Well, over the past couple of days, I've discovered a couple of things about Slope readers.
- They are committed germophobes. At least Jana and AssetStrategist. Wussies.
- They have passionate views about Elliott Wave. I don't think I've ever received as many emails on a single topic (except for that time that I sang a capella).
Today was a good day for me, in spite of the continued rise of oil and gold. The Russell 2000 fell below 700 for the first time since the April Fool's Day Rally, and it closed near its lows of the day.
The Dow Transports, which had been worrying me a bit due to a possible breakout, fell particularly sharply (due, I suppose to UPS' warning).
Of particular interest was the drop on the $XBD securities broker/deal index. I've got puts on a number of investment banks (including GS and LEH), and this chart to me is a picture-perfect "waterfall" with a plain series of lower lows and lower highs. May it continue!
I have 75 different positions now – all of them puts (as is almost always the case). Here are a few worth pointing out……..
America Movil (AMX), like the $TRAN, was threatening a breakout, but it is starting to fall away. Failed bullish breakouts made for great bear meat.
BIDU (which reports earnings, weirdly, on Saturday) isn't a slam-dunk, but an earnings disappointment here could easily nuke 40-50 points off the price.
FXI is finally starting to click. The climb from $120 to $150 (25% in just a couple of weeks!) is beginning to erode.
A somewhat more speculative play on my books is ISRG, which had been a barnstormer until the end of last year. Here again we have the prospect of a failed bullish breakout. The stop on all of these is obviously the horizontal line.
I mentioned oil's strength before. The commodity was in record territory again, nearing $110. Let's see if we get a double-top on it. My stop at $195 stands firm for OIH.
Among my long list of energy-related shorts is PBR, which has the makings of a nice head and shoulders top.
Finally, Valmont (VMI) is hammering out what I think could be the third part of a triple top.
This stage of the market, for me, involves a lot more speculation than usual (hence my language being filled with "could be" and "looks like" and "might). It's just the nature of the beast right now. As for tomorrow, it is the only interesting day for economic reports this week. Let's hope for some follow through, eh?
