Thursday, July 5, 2012

Looking for Reasons to Sell

This is not the first time that I find myself in this position. I am long but looking to reverse on first opportunity. Market has to give me a reason or two. This is bizarre! Why the heck do I want to go short?

AAPL and GOOG are up 1.8 and 1.4 percent, thus keeping NDX from going lower. iPad mini or whatever is the reason, I do not care... SOX is not confirming - rejected at 200 dma for the second day in a row. It is between the goal posts (50 and 200 on daily) at the moment. If 200 is taken out I will stay long, if 50 goes on the downside - all long bets are off then...

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Transports are looking for a breakout, again. It would give the Dow Theorists an extra reason to push Dow Industrials higher.

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Rate cuts from PBOC and ECB, additional QE from BOE, and the result on equities is - nil. This is extremely discouraging. I understand, NFP is out tomorrow morning and many players are not going to commit in a big way. But getting absolutely nothing in response to coincidental easing from the big 3 CBs is definitely upsetting and alarming.

Chain store sales are not very strong, but it is summer, so I will not be too demanding. XRT is up 1% today, perhaps the weakness was already priced in. Or could better-than-expected ADP be the culprit for higher prices in retail sector? (Better jobs report = better retail sales...) Speaking of which, can better-than-expected NFP tomorrow mess up the QE3 front-running trade? This alone could be a good reason to sell SPX, in my very humble opinion.

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Q2 earnings warnings are coming from all over the place. They are ugly, to say the least... It could be too late to push the sell button when earnings are reported, as Q3 guidance may be even weaker then. Is the anticipation of crappy earnings season, which begins next week, the reason for why VIX was up 5% today? On a relatively flat day...

Technically speaking nothing on the big picture says to sell yet. SPX 1380 - 1400 resistance may be taken out and become a launchpad for even higher prices. Could it also become a blow-off top? Sure, but one has to be patient here... Wait for the signal!
If fundamentals are confusing, then I go with the technicals, and they are pointing to higher equity prices for now.

There is a lot to think about here. Believe me, this is half of the stuff going through my mind. If I see the technical picture get progressively worse, I will jump to the other side very quickly.

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