be able to find some sort of time indicator. I think we have alot of data to mine through. It might be helpful to look at the daily charts to see what the average time is from turn. Whether it be positive or negative divergences, it would be helpful to know that we might see 10-15 days of distribution or accumulation. I know that the time might vary based on the divergence depth itself, but these are things that maybe can kept track of. It might be a combination of several of Brandt's indicators put together. I like what I see here. I have made it public that I was over zealous and jumped in to much to early and didn't listen to what was said. I was trying to score big for my own reasons. I don't blame that on 3C, it was my own doing with risk managment thrown out the window. I am here to learn and haven't found anything better. I will help in whatever way I can.

Brandt said...

Thank you QS. You have very valid and useful questions about 3C. The best thing I have seen to signal a change in trend and it doesn not occur very often, which is probably due to the fact that most trends are not long enough to filter through multiple timeframes, but when they all line up, usually that's about when a change occurs. You see a one minute chart will show ups and downs which I believe to be created by market makers adjusting inventory before a move-they have the open book, they know where the market is going. So it's pretty effective like that. However, when we see what we saw Tuesday, nearly a diaganol line straight down, it's is in my opinion, showing a market maker filling a large order. How large an order is and how much volume there is (plus the fact they need to contend with the VWAP) is a total unknown so you can see this kind of activity for days, usually by then it (the divergence) has shown up on longer more significant time frames, the 5, 10 15, min etc. The longer the timeframe, the more acc/dist has occurred and you can infer, the more serious the move will be. So the one minute is tricky in analyzing as you are seeing both market makers trading their own accounts and filling orders for institutional customers. That's why I go to longer time frames to show a trend.

I am working on two indicators, but the programming is getting tricky and it need not be said I have very little time, I go to the bathroom with my laptop.

In any case, one I'm trying to work out is the raw 3c data on a tick format that cumulates a indicator that adds/subtracts volume on positive/negative divergences. This is also tricky, trying to write a program to define a divergence. If I succeed in this, then I'll have an idea of the volume acccumulated or distributed and some assumptions can be made based on average daily volume, etc.

The other indicator I'm working on has to do with pure tick data in a similar form. This one is much more complicated, the data needs to be cummulated and then work in different timeframes. Watch the raw tick data for a half hour one day and plot some trend lines and you'll see how it affects price. So I'm working on both of those.

As for experience, once a divergence has turned I have some idea of how far it will go. As for your question about accumulation/distribution timing, I would say most definitely accumulation occurs quicker. distribution takes significant time. For instance the Bull market rally that started 2003 took about a year of accumulation, it lasted about 4.5 years. This can be easily understood as there are few participants left after a bear market, so the buyers are institutional, only when they are done and prices start moving higher do average joe's jump in, distribution starts almost immediately afterward into higher prices. They need to be careful about how much they feed out as they want to keep prices rising, so the supply/demand equation must always be more demand then supply. When they are done, it's a stage 3 top-whatever is left is distributed and then decline. Then it starts all over again. We saw this accumulation around Aug 25th, although I noted a change in the markets as early as the 19th, so by the first we were rallying. Chew that over for a bit. Rest assured though, I'm constantly working on ways to improve indicators and develop new ones.

I appreciate your constructive post. I hope I told you somethings to help you understand 3C a little better.

JC said...

By the way for those concerned, it appears we will be POMO free for at least the next week as the next schedule is not being released until the 13th of October. Does the timing and delay seem to be a little odd to anyone. We have been looking for a down trend and now we have almost week without POMO and who knows when the new start up date is as the schedule won't be released until the 13th. Also, next week is options expiration on Friday. Does a 7 trading days sound like the appropriate time for a big leg down? It's October so the right time historically speaking and the FED will be looking for ammo to justify it's purchase programs. Lets see what happens.

Quality Stocks said...

I will digest your email tomorrow. Thanks.

1 quick question: What was the chart and C3 time frame that showed you the accumulation on the move from sept 1 to today? That seems like it might be the most logical place to start looking at how long it took to accumulate on this move and past moves and then avg the time to come up with a round avg day number. Was it the hourly C3? That way we can sell positions in anticipation of a bounce and then wait that round day number to start adding back. Again just a thought

Alesund said...

QS: You crack me up! It's 3C, not C3. All in fun please don't take offense.

Alesund said...

Brandt,

The GLD timeframes you posted today (I forgot to thank you for that) are all showing negative divergences. I know you mentioned that gold's 3C profile reminds you of oil's major top in 2008. Based on your experience with oil's 2008 top and what 3C is saying now on GLD in multiple timeframes, would you say we are getting close in terms of time to a top?

Thanks

JC said...

QS In the past I came up with roughly 10-14 trading days from the time it peaked or bottomed. This was after I had already committed to my shorts in Septemeber thought. That time frame would of put us about the time the market turned and has drifted sideways with the FED intervention.

JC said...

QS-so to be clear I came up with that info off charts of the daily time frame that Brandt posted.

Brandt said...

Alesund, you are welcome. Honestly, I don't recall all the details, I had seen the divergence in the ascending wedge for a while before I said "this is turning". It was about a week later.

Honestly, GLD or gold, I don't see any fundamental reason for it to go down. I do not understand the signal at all unless we were to see a big rally in the dollar, which doesn't make sense either, but like in the past, the big calls have never made sense until some time after they turned.

john9o9 said...

Did i mention the market wants 11000? Hard pressed to see any "bearish" activity here other than the dire predictions of the perma bears!

JC said...

Re-post from last night:

By the way for those concerned, it appears we will be POMO free for at least the next week as the next schedule is not being released until the 13th of October. Does the timing and delay seem to be a little odd to anyone. We have been looking for a down trend and now we have almost week without POMO and who knows when the new start up date is as the schedule won't be released until the 13th. Also, next week is options expiration on Friday. Does a 7 trading days sound like the appropriate time for a big leg down? It's October so the right time historically speaking and the FED will be looking for ammo to justify it's purchase programs. Lets see what happens.