No Clear, Consistent Forward Bias Is Evident Currently In My Backtests - SPY 6-29-17

For the last couple weeks stocks have traded sideways which the scans I ran at the time had suggested there would be limited upside.  Then this week a little selling has returned in choppy fashion.

I ran some various scans today looking at current price movements, indicator formations, and real money sentiment.  Most of what I looked at showed forward returns that were somewhat neutral, certainly not tradable from the criteria I like to see.

So currently I am deferring to the last significant studies I noted which were late May and again around the June 9th high in SPY which both suggested a notable bearish skew for 1-2 months.

Despite today's selling the NYSE TRIN indicator dropped substantially which is not a typical pattern of rising on a sell off.  The Nasdaq TRIN is showing a more typical rise the last few days.  I don't know if this oddball reading on the NYSE TRIN adds weight to the idea that a low is not yet at hand.

The VIX chart shown here is showing a pretty typical configuration for a long in an uptrend.  We see a spike of the VIX above the longer term bollinger band while the shorter term bollinger band has risen above the longer term band.  I have shown this indicator overlay many times in recent years, and if you want more info on it you should be able to find related posts using the search bar for the blog.  Search VIX and Bollinger Bands.

Now the VIX has been at an historical extreme low, and so that has figured in to the recent scans indicating a bearish skew for SPY.  So there is some conflict here, but be aware that the short term set up is looking like a buy.

Intermediate or Long Term Climax Point In Nasdaq?

Click on Chart to Enlarge

In the past years I have made some note of key points when markets were at an apparent highs as evidenced by a break above one or multiple trend channel lines.  Coupled with divergence patterns at the end of a parabolic type price movement, such breaks may be key inflection points.

The last time I recall making a mention of this on a larger scale was March 2015 in the Dollar Index.
That did prove to be a key market high.

Currently, the Nasdaq chart above has some similar qualities in the strong run up since January 2016.  Over the last week, price did break above a couple high to high trend lines connecting key highs over the last year and a half.

However, price is still 10% or so below a major high to high trend line connecting the key tops since the 2009 bear market lows.  So, this may have some to blow off longer term to the upside.

But given the wide range bearish engulfing pattern at the recent highs, it seems likely to me that this week could be an intermediate high.  The weekly price action formed an outside down day last week in the Nasdaq, and this is a classic top reversal bar.

Speaking of the US Dollar Index, which has trended lower recently as stocks have trended higher, the UUP etf made a major jump in volume today on a decent size gap down, and made a multi month low for the year.  However, price reversed and traded to close near to the highs, forming a belt hold candlestick pattern.

This is couple with clear bullish divergence in the technical analysis of the US Dollar Index and I think indicates that the mid point of the year may be a turning point higher for the US Dollar.  Commitment of Traders data show that the commercial "smart money" traders are more bullish than any time since near the lows prior to major rallies in 2014 and 2016.  So there is still some room in that data before it becomes as extreme as those prior bottoming points, but my point here is that it appears close to a bottoming point and to be alert for long set ups if this is a market you trade in.

Back to the stock market for a moment.......I have looked at the recent charts of the CoT data of the index futures contracts and noted on a few of them, what from my experience and study is a pretty classic blow off move which signals a high.  Basically, the commercial traders usually get more short on market rallies and the speculators get more long on rallies.

But currently over the last couple months, the opposite has occurred, indicating that the speculators "won" and forced the commercials into a short covering rally at which point the speculators have now cashed out rather than continued to follow the trend.

And from my study of the CoT data, this is the historical norm for the speculators to "win" at the end of key trends.  So in actuality the speculators as a whole may be the "smart" money.  Meaning that research into the topic, shows that speculators actually make the profits from the trading in the futures market.  The commercials, are indeed experts in their market, but are using the futures as "insurance" and thus are essentially in the long hull, "losing" money akin to paying an insurance premium for their underlying business.

This pattern is notable currently on the Nasdaq futures contract, which adds further weight to the perspective that the recent top reversal type action in the Nasdaq is legitimate and may hold for several weeks or even months.

Pete

Expanding Triangle or Diagonal Top Appearing on SPY - Probable Move Down to 232-235 in Coming Few Weeks

Click on Chart to Enlarge

Currently stocks have been moving higher but with notable weekly time frame bearish divergence in MACD on the SPY etf as well as bearish divergence in the breadth.  So fewer stocks are hitting new highs or advancing relative to previous price peaks.

This is classic type technical signals of a topping of a leg up in prices.

I had noted some recent scans which suggested a likely higher downside risk to upside potential.  However, we have seen mostly upside since then.  Though with the low volatility it has not been a big advance in percentage terms.

The 60 min chart of SPY is now again at a point of notable bearish divergence, and so if a multi week top is to form, it could do so here over the next day or so.

On the chart above I have put a pattern labeling scheme.  I put this here because the pattern in play appears to fit the back tests of price and sentiment studies suggesting downside risk over the coming weeks or couple months.  And clear price patterns can give some refined targets or expectations that may help a trader manage the trade more effectively than a purely mechanical or statistical method.

If this move is a "terminal" move then the implication is for a rapid move back to the starting point of the pattern around 232 on SPY.

If this move is a "B" move then it may be a less explosive downwards move back to the 232-235 area as support, but not necessarily back to the 232 level.

From my perspective of observing market price action relevant to price patterns and key support areas, if prices do correct and move below the 232 level, I think that would likely be a temporary climax point where stops would be run under support, and then prices would begin a rebound of some extent.

Pete

Triple Time Frame MACD Bearish Divergence in SPY - Probably Close to A Significant Intermediate High

As of this morning 6-1-17 the technical analysis of the SPY etf shows weekly, daily, and hourly chart bearish divergence on the MACD.  What does this mean?

The weekly time frame divergence is the longer signal showing both "overbought" levels and new price highs with less "momentum" or rate of change at the newer highs.  This is a longer term signal that often is present at the end of bull markets and often at the end of major advancing phases of a bull market prior to a deep correction (say 10-20%).

The daily time frame basically then shows that there is loss of momentum occurring in the most recent leg up to new highs.

And then the hourly time frame shows that there is loss of momentum in this final little move occurring on the last daily push to new highs since the last cross down on the daily MACD.

So taken together, it is like a multiple waves of different frequencies all coming together at once and reaching a crest.

In my observation for the last 12 years, these points are often significant and should alert to the possibility the market will experience a major correction over the coming weeks/months.

Certainly at times, these signals may be in the middle of a major move up, and the results ends up only being a temporary range bound market before continuing higher.  But factoring in a number of indications of sentiment and breadth, it seems likely to me that stocks will stall and correct a bit quite soon.

It appears unlikely to me that this will be a bull market top.  Particularly with the Nasdaq not displaying any bearish divergence on the weekly MACD, it seems more likely to me that the current position is nearer to the momentum peak of this portion of the bull market, but it could take months and some small to intermediate corrections and breaks to new highs, before a more long term high could be set.

Pete