Long term Russell and Nasdaq charts

These two have the furthest to fall, and are really still in the process of making an historic secular bull market top.

The Russell looks like it’s forming a giant head and shoulders:

Prophet.net

See those RSI trends on the bottom? This is a market that’s running out of steam. We know from mutual fund reports that managers are already “all in” again as of January, and as Richard Russell says, it takes buying to put stocks up, but they can fall under their own weight.

And the NASDAQ 100 is back at 1999 or 2007 levels! These indexes, like Chinese and Indian stocks, show that the world still has an astounding appetite for risk in the face of depressionary business conditions. It was one thing to pay 100 times earnings when the credit expansion was still going and almost nobody knew how the story ended, but now that it is plainly over, what are people thinking?

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Russell 2000 yield: 1.2%

Nasdaq 100 yield: 0.49%

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Stocks in the Nasdaq 100 with zero dividends:

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Adobe Systems
Amazon
Amgen
Apollo Group
Apple
Autodesk
Baidu
Bed Bath & Beyond
Biogen Idec
BMC Software
Celgene
Cephalon
Cerner
Check Point Software
Cisco Systems
Citrix Systems
Cognizant Technology
Dell
DirecTV Group
Dish Network
eBay
Electronic Arts
Express Scripts
First Solar
Fiserv
Flextronics International
FLIR Systems
Foster Wheeler
Genzyme
Gilead Sciences
Google
Henry Schein
Hologic
Illumina
Intuit
Intuitive Surgical
Lam Research
Liberty Interactive Series A
Life Technologies
Logitech International
Marvell Technology
Mylan
NetApp
NII Holdings
NVIDIA
O’Reilly Automotive
Patterson Companies
Priceline
Qiagen
Research In Motion
SanDisk
Seagate Technology
Sears Holdings
Starbucks
Stericycle
Symantec
Urban Outfitters
Verisign
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Warner Chilcott
Yahoo

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After the last year’s action, it should be abundantly clear that fundamentals do not drive stocks, and they only offer resistance and support at the most extreme heights and bottoms. Herding behavior, animal spirits, fear and greed are what make the tickers tick.

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That said, we are now entering a long phase of value restoration. By the end, people will talk about steady cash flow and yield again, as they did in 1982 and 1942. It will take a lot more than the above to lure them in, and since there are no more miracle cures for the numerator in the yield equation, the denominator will have to come down to earth.

Russell 2000

The Russell 2000 rocketed up this morning, just when it looked like it might roll over:

Prophet.net

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With no confirmation from the Dow and unimpressive short-term internals, plus a stubbornly strong dollar and bid on bonds, I’m not too concerned here.

The Russell looks about done

As an index of 2000 stocks, as goes the Russell, so goes the whole market:

Prophet.net

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Allow for a few days of chop up here and slight new highs, but it would be very pretty if the Russell never saw 630 again after this week. If you want a strong sell signal, wait for a twice or thrice tested top to form, for daily RSI to turn down, and for daily MACD to cross the zero line (red arrow).

Shorting the Nasdaq and Russell 2000

Both are overbought on flagging momentum. Note the high and downsloping RSI (Relative Strength Index) since yesterday:

Source: Prophet.net

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I’ve been playing around with Tim Knight’s creation, Prophet Charts, and I have to hand it to him — this is the best assembly of technical analysis tools that I’ve seen.  Stockcharts.com is still pretty good for a free service, though (I haven’t tried their subscription tools).

Also of note today is that the VIX has broken 20. Options are cheaper than at any point since the Summer of ’08. The lofty equity valuations, flagging momentum and sense of complacency remind me of the Goldilocks winter and spring of ’07, when prices drifted upward slowly in a narrow channel before suddenly cracking, first with a 400 pt decline in the Dow on one late February day, then with the seizing of the credit markets in late July.

Stock market action bolsters case for a top.

The tide is turning. We now have a strong, impulsive decline off the highs, confirmed by a rise in the dollar and declines in the metals, energy, and grains. Yes, we’ve seen this before (in June, August and September), but the sustained manic conditions (put/call ratio, DSI, etc) that we saw in mid-September and mid-October are unlikely to be revived. When momentum runs out and there are no fundamentals to offer support, stocks can fall under their own weight. They don’t need a catalyst.

The Russell 2000 (like the SPX and Nasdaq) has just busted through its big support line drawn from the March lows to the July lows:

Source: Interactive Brokers

The SPX (S&P 500) has put a toe over the same line, while the Dow has a bit to go. Here’s the SPX:

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Things are looking very bearish intermediate-term, but for the next day or two, I think the odds favor a small bounce. We’ve had two strong weeks of declines, and the overbought, over-bullish condition is cleared for now. I’m long stock futures (and a touch of oil and gold) from today’s lows to hedge my put position. Positioned like this, I get no benefit from further declines, and preserve equity to re-short any rally.

Remember, if this decline resembles that of ’30 or ’37, ALL of this year’s gains could be wiped out in a mere three months. If this is wave 3, it could be much faster than wave 1 (Oct 2007 – March 2009). It marks the start of the worst part of the depression. If you know anyone who owns stocks or is thinking of getting back in, implore them to seek safety (Treasury-only money market funds). Likewise, right now may be the last chance in 20 years to unload real estate at 2003 prices.

Toppy action today: bulls ready to stampede?

Today’s action reminded me of the trading on Sept 23, with a ramp up followed by a swan dive in the late afternoon. Traders will remember the 23rd as the Fed Wednesday that marked the top prior to the 5% sell-off into the first week of October. Here’s a 1-week view of the Russell 2000 futures:

Source: Interactive Brokers, LLC

We’ve now had 6-7 days of mostly sideways action on very high DSI and very low Put:Call readings, indicating persistent bullishness and complacency in the face of stagnating prices.

The market the last several days has been lead by the big tech names, the same stocks that charged ahead just as the market topped in October 2007.

Interestingly, gold has not sold off hard with stocks. I’ve just gone long a touch of gold and silver futures as a hedge to my stock futures shorts, since sentiment there is not extreme at present and the metals usually terminate in spikes, not rolling tops like they have formed recently. I remain bearish gold and silver on a multi-month time frame.

We’re probably at another top; the question is what kind

I’m again very bearish short-term, basically taking the approach that we’re topping until proven otherwise. I think we’re about to roll over like we have three times since early August. Indicators show that each recovery since then has further disheartened the bears and encouraged the bulls, which is as it should be, making each top more likely the final top. It’s a process: the market shakes out as many players as possible, so that the fewest number of bulls and bears benefit.

I’ll start as I often do, with the equity put/call (10-day average) vs. SP500:

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Take a look at the similarity between the CPC and price action from January to July ’07 and that of May ’09 to today, and note the last time the 10-day average dipped below 0.55: July ’07.

The VIX is also indicating complacency, with its RSI well into “oversold” territory:

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I’m also noting the relative weakness of the Russell 2000 and Nikkei in this latest push upwards. The Russell has only recovered back to its September highs, lagging the SPX and NDX, and the Nikkei remains well below its August levels (as does Shanghai, which topped in early August):

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Multiple signs are pointing to an equity sell-off dead ahead (starting this week or next), probably at least of the magnitude of that in July-August 07 or June-July 09, which means 10%, more or less.

Whether we then recover to chop around up here another few weeks like in Sept-Oct ’07 or fall straight down like 1930 and 1938 is anyone’s guess, but CPC, VIX, DSI and Treasuries all say there could be a major top in this vicinity. For an indication of what support follows that top, you can look at technicals and  fundamentals. The first major technical support is the SPX 900-950 area, where we peaked in January and June ’09 (and bottomed in Sept ’01), followed by 750-800 (bottom in Oct-Nov ’08 and Oct ’02 and March ’03), and then of course 666.

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Fundamentally, there is no value above SPX 450, a humdrum 11.25X multiple on expected 2009 earnings. Contrary to popular belief, $40 in earnings is not at all a depressed level relative to the last 15 years, but only compared to the very peak of the bubble in ’04-’07. At 450, the market would yield a bit under 5% on today’s dividends (which are still being cut and are only at 2005 levels). A 5% yield would be no huge bargain, but a lot better than the 2% investors are getting today.

For an indication of how quickly parties like this can end, take a look at what happened to the Brazilian stock market today:

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This US-traded Brazil ETF was down over 6% before noon today, leaving the previous four trading days as an island top. (I am short Brazilian stocks and the currency.)

If the US market does roll over here by 100 SPX points or so, keep an eye on the put:call ratio. I’ll be ratcheting down stops and very wary of a retest once the 10-day average gets a standard deviation above the mean (we must be 2 SDs under it right now). That said, it wouldn’t do to get stopped out on a 30% retracement only to see the market make an Acapulco cliff dive like in ’87, ’29, ’30 or ’38 as the crowd realizes that things have only gotten worse since last year. If this turns out to be a big third wave, it could take us straight to the March lows three months after the peak.