This week, $SPX did break down a little bit, violating the 2175 level, which had been the bottom of the tight 2175-2195 trading range that had contained prices for most of this month. But the piercing of minor support at 2175 was not significant. However, a breach of the 2160 support area would be more damaging, in my opinion.
The video of Larry McMillan's recent The Current State of Option-Oriented Indicators webinar with Investor Inspiration from August 8th is now available on their YouTube channel. In the video, Larry takes an in-depth look into our various technical indicators and discusses what they are saying about the market. Scroll down to watch the video or click here.
Stocks continue to trade in a tight, sideways range. This is a situation which will eventually lead to a breakout. Most analysts are bearish because of the low volatility and because of the fact that $SPX is near or at all-time highs. But the important part of that sentence is "Most analysts are bearish." Forget the reasons. If they are mostly bearish, the market is unlikely to accommodate them.
New all-time intraday and closing highs were registered yesterday for $SPX, the NASDAQ Composite, and the Dow- Jones Industrials. Thus the $SPX chart remains bullish as it is clearly in an uptrend, and the moving averages are all rising as well.
It is becoming commonplace to hear commentators on the business channels say something like “You need to buy protection now, for it is extremely cheap.” That is a very misleading statement. Yes, $VIX is low, but you can’t buy $VIX.
The market tried to break down this week, as $SPX finally pushed through the lower end of the very tight 2160-2175 trading range that had held it in check since mid-July. However, that feint downward was short-lived, and $SPX crawled right back up into the trading range once again. As a result, the $SPX chart remains bullish.
The major support area is 2120-2135, the top of the trading range that had held $SPX back from making new highs for over a year.
McMillan Analysis Corp. president Lawrence G. McMillan will be participating in Investor Inspiration's Investor Masterminds seminar on August 4th, 2016. Larry's presentation will be on The Current State of Option-Oriented Indicators and begins at 1:45 pm Eastern Time.
Without a doubt, the hardest thing to do in the stock market is to spot a major market top before it happens. Bottoms are much easier to discern. One reason for this is that bottoms tend to be “V” or “W” affairs, with sharp downward spikes and sharp recoveries, but tops are “rolling” things that can take what seems like forever to complete.
