Saturday, February 02, 2013

Ground hog sees another year of bull, top in 2014

The subject line is an attempt at humor as I type this up on Ground Hog day 2013. During a recent ThinkorSwim webinar (Swim Lessons Thursday January 31, 2012) they spent a lot of time on the long term SPY chart. Here is a link to a similar Yahoo chart.

A lot of traders are focused on the potential of a triple top, and the price for SPY 157 or so. What caught my eye is the time frame. If the next market top is the same distance in time as the others, that gives another year of bull market with a possible top in early 2014. That fits in with the shifting sands of stock market sentiment.

While there are a few headlines trumpeting Dow 14000 and the best January since 1989, there were also articles featuring doom-and-gloomers such as Marc Faber calling for a 20% smash, and another less famous pundit calling for a 50% waterfall decline. These tend not to be the kind of articles featured at long time market tops.

So many seem to be focused on the price level of the two prior peaks, I don't think it will matter that much. Not many seem to be focused on the cycle length.

During the ThinkorSwim weekly market wrap up, one presenter lamented that low volatility grinds higher was one of the worst kinds of markets for his style of trading. It is increasingly difficult for option premium sellers to find good risk/reward situations.

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