I really don't mean to be in whine mode, but that's how I'm feeling. Well, not so much "whine"; that's too high-pitched. Just ticked off. Sort of like I keep working on the same sand castle and the same goon keep coming around every couple of weeks and stomping on it. I'd like to shoot the goon in the head.

Thumbing through the Times, I've got to say even someone as cynical as me is stunned at how short this nation's memory is. A few short months ago, the investment banks were on their knees, begging for the country to bail them out. Well, they got bailed out. And now they're paying record bonuses again. They are engaging in precisely the same kind of behavior they did in 2007. They haven't changed one iota.

Well, one thing has changed. They've learned that they have the ultimate backstop: the entire country. Heads, they win; tails, we lose. Simple as that.

And now there's talk of a "super-rally" that is about to take place. I have trouble seeing that. What I do know is that I'm paying more attention to OIH now than just about anything else – even the /ES. It is still in the throes of what I consider a major topping formation. That could well lead the rest of the market down.

When I feel lost like this, I start fresh and look at all my charts. I'm going to do just that and try to get my head screwed on right. This week has erased all the hard work I put into July so far.

Keeping one's morale up during a trio of days like this is not easy. Far from it. But we must keep our wits about us and see what the charts are telling us.

Looking at the MidCap 400 chart below (this is a minute bar chart), I draw a few general conclusions (a) we are still in the same downtrend that commenced June 11th (b) we have made a series of lower lows and lower highs (c) until and unless the market pushes above the circled area, this medium-term downturn remains in place, in spite of the massive strength we've seen so far this week.

The unfortunate thing is that a day like this may well be a great day to get aggressive on the short side, but the week has been so damaging so far that it's hard to put those trades out.

You know it's a bad day in Tim-land when I'm dragging out my lottery longs, but that's what today is like. My 401-K positions are my only bright spot. Here are a handful of them; you can see all of them in the watch list labeled Long Positions (1 of 3) in the right column.

If you thought my idea to buy TBT two days ago was good, and you're holding, you might consider taking profits. Since I'm an idiot, I sold my TBT on Monday at a small profit, avoiding the nice 6% runup in the span of merely two days. Anyway, it was a very good trading idea, poorly executed by yours truly.