What is going on right now?

Is helicopter Ben just not going to show up any longer? What does that even mean? I follow price not Fed Chair hobbies.

Will the death of Osama Bin Laden really mark a top in the stock market? Is this more of the grief he will leave behind?

Do we now really need higher oil prices to create a rally even though they are supposed to also slow the rallies?

When lower prices beget lower prices in the market, can not the best prices be found by the sellers and the worst prices found by the buy the dippers?

All this noise has been further clouding my boring days as I wait with angst for a real buy.

While efficient in price discovery, the market is currently greatly lacking in its emotional efficiency.

As I sit here talking to myself, to the market essentially, over and over I think- Just get it over with. This sea of red is just a fight for the best price.

Emotionally this cut in the markets price is not clean.

This correction could very well be something greater. Someone, something, the markets, always knows more than me. Maybe more than the price is telling me.

But I’m currently reserved to feel the following. Just get it over with.

Because there will be no Bin Laden top. America will resolve that by helicopter… again.

By SSTtrader | May 17, 2011 | Market Thoughts | 1 Comment |

  • A month has passed since this rant. It did no good. Six weeks closed lower in the indexes and this seventh week marginal close in the green. 

    The “emotional efficiency” of the market that I spoke of was apt at the time, it was brutal, but what it really meant was that I had to cut my losses. 

    The market did not let people off the hook this time, at least not right away. I needed to “just get it over with”, not the market.

    What was happening in the past was not happening any longer. Lower lows were being made and all the noise and news it could be ignored as usual; no matter how important, price is more important. 

    Into the end of the May rally I cut most all of my short term holdings. I have been in and out of a few equities since, but bullish bets have been cut short repeatedly.

    A month later, mostly cash, calm as can be. Perhaps my best month of doing nothing unless there is something to be done.

    I’ve been watching the tape intently. There have been a few false positive signals on what I’m watching but for the most part no clear signal to buy yet on the equities Im following.

    The market is still searching for the best price but at a slow pace. It has been pressing lower, but the big whoosh selloff has been muted by options in the VIX supposedly and has not given the stereotypical all clear signal that selling may abate. 

    I still hold bias to the upside, that the prior top will be taken out. From when, where…I don’t know. I am looking to first play an intermediate retracement to that top however. 

    Most of the stocks that Im watching are hovering near weekly or monthly levels I have targeted. Whether they pull away and make people chase or swoon through these levels lower…I also don’t know. 

    But, my plan given the last 7 weeks of price action is to absolutely fight for the best price.