Another Delayed Reaction

You would think with all the algo trading and computers pumping out orders all day, the reaction would be nearly instantaneous, but we've had delayed 1 day dumps, both on "bad" political news, last week North Korea, and this week Charlottesville.  Both are irrational excuses to sell, but frankly, the market is at irrational levels, so it was waiting for any type of psychological trigger to get the ball rolling downhill.

During this month, after my bearish tilt, the only real profits I made on S&P trading was on the long side, holding over the weekend.   It just goes to show you that trading from the long side has been the easier money, and continues to be so.  Of course, this kind of market will not last forever.  But the consensus among the investors that I hear from is that a 5-10% correction is due, and that it is a buying opportunity.  But the feeling I get is that we'll only get a 5-10% correction as the market gets volatile and is forming a top.  You saw that starting from the fall of 2014 going to summer of 2015, leading to the sharp drops in August 2015 and January 2016.

The way the crowd reacts to a pullback reveals a lot about the future direction.  I did not expect such a fuss over a 40 point pullback last week, and the market promptly rallied off that 2440 level.  Even as we bounced back earlier this week, investors weren't buying in and the rally earlier this week felt more like a short squeeze than anything else.  That can explain the strong price action ahead of the FOMC minutes yesterday, as shorts didn't want to hold a position ahead of possible dovish news.

So you have high equity put/call ratios on just a small dip in the market.  It usually means the downside is limited here and is a positive for the bulls.  On the other hand, the terrible breadth and potential negative catalysts (debt ceiling/ECB meeting) in September favor the bears.  I expect the kind of choppy trading like we had in March and April ahead of the French elections, this time ahead of the debt ceiling in September.  So probably a little bit lower, than chop back up a little bit higher, and repeat for a few weeks till the debt ceiling resolution gets closer.

It seems that the top will have to wait after the debt ceiling, and on more positive news flow.  I now expect new all time highs sometime in the fall.  There we probably have the final blowoff top, blasting well through SPX 2500.

See little edge here.  Missed the short as I was too careful on my entry.  You can't catch them all, and I've missed quite a few short term shorting opportunities being too careful, but no regrets as they weren't great opportunities.  May go in small again and buy the dip around SPX 2430-2440.