Euro saves the day

S&P500 daily @ 11:58 EDT

Markets popped on news out of Europe.  The union is adopting a softer stance on austerity measures and now allowing bailout loans to go directly to ailing banks instead of through each nation’s central bank.  This prevents additional debt from being laid on each nation’s current obligations and pressuring their creditworthiness.

Is this a real fix, or just another temporary patch job?  I’m not an economist, but it doesn’t sound like a real fix and Europe will continue to muddle through this for a good while longer.  But it is a step in the right direction and shows a hint of flexibility coming from Germany.

The markets popped above their 50dmas in the opening gap up.  Not a good day to be short and no doubt a good chunk of the buying is shorts getting run out of the market.  The interesting thing to watch is if there is follow-on buying on this news or if big money continues to be reluctant to commit more capital to this uncertain market.  If these price gains and volume hold up, today will be a follow-through-day and we’ll move back into market in confirmed uptrend.  This will be the 3rd change in IBD’s market outlook in two weeks.  It is hard to imagine how such extreme volatility can be bullish.  The next technical level on the upside will be breaking through June 19th’s high of 1363.

It will be interesting to see if this newly found euphoria is sustainable or not.  Pullbacks and bases usually demoralize traders as they grind up both bears and bulls with all the false breakouts and reversals.  This volatility wears out traders before clearing the way for the next directional move.  Last year we traded sideways in a choppy fashion for 5 months before the strong uptrend kicked off.   We’re currently 2 months into this base.  Personally I think the market needs more time to fully demoralize traders before it will be poised to make its next move.

I closed my short position for a small loss this morning.  It’s not that I believe in this move higher, but I’m just being defensive and exercising risk management to protect my portfolio.  I’m ready to jump back in on the short side if I see any weakness in the market.  This is the best aspects of being a small trader, I can move in and out of the market with ease.  This is the only edge we have over big money managers and if we fail to take advantage of it, we are giving up the only advantage we have in this game. But this can be a double-edged sword and it will bite us in the butt if we over-think and over-trade every little blip in the markets. There is a fine line between being prudently defensive and being reactionary.

Stay safe