LA: What to look for

S&P500 weekly at end of week

Look Ahead

How far can this streak of up weeks continue and where is the incremental AAPL buyer going to come from?

MARKET BEHAVIOR

Stocks were up for the seventh consecutive week.  Over the last few years this is as long as any streak lasted and we should expect a red-week simply based on historical precedent.  While I’m sure there are many times over the last 100-years where the market strung together a larger number of winning weeks, trading is a game of probabilities and we need to trade what is most likely, not what is possible.

MARKET SENTIMENT

The recent rally and absence of volatility is making the market feel safe, something we need to fear.  I’m not promoting a crash, simply a red-week or two to keep traders on their toes.  How people respond to the dip will tell us how far it will go.  If the prevailing attitude is complacency and buy-the-dip, look for a deeper pullback.  If everyone starts yelling fire and rushing for the exits, look for another quick rebound.

The rule of thumb is trade the opposite of what most expect.  The sharp pullbacks to 1,500 two-weeks ago got traders attention and excited bears.  This was finally the pullback everyone was waiting for, but the market rebounded and is now 20-points higher.  That episode ago humiliated bears and sellers who jumped on the pullback bandwagon only to watch the market pop higher.  Now this group of potential sellers is less likely to pile on board a similar dip in the future.

This matters because nervous sellers and shorts have a limited war-chest and run out of ammunition quickly if bigger money doesn’t join the selling.  That is exactly what happened two-weeks ago.  But what happens if the nervous sellers are already out of the market and bears are reluctant to re-short the market?  That means the next dip isn’t manufactured selling, but real selling.  This is the fundamental difference between a buying-the-dip opportunity and a real market reversal.  If you know who is selling, you have a better chance of accurately anticipating the move.

The above scenario describes the way these things normally play out.  I’m not exactly sure where we are in this process and that is why we need to keep looking for clues from the market’s behavior.  The trend remains higher, but we need to be increasingly cautious with each passing day.

TRADING OPPORTUNITIES

Expected Outcome:
Look for a small red week this week or next simply because history says this is about as far as these things normally go.  This could be a small pullback, or the start of something bigger.  We need to keep a close eye on how the market and sentiment responds to any weakness, looking for clues on where this market is headed.

Alternate Outcome:
While seven up-weeks is a lot, it is not impossible for us to string together several more.  The momentum is clearly higher and reluctant buyers are finally starting to wade in.  Their buying will keep propping up the market until they run out of money and that will be when the market finally noses over.  Running out of buyers, not complacency is what finally causes a market to top.

The outcome I am most hoping for is a strong push higher because that is unsustainable, will clearly signal an intermediate top, and be an attractive place to short the market.  This grinding higher stuff is far harder to predict and time.

AAPL weekly at end of week

INDIVIDUAL STOCKS

AAPL is struggling again and the last few weeks of buying sucked in many of the bottom-pickers.  The question any AAPL bull has to answer is who is the next buyer that will keep the rebound going?  Markets are driven by supply and demand, so where is this new demand going to come from if all the AAPL bulls already own the stock?

My opinion is there is still too much hope and optimism left in the stock to stage a quick recovery.  The most likely scenario is the most loved stock will need to become the most hated stock before selling and hope finally exhaust themselves and the stock can bottom.  The other red flag is any weakness felt by the broad market will be exacerbated in AAPL shares.

Stay safe