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Was 1080 on the S&P a Multi-Year High?

Anonymous's picture




It looks like 1080 on the S&P is an
intermediate-term high, with the potential to become a major
multi-month—dare I say year—high. Sell the pigs that flew the
highest in this rally now.

 

To sell the rally you must have tried
to buy it first—the other option is a perma-bear situation that is not
advisable at any point. Neither is a perma-bull.

 

I have tried to buy it, therefore, I
sold it a couple of days before we hit 1080. How, it's not
important. The more important takeaway here from an intermediate-term
perspective is not to short bonds, to look to sell equity rallies, and to look
for bond spreads to widen for the inventory rebound that the economy
is experiencing is running out of steam. Complicated Numerous strategies that fit those themes can be easily devised.

 

The next leg down could
retest or take out the low on the S&P 500. Book value on the
index is in the 500s and we have seen it trade below book value
before. Whether that happens in 2010 or much later, I cannot see that
far...

 

Here are some charts that are beginning to show that major turning
point. Markets can deviate substantially from the underlying
fundamental picture, but they always gravitate back to it.

Even though we did not take out 29, it looks like a major turn has begun from a period of falling volatility to a period of rising volatility. This is bearish for stocks, bullish for the dollar, and bullish for bonds...

Resistance is not a number, but an area... the low 40s on the QQQQ are a good example. The former leadearhsip sector should see a sharp correction here, if not something bigger. Trade accordingly...

We just filled the LEH gap at 108 on the SPY, there you have your 1080 high in the S&P 500. The next gap to fill is near 900 (if you believe in that sort of thing)... Now we are falling out of a bearish wedge (volume not included, but spiking on the selloff). Hmmmm...

ro

We are due for a retest of the highs in bond prices/lows in yields... Don't short bonds if you don't want to lose money. Retests either fail or hold... No one expects the 10-year to trade under 2%, although I have maintained consistently in these pages that we will see it under 3%. But ask the Japanese how the 10-year JGB yield went to 39 basis points, even though no one expected it when it was where the 10-year is today. Just an example, not a prediction...

It is true that gold works both in times of inflation as well as deflation, but that does not mean it cannot decline a lot in a long-term bull market. The setup above implies another dollar rally, which is not bullion bullish. Last year both the dollar and gold were up, while gold stocks got killed... While I am not looking for a repeat of the 2008 drama, that does not mean a large selloff of such magnitude cannot happen... any trade under 920 on bullion implies an 8 handle. Any trade under 800 is extremely bearish and gives you a target of 680. Any break of 680, gives you a target of 500...

 

Currently, we have silver that is beginnig to act feeble—always a leading indicator as it is a smaller market. I would view a break of silver below 13 as extremely bearish... Just the heads up.

 

The 8 handle on bullion is a prediction; the rest of the numbers are not. I am pointing them out as I know how the ZH crowd is leaning and I know that gold bugs are never prepared for such outliers other than to say that bullion is manipulated, it's irrational, etc.

 

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. The game may be rigged, but it cannot remain rigged forever (at least I hope not). But you have to be prepared. I don't think the gold bugs are...

 

 

 

 

 

 




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Sat, 10/03/2009 - 14:15 | Link to Comment AN0NYM0US
AN0NYM0US's picture

I am not a technician though I read some of the tech blogs such as

Slope

http://slopeofhope.com/2009/10/one-last-gasp.html

Evil

http://evilspeculator.com/

and Carl Futia

http://carlfutia.blogspot.com/

 

Futia is definitely short term bullish and while a bear, Knight (Slope) expects a short term rally perhaps to new highs before we go off a cliff. The current post at evil also suggests new highs in the short term.

 

 

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 17:23 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

87698...food for thought....you may want to read some blogs by the ellioticians....daneric's is listed on the zh blogroll and look to kenny's technical analysis blog as well.  there seems to be growing confidence that p3 has begun and if not, it is close.  i'm not a devotee of any particular school but follow and incorporate into my thinking standard ta, elliott wave, fundamentals, and, perhaps most importantly in this market, trying to figure out what the politico establishment is likely to do.

Then, I have my pet monkey throw a dart and that's where my dough goes.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 22:16 | Link to Comment D.O.D.
D.O.D.'s picture

I believe P2 is over...(I just feel a sense "things have changed", could it be QE is really over?)... I'm in Daneric's camp we should be in wave one down, I'm looking for a small bounce next week (4 of 1 of 3 of C... I think that's the count), and then the sell-off continues mid-late next week.

AAPL, will it stay strong into earnings?

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 11:34 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

d.o.d....i don't follow aapl close or most of the techs (i'm a spx and financial sector guy).  amazon sure looks like a potential short to me.  i'm in the p3 camp as well, though i don't closely follow the day to day minors, minuettes, etc

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 14:06 | Link to Comment Gordon_Gekko
Gordon_Gekko's picture

"Then, I have my pet monkey throw a dart and that's where my dough goes."

ROTFLMFAO! F--king hilarious.

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 06:40 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sat, 10/03/2009 - 14:49 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sat, 10/03/2009 - 16:17 | Link to Comment TumblingDice
TumblingDice's picture

Andy,

SPX, if you chart it on a non-log scale, has not broken its March-July trendline yet. Nasdaq is still hanging above its bear trendline connecting the tops since Oct 2007. SPX also has not touched the top of its big bear channel from oct 07. In fact it is lining up well to touch its 50% retracement from the high and the top pf the channel sometime soon.

Until these things change, as well as rates and oil beginning to rise uncontrollably, I am reluctant to believe in any big downward action.

Just like the 2003 -2007 correction, this one may last longer than expected and may even establish new highs. One measurement of stock market value that cannot be gamed, however, is the S&P/Gold ratio, which is destined to go down to the hundredths IMO.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 17:25 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

Andy....from my seat, this is your best article yet (and, you didn't even have pics, think about that!) and this overall view is most welcome.

quick note....there is a nice little gap at spx 1016-1018

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 20:51 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

it was on jesse's amer. cafe... here it is (not a great chart)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2DePAZe2gA/So7JoK3UnzI/AAAAAAAAJnA/m7k5mgl18wA/s1600-h/sphourly2.PNG

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 17:39 | Link to Comment Gunther
Gunther's picture

Deadhead, you made an important point.

This link leads to some pics:

http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/aktfotografie-im-studio-von-fotograf-omori--/d...

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 18:20 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

pretty european women!  probably a good idea to let others know that the pics would be considered NSFW. 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 09:44 | Link to Comment Gunther
Gunther's picture

Ok,

this is not an arts blog ;-)

 

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 17:58 | Link to Comment Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

Andy,

TumblingDice is right, we have not broken the trendline on the SPX on a log-scale. As long as they keep buying the dips, we are going to head higher. That employment report was atrocious, coming in well below my expectations, but they bought the dip hard. Also, from Bloomberg, Leuthold Sees S&P 500 Rising to 1,350 on ‘Psychology. Must read...here is an excerpt:

Steve Leuthold, whose Leuthold Core Investment Fund has beaten 95 percent of its rivals in the past five years, said the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will jump to 1,350 next year as the economy recovers from the worst contraction since the Great Depression.

 

The 71-year-old investor, who turned bullish after his Grizzly Short Fund returned 74 percent because of the equity market rout in 2008, predicts that the stock index will end 2009 at 1,200. He joins Byron Wien, hired as a strategist by Blackstone Group LP in August, in predicting that the S&P 500 will complete a 77 percent surge from its March low on Dec. 31.

 

“There’s pretty good momentum, and the market psychology is right,” Leuthold, who manages $4 billion, said in a telephone interview from Minneapolis yesterday. “The markets turned up before the economy did. Now, the economy is improving. It might be a little better than most think. It ain’t wonderful, but it’s a lot better than it was.”


Sat, 10/03/2009 - 18:00 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sat, 10/03/2009 - 21:14 | Link to Comment Lionhead
Lionhead's picture

That's another Wall street myth that bears little resemblance to the fact that the market is usually late in selling off & early in defining a bottom of the economy. Case in point, the rebound in 2002 followed by another dip down in 2003. Myths are not an investing strategy...

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 19:04 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

...but they bought the dip hard....

Hard??  I'm not convinced.  I think we  have a tried and true ages old distribution going on here......then again, these differences are what makes markets.

edit....daily chart of spx on friday.  spike at 10 obviously, then the distribution layoff.

http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/.SPX/tab/2

 

 

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 19:02 | Link to Comment JohnKing
JohnKing's picture

Obama has some a need to keep this pumped, I don't know how they will do it but I'm pretty sure they will, what's gone on up to this point is mind boggling and I expect more. I suspect there are national security waivers floating around, there is no other rationale for the manipulations taking place in broad daylight. The Dow would be at 4500 if the gangster-gamers weren't involved.

Love your stuff Andy, I just can't get past these imaginary White House conversations I keep hearing in my head. I wish I was wrong. The damage they are doing is beyond belief.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 19:06 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

the obamas are about to divert approx 100 billion of the stimulus money that has not been spent/allocated to unemployment extensions and the cobra 65% subsidy.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 19:14 | Link to Comment JohnKing
JohnKing's picture

Don't forget Timmay's 800 bil. slush fund and Kamikaze Ben saying things like "no limit". Holding a market up is not the issue, it's the integrity of the market that is at stake. No one plays three-card monty for long.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 19:49 | Link to Comment Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper's picture

There's no point in showing a chart of GLD if you're not going to follow the technicals and just say "it's rigged". Well that may be true, who knows, but the chart says IF it closes above 100 for a few days -- buy it, and have a 97 stop.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 20:08 | Link to Comment RobotTrader
RobotTrader's picture

The Spooks has held the 50-day so far.  Past history has shown that the GS Prop Desk Boyz like to push it below the 50-day, hold it there for 3 days, then McQueen it back up just to destroy a few bears.

 

They did this repeatedly during the 2003-2004 bull run.

 

Anyway, I think there is going to be a bounce coming within days.

The McClellan Oscillator is now the most oversold since March.

There has yet to be any negative divergences or lower highs on the Summation Index.

 

The 50-day is now over the 200-day on all major indexes and major sectors, the last one to cross up was the XLE.

COP, one of the larger components of XLE, looks like its ready to move...

Huge accumulation the last two days, coming up off a monstrous base.

Good luck bears.....

 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 11:21 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

weekend journal had article about conoco warning on earnings....

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 20:28 | Link to Comment Ben Graham Redux
Ben Graham Redux's picture

Nice analysis - thank you.  I'm not sure that technical analysis, Elliott Waves, or much else will help for the next downturn.  Instead, I think we get the downturn when the market runs out of weak short sellers to crush.  I reach this conclusion because I fervently believe that this whole rally has been nothing more than a concerted effort to crush short sellers and force them to cover positions.  Now that shorts are becoming exhausted and more careful, I think we're close to a turning point.

 

But, if shorts get a little too careless in here, I think we get one more major upmove.  Ultimately, I continue to expect the market to fall much lower than the March levels because I continue to believe that fundamentals always win out over manipulation.  And since the Street has destroyed the short seller, there won't be any natural buyers to put a floor under this mess once it gets going.

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 20:39 | Link to Comment Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper's picture

SPY seemed really top heavy around 108

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 21:42 | Link to Comment RobotTrader
RobotTrader's picture

Early shorts always seem to get burned.

Trust, me, I've been smoked time and time again....LOL

The 50% retrace is 1120 on the SPX, could be another blast up to that number, which could result in a higher high with huge negative divergences.

That seems to be the better time to throw out a huge short line.

My rule is I never short a market down 4 days in a row.  Never.

 

 

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 22:01 | Link to Comment D.O.D.
D.O.D.'s picture

"Complicated strategies that fit those themes can be easily devised."

That's a bit of an oxymoron isn't it?

 

 

 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 01:23 | Link to Comment D.O.D.
D.O.D.'s picture

Just messin' witcha man... I'm no grammar nazi, the sentance just made me laugh that's all....

=]

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 23:14 | Link to Comment RobotTrader
RobotTrader's picture

Here's what I'm talking about....

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 00:11 | Link to Comment D.O.D.
D.O.D.'s picture

I'm keying in on the fact that the Nazcrack has broken down below it's march low trend line.  The question in my mind is will confirm or recapture, if it recaptures, I think we very easily could go test the top trendline but new highs would imply AAPL goes above 200...

http://www.freestockcharts.com?emailChartID=2b227ce8-7a0d-4e26-9b15-3e3b...

as of now my target for nasdaq is 1960, but that is pending break down confirmation...

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 01:40 | Link to Comment D.O.D.
D.O.D.'s picture

I aggree andy, except that, as of now, I'm not 100% convinced that Uncle Ben and Obamaman won't whip up some 1 minute green shoots and rice with a little QE to wash it down.  Would a war with Iran be bullish or bearish? 

I took the chart one step further; for the Elliot Wave count to be correct [4 of 1 of 3 of C] Nazcrack cannot tick one cent above 2085.34 on the next leg up (the red horizontal line in the chart). 

So I expect a back test to the lower wedge trendline; we'll see what happens from there...

http://www.freestockcharts.com?emailChartID=32558da0-3640-41ff-a01d-d52f...

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 02:19 | Link to Comment mannfm11
mannfm11's picture

Nothing Andy.  They didn't think it would go so far.  Now they can't believe it might have ended.  The whole world turned bullish last month and any technician worth his salt knows in a bear trend what that means. 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 02:14 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sun, 10/04/2009 - 15:36 | Link to Comment D.O.D.
D.O.D.'s picture

"For one, 4 will never touch the top of 2"

Never is a long time Anon, you are mostly right, but there is an exception, an expanding diagonal, which is what RT's chart is showing...

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 02:17 | Link to Comment mannfm11
mannfm11's picture

That is a bad count RT.  Waves 4 isn't supposed to touch 2.  The trend rolled over. 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 04:08 | Link to Comment Grand Supercycle
Grand Supercycle's picture

 

bearish stocks, bullish dollar, bullish vix ?

sounds like what i've been warning about for some time . . .

MORE:
www.zerohedge.com/forum/market-outlook-0

 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 06:26 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sun, 10/04/2009 - 08:25 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sun, 10/04/2009 - 09:16 | Link to Comment john_connor
john_connor's picture

Good analysis Andy and Robo.  Personally, I'm selling equity rips from here on out.  We might get a new high (although unlikely in my view), but I think upside is very limited (1120-ish??) beyond that, so to me it doesn't matter.  For those who follow EW, it seems most of the wave 2 retraces in this bear market have been strong, so that could be another good shorting point if you missed the 1080 rip. 

I like to look at financials and tech, and both have faltered recently.  When stocks like JPM and AMZN are pushing within shouting distance of their 2007 highs, you know the gig is up.  The primary dealers and their surrogate henchmen can only prop things so long, and no one wants to be the last bag holder.  As we know, it only takes one big counter party to send the dominoes falling.

The flip side is that some people don't mind paying historically high multiples on operating earnings, and continue to rely on muscle memory created by the biggest bubble in history.  Well, folks, I have some news; that growth wasn't real, it was illusory.  I suspect that prices will reflect that in the upcoming months and years.

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 10:40 | Link to Comment Anonymous
Sun, 10/04/2009 - 10:58 | Link to Comment Gunther
Gunther's picture

Andy ,
your calls are very early, that could be a thing making them controversial. There were a lot of minor breaks where shorts got killed. Robo pointed that out already.

To me it is too early to tell, all charts could show a trend change but no chart definitely does show the change. In the GLD chart it is possible to see an inverted head and shoulders pattern as well.
Jesse draw such a chart a while ago. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2DePAZe2gA/SrEDSrCHAfI/AAAAAAAAJyY/Ym4p0M0KAP...
Moreover, on the weekly silver chart I can draw a rising trend line connecting the bottom points that is right now @ 14.50 ish, similar on a daily chart pointing to 15.50 ish.
Both are not penetrated to the downside, same for gold.
Moreover there was a big buyer in the market running up the price some 20$ before the PM fix. Friday spot gold fell before the London PM fix to 987ish and shot up to 1007ish, fix was 1003.5. My take on this type of action is that somebody with deep pockets buys metal, not paper.
London had in August average daily trading of 16.4 million oz. http://www.lbma.org.uk/stats/clearrct
Running the price up that much takes a bit of money. For the price of gold to correct meaningfully, this buying has to stop.
Are you prepared if the buying continues?
Up to now it is too early to tell the future direction.

Sounds like a sideways move would surprise everybody.

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 12:35 | Link to Comment Gunther
Gunther's picture

 

Andy,
that clarifies the point. Moreover, discussing with somebody who has the same viewpoint as I do will not lead to new insights.
While making my point I learned quite a bit myself. The market will be the final judge.
I checked the prices in '73 and '74 for gold and silver again to see that the bull in the old days was way wilder then our current one. Right now I am a bit confused to find a way to determine major turning points (eg. Dec. 74 as opposed to the reactions before) but to admit that is the first step of learning something new.
As long as now is a minor turning point there is no need to change my investment position.
Trading every rally up and reaction down is a different story.

 

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 11:37 | Link to Comment deadhead
deadhead's picture

this is a great thread, enjoying the point of views.  let me through this out there in terms of a short term, i.e. next week catalyst...  what's the thinking on the massive (another record or close to it) confetti issuance going on next week?  i think we got 138 billion (or trillion, kajillion, i'm losing count!).

thoughts?

Sun, 10/04/2009 - 18:11 | Link to Comment Anonymous
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