Thursday, October 16, 2014

Intraday Pullback

The Index Futures and most of the averages are showing an intraday pullback, which is what I was hoping to see.

 ES/SPX Futures

NQ/NASDAQ 100 Futures

TF / Russell 2000 Futures.

During this pullback, I'm going to try to get out as many updated charts as possible for swing trade candidates.

I'm looking, especially if we see continued improvement on a pullback, to add to FAS and bring that up to a full trading position, UPRO as well and URTY, 3x long IWM.

As for the NASDAQ, TQQQ would be a good choice, but I think I might go with some November 22nd Call options with a strike around $92 or so.

Again, I want to wait on a pullback and hopefully see continued improvement, but at this point the IWM is positive out to 60 minutes and looking pretty darn good, I almost entered it about 30 mins ago before I started seeing signs of a pullback , which I welcome as they just give us more time to build stronger positive divergences and a stronger base.

All core shorts such as NFLX will stay as they are, I'm mostly only looking at trading positions long, everything else I want aligned with the highest long term probabilities as those are meant to be core, trend positions.

HYG Update

First I just want to show the continuing leading in the SPX/RUT Ratio, again the last time this happened to this degree on a positive side was the first week of August before the August rally.

 SPX/RUT Ratio positive and the VIX Term Structure is inverted still, a buy signal.

There's no reason HYG would be under any kind of accumulation unless something was going oon, it continues to lead the SPX as well. 15 min chart.

10 min HYG

5 min HYG

2 min HYG.

This is one of the levers in credit used to manipulate the market, but they get out of this one quick which is why it tends to lead, again, there's no reason we'd see this level of positive divergence in HYG unless there was an upside event in the works.

Quick Market Update

It looks like we will get a little intraday pullback, hopefully this allows me enough time to get a Leading Indicators post out.

So far today, what I was hoping to see yesterday in to today (in the area) is moving along, we are getting stronger divergences, at this point the IWM's is just about strong enough that I'd be looking to enter a URTY 3x long Russell 2000 long position soon.

I'll be back with you in a few minutes as I go through Leading Indicators, HYG is being accumulated.

For the Second Time in A Week

Earlier in the week it was the San Fran F_E_D President saying the F_E_D should consider QE 4, and now this...

From MarketWatch...

Bullard Says Fed Should Consider Delay in Ending QE

I still think they're trying to talk the $USD down, however buyers are going to see this as a dream come true, the F_E_D is re-engaged.. Look out on the upside, we may be seeing a VERY sharp move shortly.

I'm still holding out for strong signals, despite what I think of probabilities , especially with this news just out.

Opening Indications

The concept of 3C charts picking up where they left off never ceases to amaze me.

This was from the late day, 3:51 p.m. post yesterday, Quick End of Day Update,

",the IWM is up 1% and ther are a bunch of second day bullish reversal candles, however in to the close there are some 1 min charts not confirming, this is a short term timeframe that doesn't carry that much weight, but the market tends to pick up where these divergences left off. A day tomorrow somewhere in today's range adding to the divergences already put in today would be a signal I would trade for sure."

And in our "New Normal", volatility of .50% to 1% isn't anything really that big of a deal , unlike 6 months ago when we'd go 2-3 months without seeing a single day above .50% either way.

As for the intraday 1 min charts failing to confirm late yesterday, EXCEPT in the IWM...here's a look this morning...

 The 1 min IWM confirmed price in to the close yesterday (green arrow) and wuickly moved right back to that level after being down -.50% or so on the open, it moved quickly right back to the area of yesterday's close and confirmation.

The SPY on the other hand...
 Did not have confirmation in to the close which would mean I'd expect that divergence to pick up where it left off this morning and as you see, the SPY, although moving on the ES positive divegrence pre-market, gapped down in line with the intraday closing 3C divergence.

IWM 5 min is looking really good at this point, prices, although down near 1% right now in some cases, are right in the range I mentioned yesterday and above where if they continue the same rate of divergence in the 1-5 min timeframes, I'll be glad to raise my long risk exposure as confirmation will be higher and in the IWM's case, there's a nice reversal process building up, even though on a daily chart it will look like a sharp "V".


As for early opening action, ES-S&P Emini futures pointed pout a pre-market positive divegrence and it has fired off.

Now, just a bit more patience, I suspect we will get strong confirmation as we have been building that was since the 2nd, which would be one heck of a base and in this volatility, one heck of a move.

A.M. Update

Good morning...

After a somewhat ugly overnight session in Asia with the Shanghai Composite down -.72%, Hang Seng -1.06 and the Nikkei -2.22%, strangely US Index futures were having a pretty good run until Europe opened.

To sum it up, the safe haven German Bund dropped to a fresh record low of .715% while the periphery of Europe saw yields explode, take Greece for example with a 100 bps climb,  NEAR 1% MOVE NEAR 9%, THAT'S ABOUT 200 BPS THIS WEEK ALONE.

APPARENTLY THE CATALYST WAS A FAILED SPANISH AUCTION, OR AT LEAST ONE THAT FAILED TO SELL THE MAX. TARGETED BONDS. That doesn't really hold that much water with me, but either way Portuguese, Irish and Spanish bonds all saw yields jump between 20 and 30 bps.

At last look the FTSE was down -1.74%, the DAX -1.59% and the CAC-40 -2.22%.

The US 10 year dropped below 2%.

Oddly yesterday's higher ES volume is 180 degrees opposite today, From NANEX ...

The orange line in the center is yesterday's liquidity in the E-mini's, the purple is today's thus far.

As NANEX points out, "Low liquidity doesn't make the market go down, it makes it volatile which stresses the system".

So prepare for just about anything, if you though yesterday was volatile, take the IWM's drop and pop, today should be even more so, this is why I said volatility and unpredictability go up as we move to a stage 4 decline.

As for ES futures, they look the same as NQ and TF...
The 1 min chart shows the overnight smooth sailing and then the market essentially puking about the time Europe opened.

You can see the negative 3C divegrence in to the highs overnight and a positive in to pre-market.

So hold on, this is going to be an interesting session. I'm still on track with what I said yesterday, until we get stronger signals than yesterday which were decent, I'm fine with my level of risk (mostly cash with 2 partial positions UPRO/FAS).

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Daily Wrap


Looking at the market from yesterday's perspective, I entered some partial positions based on the fact I expected, “because I think there can be some more work done in the area.”

Which isn't far off from end of day price action, although intraday it may not have seemed that way. For instance, although the SPX was down -.81% (which is a far cry from recent volatility, after yesterday's bullish star candle , today endd with a bullish Hammer reversal candle on heavier volume which makes it that much more convincing as a reversal candle.


Today's closing daily bullish SPX hammer wasn't far off from yesterday's range or "area".

The R2K ended the day with a bullish Engulfing Candle just a little bit after I had said I was considering going long some leveraged IWM ETFs, the Dow ended the day with a bullish hammer as well after yesterday's bullish star.

The VIX, after last night's "VIX futures were going negative on the 5 and 7 min charts very clearly and a bit further out"  hit a new high at 331.06 intraday, the highest since December 2011, before closing lower at 24.92, creating a bearish Doji star with long legs or bearish "Shooting Star"  (remember the VIX moves opposite the market). As for fear though which was obvious in the VIX intraday, not as much on the close, the Fear and Greed Index closed again at zero, the most fearful reading possible. Remember the VXX, short term VIX futures was also showing 3C distribution today as posted in a market update.

VIX bearish shooting star close after a bearish Harami Monday/Tuesday.

Yesterday's DOW Theory Transports Divergence carried through again, although likely because of the price of oil, it's still a Dow theory divergence.

Transports significantly outperformed the Industrials again today, not as much as yesterday, a bullish signal short term.

As for the outperforming Russell 2000, as of last night, " only the R2K was up 1.17%, but I suspect it comes down and finished building out the shorter timeframes like SPY / XLf were doing in to lower intraday prices." , it did come down, and I'm glad to hear several of you ran some intraday trades there and made money as the R2K bounced higher in to the close on an untrustworthy parabolic move, closing up +1.02% and creating a bullish engulfing candle on the daily.

Also from last night,

"I suspect we still have work to do, which is why I went with partial positions, but I believe I'll be adding to them and others in the next day or so, just as I thought I'd have some added today earlier in the day after waiting patiently for 4 days now."

I stuck with that same attitude in to the close with the note at the end of day in the post, Quick End of Day Update that the intraday charts were not confirming in to the close and the R2K had an untrustworthy parabolic move.

For example, 
The QQQ was not confirming intraday in to the close, perhaps there was a WMT or NFLX leak, perhaps it was just more work to do,  but after the close all of the major averages came down about 1%, which is why I decided to wait for stronger signals, being content with the level of risk in UPRO and FAS as it relates to the divergences in place, further positives will warrant more long exposure, but I'm glad I followed the intraday charts as they tend to pick up where they left off the next trading day suggesting a little more work in the area which would still be a very sharp upside reversal.

If we get the same kind of late day positives we saw today, we only need a couple of hours before I'd feel comfortable filling out existing longs and adding to them including Call option positions.

On the day today, lots of stats...

The Dow has lost nearly 1200 points in the last 3 weeks... remember I warned a while back that I wouldn't take the risk of being long as fear is stronger than greed and markets fall much faster than they rise.

The NASDAQ Composite is in official correction, down over 10% from recent highs. This Average also has one of the worst Advance /Decline lines I've seen.

The VIX's intraday high of 31.06 is the highest reading since December 2011.

The Dow Industrials are down -4% Year to Date, so much for long and strong. It's also down close to the official -10% correction levels.

The Russell 2000 is down -9.6% year to date and this is the average that should lead the market.. The SPX is now down -1.5% year to date.
The major averages YTD.

Today SPX Futures volume was the highest in 3 years, this kind of smells like short term capitulation or a mini selling climax which makes room for a bounce.

Gold is at a 1 month high, however I'm sticking with the near term forecast of a pullback in GLD and GDX...

 GLD daily with a bearish star and on higher volume, making it that much more effective with the past several days posting stars as well. I suspect a move toward recent lows before a solid move to the upside.

30 min GLD leading negative divegrence...

 10 min GLD leading negative

5 min GLD leading negative.

It may be there's some asset rotation out of gold and in to stocks for a near term bounce. I suspect we may be seeing the same in treasuries, at least the long end/TLT.

TLT 60 min negative divegrence with a shooting star/blow-off type closing candle.

Oil is at the lowest close since June 2012 (WTI), however I opened a small , speculative USO call position Monday and I'm sticking with it, I may even add as the 3C charts look interesting...

 USO with a bullish daily Morning Star Doji on Higher Volume, making it more reliable.

 USO 15 min relative positive...

USO 10 min positive

5 min positive, around the 2nd, the same time as the market's divegrence start date.

And the near term 3 min chart positive as a timing indication.

CL/Brent Crude Futures with a 60 min downtrend confirmation followed by a positive divegrence.

Volatility, as I had repeated many times before we hit stage 4 decline, has risen as expected and with that the unpredictability factor, take a look at the SPX's ATR since late August...
 The SPX's 4-day ATR is nearly 5x more than it was in late August, making for a good trading environment.

Look at the volatility for the major averages for this week alone...

Agains, as mentioned yesterday from NANEX who pointed out orders/cancellations were at extreme highs which have in the past led to sharp "V" upside reversals. The Russell 2000 saw exactly those same order/cancellations at its lows today before making a parabolic move in to the close.

As for the market's cycle...
From early August accumulation to stage 2 mark-up to stage 3 decline, the head fake move that precedes a downside reversal and stage 4 decline making the anticipated new lower low is evidence of the concept of cycles in any timeframe, you have to know where you are to know where you are going, but as repeated often lately, we are seeing massive bearish sentiment and the market is a zero sum game, for someone to win, someone must lose and that's hard when everyone is on the same side of the trade, a good argument for a bounce in itself, but as also mentioned, these need to be believable to get traders involved which is why bear market counter trend bounces are some of the strongest rallies you';ll see, I direct you to the crash of 1929 and the first bounce following it, almost 6 months and nearly +50%, followed by lower lows and at least 4 more counter trend rallies before bottoming.

I won't post it again, but the SPX/RUT Ratio is hugely bullish as is the VIX Term Structure, now severely inverted which has been an excellent buy signal.

VIX Inversion term structure buy signals on the SPX.

Following the ES Volume highs for today, the Dominant Price/Volume Relationship for the component stocks in the major averages was a clear dominant except the R2K which had no clear relationship, the rest were Close Down and Volume Up, a short term oversold signal as I mentioned before that often leads to a bounce the next day and often beyond.

In this category, we saw 23 of the 30 Dow stocks, 59 of the NASDAQ 100 and 262 of the S&P-500 (of the 4 possible relationships), so I expect to be entering some additional longs tomorrow, we don't need much work to get there.

Of the 9 S&P sectors, 7 of 9 closed red, strangely with Energy leading at ++.76 (don't forget our USO call position) and lagging, were financials at -1.91%.

Of the 238 Morningstar Industry and Sub-Industry groups, 102 of 238 closed green. the last 2-days have been much more moderate as far as breadth goes, it has mellowed out despite the ugly intraday move down today.

Breadth charts didn't budge and considering the intraday move down, this is actually a positive , like yesterday.

I suspect we will see a sharp upside move taking out shorts and breaking above obvious resistance like 200-day moving averages and top trendlines as well as the August lows, remember these moves HAVE to be convincing, it doesn't mean there's a real change in character so if and when the time comes to start shorting in to that strength, it's a gift, although you can bookmark this post, I promise you , you will not feel it is safe to short in to strength as the market moves higher on a bounce like you do now, the moves are that convincing, which is all the better for entering new or adding to existing shorts.






Our NFLX Short Hits Big

Doing what most of us do, it's hard to stand back and look at the bigger picture when you watch the market all day every day, but that's where the real probabilities are and the shorter term trade of hours, days and weeks are to be viewed as tactical compared to the big picture's strategic view. As Jesse Livermore once said, "Give me TIME, not TIMING", fortunately our "outside the box" thinking, concepts and indicators try to accommodate both.

I have long called NFLX,  "One of my favorite core short positions"  for months now. Being a core short, unlike the trading shorts we are engaged in now, NFLX, like HLF, SCTY, etc. are core short positions I see no reason to try to trade around, but rather enter them at the right spot and just let them be, let them work for us longer term.

It appears in after-hourds NFLX's earnings have disappointed, actually, more specifically their Q4 guidance which is some thing I often mention with regard to earnings, "The market doesn't care what you did, they care what you're going to do",   therefore the market is all about perception and with Q4 Guidance coming in at $.44 (EPS) vs the consensus $.84 , perceptions just hit a wall and tell traders, "This last quarter was as good as it gets , thus there's no longer any reason to hold NFLX. The light new subs and ad revenue didn't help either, but like AAPL or MSFT before it, the growth story in NFLX is over.

We have 2 entry positions I have in the tracking portfolio for our NFLX shorts and as of right now, post earnings, they are up +21% and +30.5%.

I expect at some point market makers may have been caught with inventory at a loss and will look to get out of that inventory ... at some point, but a bounce won't change things for NFLX going forward and the large top we have been tracking is just getting started.

This is our long term 3C leading negative divegrence/distribution and a large top pattern. The current price in AH at the red arrow hasn't even broken the top pattern yet so I suspect over the months to come, we'll see much bigger downside gains in NFLX as a core short position.

Congratulations for those of you who believed and hanging in there. The objective evidence of distribution has been there, now significant gains accompany it. 

Quick End of Day Update

It looks like the sharp upside reversal is likely what we are going to get, the IWM is up 1% and ther are a bunch of second day bullish reversal candles, however in to the close there are some 1 min charts not confirming, this is a short term timeframe that doesn't carry that much weight, but the market tends to pick up where these divergences left off. A day tomorrow somewhere in today's range adding to the divergences already put in today would be a signal I would trade for sure. For right now, I'm very comfortable with the 75% position in UPRO and 50% in FAS.

So I'll be patient for another day, especially with the IWM's move being so parabolic, however I think this is going to be a monster move on the upside if it gives us another couple of hours of divergences like we saw late today.

Otherwise, I'm comfortable with my risk level right here.

Market Update

There are so many little things happening right now and building, it's hard to keep up with all of them. We just saw a sharp move in 5 year treasuries, yields are up which are a leading indicator.

 5 year yields green vs SPX red intraday

HYG (green) is leading the SPX which it would have ZERO reason to do in a risk off move.

Other leading indicators are responding as well. The Most Shorted Index is holding up much better than the market , the dogs of dogs, which is one of the breadth indications I saw last night that had improvement, stocks that are 1 or 2 standard deviations BELOW their 40-day moving average fell, showing these dogs are improving, also being seen in the MSI .

I've been very close to entering a full size URTY position (3x long IWM), I just saw (after I was considering URTY long), NANEX reporting a huge number of cancelled orders in the Russell 2000, the same thing reported yesterday market wide that has led to sharp upside reversals.

A number of the averages are also showing sharp intraday divergences which is more a timing issue right now being, as I showed earlier, many have long term chart positives out to 60 mins (See the IWM, URTY, SRTY 3C charts posted earlier).

A few examples, but note the rate of change in the 3C divergences in the timeframes we were specifically waiting on...
 SPY 2 min

UPRO 3x long SPY 2 min confirmation

UPRO 5 min, I'd like to see a new leading high made here to add to yesterday's UPRO long position.

XLF 2 min leading beyond yesterday's divegrence and sharper.

FAS 3x long Financials 5 min leading, again I'd like to see a little more of this intensity to add to the position started there yesterday.

 QQQ 5 min leading

TQQQ 3x long QQQ leading

IWM 5 min leading

SQQQ, confirmation in the inverse or 3x short QQQ on the 5 min

SPXU 3x short SPX leading negative on the 5 min

VXX Short term VIX futures leading negative on the 5 min, they move opposite the market.

So a lot is happening pretty quickly, this doesn't look like it will be the normal wider, "U" or "W" shaped base, but I want to try to hold out for a bit more.

The size of the base since the second and out to 60 min charts is now larger than the August base leading to the August rally, so this looks to be a pretty important area.