What Now?

The big one that alot of people have been looking for finally happened today. You can see by the chart that alot of damage was done today. I would love to tell everyone I called this in advance, like last May.

However, that would be false. I had been warning that we were setting up a sell signal, but my large picture sell has not triggerred yet. After today, it will not ,simply because one of the components requires an overbought condition, which is now weeks away.

Days like today take on a life of their own, once the selling begins with this type of power all that you can do is honor whatever stops you have in, and let the action take place. Many reversals do happen after heavily negative overseas action like we had last night, so we cannot always know that this type of blowout will follow that.

If I had to guess what will happen next, I would guess the following. A little more weakness over the next few weeks. Then a bounce up that fails to make a new high, setting up a larger picture sell signal that syncs up with my timing indicator. There have been a few instances like this for those who get my newsletter, that were pointed out last month. This is only a guess, with no real basis other than just my years of experience, it may or may not have any value.

For those trying to trade in here, what I would suggest is to cut back your size to take into account the increased volatility that is likely to be here for a bit. Next, honor your stops and do not get emotional. We do not have many days like this historically, so the sample size is too small to have a reliable read on what will happen tommorrow. We are already very extended down, and historically 5 consecutive down closes in the S&P which we have had, have been good short term buys. I will more than likely be buying the S&P on Wednesday depending on what my systems tell me.

It is possible that this is an isolated event, but there are not many historical days like this that just result in things returning to normal right away. The strong bond market should provide some strength underneath this soon.

Still no Sell Signal

The end of last week refused to give the sell signal, so it is still a long side market. I am relieved simply because it would have had to have been ignored due to the seasonal up bias still in place. If we get one in March it will be past the filters for time of the year.

We may not get a sell signal, so there is no reason to be short until one develops. We have had a tremendous run, and the trend is up, so ignore the gloom and doom of the doubting Thomas types and stay with longs until we get something that says not to. There are some internal aspects that have weakened slightly, as you can see the commercials are mostly on the short side. As a result the base underneath is not as strong as it has been for the last several months.

All this really means to me is to not add too agressively to existing longs at this juncture. It does not mean run out of the market and hide.

Stocks Peaked?

Here is an updated view of my "Magic Potion" indicator. There is no magic to it actually, but just a goofy name a gave it to make fun of myself. As you can see it has returned to the green, indicating a buy. However, based on the computation of it, if prices stay where they are the rest of the week, it will go back into the red.

There was never an official sell signal generated during those 3 red bars because the other components of the timing system did not confirm it. They are all presently confirming any sell signal in the underlying, if the week closes with all of the components where they are as of this posting. It is February, so a sell signal now should just be used to get flat. In general we do not want to be aggressively short during the first two months of the year due to seasonal effects.

If march rolls around and the indicator is indicating a sell at that time, we will have something to act on. Until then, the trend is still up so no need to do any shorting.

S&P 500

Here we have an updated S&P chart. You can see where I exited my short trade from a few days ago on Mondays opening. This is exactly why I exit short term trades against the trend very quickly, had I held that position, I would be sitting on a big loss. The way I exited brought in a very nice profit of 13 S&P points.

I have written in my newsletter about my larger picture timing system that I have developed for the S&P. Although very close to triggerring a short sale indication, it has not done so yet. It will most likely be held off for itleast another week due to the rally in the bond market (red line).

I do expect this bond rally to slow down here and perhaps move back down in the next week or so, which might setup the S&P sell signal at that time. There are several components to that system, and most are lined up on the short side, but not all of them. Until it signals a sell, it is still green light to the upside, and exit counter trend trades quickly.

Shorting the Lenders

There has been alot of talk about shorting the lenders lately, so I thought I would devote a day to discussing this. Accredited Home Lenders is displayed over on the left. As you can see it has dropped from a high of 60.13 to a last trade of 24.50. It is clearly in a downtrend, yet if we look at the last 12 months earnings, we see a nice uptrend. Also, another filter I like to look at is debt. Their debt ratios are actually dropping.

Many people are expecting both the EPS to deteriorate, as well as the debt to increase, due to the difficult period that lenders in general are in.

However, as I have told people over the last 6 months to a year with the homebuilders, the balance sheets of most of these companies have very attractive ratios still. This does not make them prime candidates for shorting. I want deteriorating debt ratios, and declining earnings for stocks I am shorting, and the reverse for stock buy candidates. Further, this is a stock that has already dropped 60%, so although there may be more downside, the fat of the move is already over.

For those that cannot help themselves, and are dead convinced that the worst is just beginning, I suggest just waiting for 3 to 7 day reactions upward against the downtrends to taks short positions, or buy puts. Then hope the downtrend resumes. These little retracements visually look like flags, so we call them bear flags. I would start this process by looking at stocks that have increasing debt and declining 12 month earnings ( not just one quarter ). This will itleast line up the fundamentals with the "story."

For Sam, NFI has fallen way more than these others from 70.32 to a last of 15.96, too late there. NEW is the same story. AHM looks better as the 12 month EPS has declined and debt ratios have risen, and the stock has only dropped about 25% off the high. However, it is not in a downtrend yet. I would wait for a break, and short the first retracement of that one.

S&P 500

Here is an update of the daily S&P 500 chart. You can see my system has me short as of Friday's opening. This is a short term trade that will be exited on Monday's opening. My big picture timing system is ever so close to giving a sell signal now, it just missed on Friday's close.

Not to worry because most significant highs are not made in February, so we will probably go up itleast one more time. My short term signal was based on entirely different parameters than the big picture system.

Notice large divergence that continues to be in place with the Bond market below. This at some point is going to spell trouble for stocks, and it may already have triggerred something. The small graph at the bottom is just a moving average of the tick index. This is something I am playing around with, but have not really found any use yet for. It can be ignored.

The commercials have also gotten heavily short as of this last weeks report, so it is only a matter of time before a decline hits.

S&P 500

Displayed to the left is the weekly S&P chart. It may be tough to see, but the large picture swing system I have is applied to that chart. As you can see it had a long entry back in late August of last year, and is still long.

It is getting very close to generating a sell signal, but it has not done so yet. Very few market peaks are made in January or February, so there is no need to get excited and step in front of this trend. However, as you can see, the sharp downmove that the bond market (purple) has made recently, has set up a large divergence with stock prices. It is possible for these divergences to persist for a few months before stocks are effected. If this relationship stays like this, it is only a matter of time before we see a big stock market decline.