Have you noticed how stocks keep making lower lows and lower highs? We call those downtrends.
There's an important reason why I bring this up. There is a much higher likelihood for markets to continue in the direction they're heading in, than for them to just reverse course and start to move in the opposite direction. This is true for both uptrends and downtrends.
We live in an interesting world of double standards. When stocks are going up and "irresponsible" shorts are getting squeezed, no one feels bad for them. In fact, short sellers get ridiculed for "being so stupid" (see: $TSLA last year). But when longs are getting killed for being irresponsible, we're supposed to feel bad for them right? That's how this works?
I know there are certain perceptions about the intentions of shorts betting on a company failing vs shareholders betting on a company's growth. Fine. But seriously, is there a difference at the end of the day. It's really just math for most of us. I think we really need to think about these things. I don't have the answers, but I certainly question the hypocrisy.
There has been a lot of risk in the stock market over the past 2 months and that still has not changed. Things are getting worse, not better. I tried to emphasize in this week's Live Call that we have NOT seen any evidence to suggest that the worst of the selling is behind us.
We've been inundated with emails from Financial Advisors and traders all over the world. From New York to London, South Africa, Malaysia, Laguna Beach they keep coming in. We work really hard and it is so nice to see how much we've been able to help people, both pros and every day hard working individuals. Thank you from all of us at Allstarcharts! We don't take these notes for granted even for a second.
We know times are tough for some people right now. I have friends and family that lost their jobs today. I'm seeing it outside of markets.
Just as we focus on the strongest markets and stocks to find opportunities during equity bull markets, we look to identify the weakest areas during bear markets. We just want to be in the strongest trends, regardless of their direction.
A few weeks ago we ran some statistics to highlight US stocks that were bucking the trend during the selloff, as those would be the areas to focus on if/when equities eventually regained their footing. While many names have fared well, we were a bit early as the market soon broke below our risk management levels, putting us in a position where we no longer want to be long stocks.
Warning signals were piling up throughout 2020, but weak breadth has been an underlying issue for Indian stocks since they made new highs in August 2016.
While we wait for breadth and momentum divergences to form and suggest getting aggressive on the long side, we're going to look back at how the average Nifty 500 stock has performed over the last 3.5 years and why this data is relevant to today's market.
Every month I host a Conference Call for members of All Star Charts Pro. From the feedback we get from our readers all over the world, this one feature of our Membership is a fan favorite.
A lot has happened in the past month. You hear things about interest rates getting slashed to zero, viruses impacting stocks all over the world and many things that none of us could have predicted a month ago. However, Technical Analysis gave us the ability to get out of the way and avoid this entire mess. Not only did we want to buy bonds, but we simultaneously wanted to sell stocks!
Today I want to share with you the video of last month's Live Conference Call. I've unlocked it so anyone can watch it, not just Premium Members. I've gotten a lot of requests to do this, even from paid subscribers, because opening it up serves as a great educational resource for the future. We can all learn from this, myself included.
These are the types of markets that are a statisticians dream come true. They get to run all sorts of scans and tests to see how long it's been since volatility did this or the rate of change in the S&P500 did that. To be honest, it's all a bunch of bullshit. The market doesn't care about your stats.
I'm not going to go over all of them because I don't find them very helpful. In fact, I find them incredibly deceiving and, even worse, distracting. I felt that way on the way up with their stupid, "S&P500 hasn't moved 1% in a single day in x amount of days....". Who gives a damn?
Today is no different.
Let's talk about what actually matters.
2750 in the S&P500 was support in the first half of 2019. We closed the week still below that. We might have a slight bullish momentum divergence, but if S&Ps are below 2750, we put this index in the "No-man's land" category:
We got a lower low in equities, followed by continued weakness rather than stabilization. Heavy cash positions and a defensive posture remains best in this historically volatile environment.
Given how quickly things are moving, there are three charts on our screen that will help identify when a shift in the market is occuring.
Mike Hurley has been an inspiration to me for many years. When it comes to market breadth, this is the guy. He'll tell you he learned it from his predecessors and how he's standing on the shoulders of giants and all those things he discusses in this episode, but for me personally, he's been a great influence for sure. Many of you know how seriously I take my breadth work and how valuable it has been to so many of us for many years. It's people like Mike and others who have helped my process evolve to where it is today.
We had a few buyers but most of you were selling at this logical level of interest or exercising patience to see how prices react here. A few responses also pointed out that this likely isn't the best time to enter on the long side but are anticipating an eventual breakout and would be buyers if and when we get it.
This is the same camp we'd fall into and we provide details why in the original Mystery Chart post. With that as our backdrop, let's look at the chart.
The market goes through periods of volatility. We've seen it before and we'll see it again. For me, it's all about learning from this experience and coming out of it a better and wiser investor. Notice how you're behaving and acting during this period.
I know the way I'm feeling during this volatility is much different than my emotions and behavior in 2008 and 2011 and 2015 and 2018. I learned. And I will learn from this one as well to prepare me better for the next go around. I encourage you to do the same.
Today I want to talk about how, "Bottom fishing can be hazardous to your wealth". The goal is not to try and catch a falling knife (see here why), but to buy on the way back up.
