ES update (edited for clarity): stock futures still strong, but watch RSI for signs of weakness

We don’t really have waning strength yet on the hourly scale in SPX futures, but I can see the possibility. If this current rally leg (from Friday afternoon’s low around 1083) fails to break 1107 (Friday’s high) or does so on weaker RSI than the last rally, it will be a hint that the entire move up from 1036 is coming to an end. A fresh wave of selling will be even more probable if hourly RSI makes a lower low after a lower high.

Watch for weakening rallies and strengthening sell-offs to telegraph impending declines, even if prices are holding up (to be clear, we don’t have such weakening yet — I’m just watching for it). Prices often do stay elevated right up until a nasty break, like we saw from mid-April to early May (see chart below, ES 2-hour bar). You can also see the strengthening rallies and weakening declines since the bottom last week (the bottom was less strong than the preceding wave down, which is a classic buy signal).

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Here’s the ES hourly. Still showing strength, but it would be bearish if this current wave does not get at least as powerful as the last.

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And 15-min bar… this one shows weakness, but it’s too early in the wave to be sure.

All charts from TD Ameritrade

Today is a trading day for most of the world (and US futures are trading, though on a cut schedule), so don’t think that prices will wait for 9:30 EST Tuesday to make any important moves.

Remember, we have a rather neutral set of conditions on the daily chart, but the Elliott Wave crowd is looking for a hard third wave down anytime, and last week’s action could serve as a perfectly functional 2nd wave. If there is a third wave coming, it will be more powerful than the decline from 1220 to 1040, possibily taking us under 900 very quickly. Judging by May 6, the market has signaled that it is capable of such a move, and relentless declines are common following bear market rallies. Also in favor of such a move are the continued dollar and yen strength, anemic rallies of the euro, chf and pound, and the fact that the commodity complex is looking broken.

If you can’t tell, I am ambivalent about stocks now and positioned appropriately flat at the moment. These are not good junctures to trade, since the signals are so mixed.

Bob Prechter: “Cover your shorts” (edited w/ new video)

He said that exactly 12 months ago yesterday:

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Here he is again on November 23 last year, calling for another decline in 2010 at least as bad as 2008, as well as a bullish call on the dollar:

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And here is a video from Yahoo just a few days ago. Crappy quality on this recording, but not unwatchable. He shows that mutual fund cash levels are at record lows, meaning managers are “all in.”
Also, individual investors have piled into municipal and corporate bonds, which are awfully risky at these prices.

Prechter interview

This is a good one from Feb 9th, from Frisby’s Bulls and Bears. Hat tip to Pej.

Click here to listen.

Congratulations Daneric

There has been a lot of Elliott Wave bashing this year in spite of Prechter’s late February 2009 call for a rally from SPX 700 to the 1000-1100 area, and his call for maximum levered shorting about a week ago (he called for a 100% short position at about SPX 1020 in August), as well putting a sell on the long bond just before it collapsed under QE last spring, and recommending longs on USD late this summer and fall.

A lot of bears are fans or subscribers, and a lot of them lost money in 2009. Naturally, when they made money in the crash it was on their own brilliance, and what is a newsletter for if not to excuse your losses? But really, if you went 100% long SPX at 700, went 100% short in August and 200% short last week, you’d be up about 36% in under 12 months (after at least doubling your money from going “short with maximum leverage” in July 2007 and covering last February 24.

I do occasionally have nits to pick with EWI, but the bashing they get these days is just nonsensical. Who else, besides Prechter and Mish (and I harbor a suspicion that Mish learned about the credit cycle in part from reading Prechter) called for deflation while the bubble was raging?

At any rate, EWI is not the only game in town. Daneric has actually been more accurate in his medium/short-term calls than Hochberg over the last several months, and he posts every day for free. He suspected even as late as November that the top was not in, and that stocks would drift over 1100 on a sinking VIX before possibly topping out in January. Bravo! He counted the ending diagonal this month, said it looked finished a week ago, and on the evidence of this week’s decline is now finally calling Primary wave 2 over.

Kevin Depew interviews Robert Prechter

This is from a month ago, but it is a wide-ranging discussion from a long-term point of view. Depew is a very sharp guy who saw deflation coming himself, so this is one of the best Prechter interviews I’ve seen.

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“Yes, a depression is a period that’s difficult for many many people, but it’s not the apocalypse, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a tough period that’s gonna last, you know, five to seven years and then we’ll come out the other side.”

For a speculator, “there’s no better time than a bear market — they’re fast, they’re violent, they’re great.”

Scaredy bears

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Well, we’ve hit the first common Fibonacci retracement level (38.1%). We’ve now rallied 350 S&P points after a 904 point fall (1570 to 666). This is the best shorting opportunity since 12 months ago, IMO.

Source: Interactive Brokers

Nasdaq is nicely lagging, and the dollar is looking good. China could have topped already. The chatter on the boards is of scared bears and confident momentum chasers.

Next week could be nasty, maybe a drop to 950 before a rally to test 1000 again soon thereafter. Or maybe we slowly roll over and don’t break 950 til almost Labor Day (first week of Sept — when summer vacation ends in the US).

If this really is wave 3 down, it should be another 5 wave move, like wave 1. During the first wave, and even the second, most won’t believe the top is really in. Wave 1 could start from right here, since the momentum guys would be buying in on the decline and there would be few shorts to drive a squeeze to new highs. It would be seen as a “healthy correction.”

Interesting juncture in sentiment

We reached a point this week where almost all bears turned short-term bullish at the very least, if they didn’t swear off shorting altogether. Hordes of hobby bears were crushed over the last three weeks, and even hard core bears from before 2008 seemed to adjust their wave 2 targets upward as high as SPX 1200.

I took that as a sign of short-term weakness at the very least, so in addition to my regular purchase of December 2011 puts, I added a few March QQQQ puts and October 09 calls on the 10 year note. This AM I also took another stab at picking a top in copper at 2.60, with a 2.62 stop.

The reaction to GDP so far has been encouraging, with futures traders not buying the BS that the economy only shank at a 1% pace, since the surge in government spending gave it a phony boost. Since there is no P in government, why is government in GDP? GDP can go as high as the Feds want. All they have to do is spend and have the central bank monetize whatever bonds the market won’t absorb. This chicanery, plus inventory replacement, could bring a slightly positive number in Q3, ironically just as TTM S&P 500 earnings go negative for the first time since they started keeping records in 1936.

I see no reason to change my guess that the end of wave 2 is nigh. I have been thinking since spring that 1050 or September, whichever came first, would be the signal that the top was in. It could be in already, but don’t expect things to drop off a cliff right away. A wave of this magnitude rolls over slowly, with plenty of smaller breaks and rallies before the trend has solidly reversed.

Keep an eye on the credit markets. When fear comes back in earnest, corporate bond spreads will break their relentless slide downward, and short to intermediate term Treasuries, if not the 10-year and 30-year, will signal a renewed flight to safety.