Should we be shorting this strength?

By Jani Ziedins | Weekly Analysis

May 23

Free Weekly Analysis and Lookahead: 

This was a good week for the S&P 500 and it logged a 3.2% gain. That said, nearly all of those gains occurred Monday morning at the open when prices snapped back from the previous week’s dip. Following those early gains, the market spent most of the week drifting sideways. But given how dreadful the economic headlines are, sideways is an impressive achievement in of itself.

Two weeks ago the market pulled back as much as 6% in the biggest test of this rebound. But rather than crumble, prices bounced back to set even higher-highs. Instead of caving to the pressure, this resilient market keeps grinding higher.

There is an endless stream of cynics criticizing this market for refusing to go down. But rather than argue with this strength, wouldn’t it be smarter to profit from it? That’s one of the things I don’t understand about many traders. They frequently accuse the market of being “rigged”. Well, if you know the market is rigged, instead of complaining about it, why don’t you turn those insights into a few bucks? If we know this Covid market is “broken”, rather than argue with it, why not use this knowledge to make some money?

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been suspicious of this rebound and have been wary of the “inevitable” pullback. But as long as this market keeps trading well and is grinding higher, I have no other choice but to respect that and give it the benefit of doubt. There is nothing wrong with shorting the cracks when they form, but we need to be quick to lock-in profits because it gets ugly real quick if we stubbornly hold a losing short too long.

But more than question this strength, when a market is trading this well, we follow those signals and keep jumping aboard the bounces. I have no idea how much longer this rebound can continue defying gravity, but as long as it keeps telling me it wants to go higher, I have no choice but to grab on and enjoy the ride.

Until we get a string of dreadful closes or start a new pattern of lower-highs, we must continue giving this market the benefit of doubt. There will be inevitable down-days along the way, but as long as there is more up than down, this rebound is alive and well.

If you find these posts useful, please return the favor by liking and sharing them!

Sign up for FREE Email Alerts to get profitable insights like these delivered to your inbox every day.

What’s a good trade worth to you?
How about avoiding a loss?
For less than $1/day, have actionable analysis and a trading plan delivered to your inbox every day during market hours

Follow Jani on Twitter

Follow

About the Author

Jani Ziedins (pronounced Ya-nee) is a full-time investor and financial analyst that has successfully traded stocks and options for nearly three decades. He has an undergraduate engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines and two graduate business degrees from the University of Colorado Denver. His prior professional experience includes engineering at Fortune 500 companies, small business consulting, and managing investment real estate. He is now fortunate enough to trade full-time from home, affording him the luxury of spending extra time with his wife and two children.