Friday, April 1, 2011

Calling the Top

So…I thought today might be it…

  • new quarter (i.e., past the requirement for hedge funds and mutuals to buy into the close of the record 1st quarter - referred to as "institutional window dressing" or the "art of looking smart")…
  • great jobs number creating a pop at the open creating the final death knell for shorts and rallying cry for bulls
  • all culminating in a realization that this may be the best we'll see in a while with crushing commodity prices...expectations for higher rates coming sooner than later...leading to…a collapse by the close…

But now I am not so sure…one of the 7 long positions I exited this morning was at 68 when I got out at 10am EST…it’s now at 73 – 3 HOURS after I sold it…another was at 19...now approaching 20...so I am picking them great, but getting too skittish to keep holding. Another few positions are making remarkably strong moves after signaling alerts in the morning, which I decided to ignore due to my bearish sentiment…three of the four positions that I was alerted to are up 3% at least since 10am EST.

I also noticed that the Dollar rally has completely imploded and that the Dollar is now pushing for a closing low (against the Euro at least) not seen since 2009 (needs to close above 1.4207 – it’s at 1.4219 after getting down to 1.406 in the morning)

Of course the tell-tale signs of a top are still ther...volume again running low – oil up another $1 - approaching $108, VIX getting crushed again - i.e., complacency rampant, the usual Cramer suspects and market high-flyers are rallying ... BUT not in unison...many are up, but some are flat and a few others are getting crushed.

Still - this continues to be one of the toughest market to gauge in a long time...