President Obama had dinner here in Palo Alto last night, seven blocks from my house. Just four days ago, Treasurer Secretary "the other" Tim Geithner hosted a talk in town also. It seems the Powers That Be are getting uncomfortably close to Slope's lair.
It's still pitch-dark here in Palo Alto, but I'm eager about the week ahead. As I went through all my charts (which I actually did twice this weekend, just to smoke out all possibilities), I was amazed to see how many bearish setups have formed, even with the recent selloff. The market looks exceptionally vulnerable.
Although Mondays have acquired a reputation for Always Being Up, that truism is – as Bernanke might say – unusually uncertain today. Futures have bobbed between being up 6 points to down 6 points since /ES trading opened late Sunday. As I sit here, it certainly doesn't look like the bulls will be off to the races at the opening bell.
I've highlighted the long series of black candles from late in June to illustrate how we seem to have clicked into the same mode again. I'm pretty sure we're going to get close to 1,000 again. The real question is whether we will break it and get to my long-hoped-for 925 level. It's going to take some new news to get us there, and nobody knows what that could be.
Some of us on Earth are endowed with special powers that most other humans do not enjoy. Some are remarkably strong. Others can sing with the voice of an angel. The senior management team at Goldman can make their hair fall out at will and, if faced with particularly grave danger, can shape-shift into terrifying forms so as to make predators flee.
I, too, have been blessed with special powers, but they aren't everything you might expect. I can't fly – – although, since I have no commute, I don't really need to do so. I don't have X-ray vision, although given the aesthetic constitution of most of Palo Alto's population, I'd just as soon be without it.
However, I am armed with these following powers. Ignore them at your peril:
+ Volume-Man: Do you have a pot of split-pea soup that you'd like stored in the fridge? Let me have one glance at its contents, and I can tell you precisely what storage container you need to use to hold that exact amount. I'm not kidding. I can look at any material (liquid or solid) in any peculiar container and instantly know what size storage jar, Pyrex, or Tupperware is called for. Once stored, the aforementioned substance is usually within a millimeter of the top of its new home. The kitchen is virtually the only room in the house where this superpower is useful.
+ Jiggling Eyeballs: I've mentioned this before, but newer Slopers may not be aware of this: I can jiggle my eyeballs at will. That is, I can make both eyeballs vibrate at a high rate of speed. I have, naturally, never observed this phenomenon, nor do I remember why it occurred to me as a child to give it a try and realize I was capable of this feat. In addition, I have found absolutely no application for this skill, except to really creep females out.
+ Captain Circadian: I need no clock. I can wake up in the middle of the night, and as a little game with myself, I'll guess what time it is……..I'm usually within a few minutes. I don't need an alarm clock, either; I'll wake up exactly when I've told myself to be awake. I guess the German part of me is really hung-up on time (and punctuality, for that matter), and this inner clock is personally handy, even though it hasn't saved any lives yet.
The one true superpower I've honed recently is my ability to analyze charts at a very high rate of speed. I can go through about 1,000 charts in 90 minutes or so, and a chunk of this time is simply waiting for each chart to load. This, I suppose, is the one ability I've been able to shape into some kind of livelihood. Otherwise…….if you need some vibrating eyeballs, drop me a line.
Although my full-time occupation is hedge fund management, I also direct the feature set of my first-born child, ProphetCharts.
We've got some pretty cool features coming out soon, including the ability to place different sections of time on top of one another (like, oh, say, 1937-1942 to the present), perform really good watch list filtering (example: show me all the Chart Toppers, but exclude anything already in my watch lists), as well as some other goodies.
There were some things I was going to add – – like the Carolan spiral calendar – – but I've become so disenchanted with the efficacy of such things that I've simply dismissed them (2009 broke my heart in many ways, and many magic techniques were shown to be a big ol' stinking pile of crap). I therefore am eager to hear what you would like to see in ProphetCharts. Just tell me in the brand-spanking-new comments section, and I'll cull through those.
Speaking of ProphetCharts, some of you may be wondering what's new about the Second Edition of my book. Is it just a nice new cover and an updated copyright date? Nope. It's about 25% larger, three years more up-to-date with respect to features, and it has a lot more with respect to my own trading philosophy.
As I've mentioned, I'm happy to send you a signed copy of the book at a 20% discount. Just sent a $60 check made out to Tim Knight to the address 555 Bryant Street #711 Palo Alto CA 94301. If you'd prefer to use PayPal (which is much better for overseas folks), my account there is trader.tim.knight@gmail.com
I've got some pretty cool news; I've just received my allocation of Chart Your Way to Profits – Second Edition, and it's ready to ship. If you'd like to buy an autographed copy, read below……
If you'd like me to sign a copy and ship it out to you, just sent a $60 check made out to Tim Knight to the address 555 Bryant Street #711 Palo Alto CA 94301. That's 20% off the retail price, and you get it personally autographed, which easily adds fifty to seventy-five cents of value to the book.
I've never done this before, but I'll be interested to see if any of my readers would like a copy; this is hot off the press, so get 'em while they're hot! If you use ProphetCharts, I think you'll really benefit.
