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Showing posts with label Alpha King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alpha King. Show all posts

Friday, November 21, 2008

Reversal Rally May Come Soon!

Trader Talk

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading indicator. The accumulation/distribution profile remains negative, with no high volume follow-through advances to confirm any of the big up days since the crash landed in September and October. The leadership profile also remains very bearish, with 46 stocks making new 52 week highs versus 2,576 stocks making new 52 week lows.

The 4% rule remains negative, while Federal Reserve policy remains positive. The VXO volatility indicator closed the week at 76.2, starting a new spike up in fear, though still shy of the spectacular number that suggests this bear plunge is over. The primary Elliott wave count suggests a wave 5 meltdown remains underway, with today's pop a minor wave iv of an expected 5 wave move that should see recent news lows breached on a closing basis. What should follow this wave 5 plunge (to end the giant wave 3 that started in May,) is a mega rally to start a giant wave 4. In other words: still lots of bear to go, though getting ready for a big bounce much larger than we've experienced so far this year.

Traditional seasonal trends have us looking for a rebound following a capitulation collapse in the 4th quarter, while the Presidential cycle remains bullish for the remainder of 2008. The Benner-Fibonacci cycle will remain bullish until 2010, though this prolonged time period may include one or more cyclical bear phases. The AlphaKing combination cycle sees a bear market slump running all the way into mid-December when the next major turn-date is slated to land.

Summary:

This week saw the capitulation melt-down we wrote about last week commence for real, and today's snap-back appears simply a partial counter-trend rally within than larger melt-down run. While this melt-down run can see much lower prices for the stock indexes, this is the time to be thinking about where to buy, rather than following the dumb money in believing the financial world is about to end. Indeed, our biggest fear should be missing the entry boat on this very well telegraphed plunge - and thus the stock market take off without us on the expected mega rally headed our way fast - rather than trying to milk every last dime of profit on short positions.

This market has opportunity written all over it. Want to make 20, 30, 50% on your 401K? Then this is the kind of technical set up where that can be delivered, and in very short order (as the shorts get creamed on the recovery bounce soon to come.) So get your mind together over the weekend as to what you want to do on the long side. Staying in cash while the AK Trading indicator remains in sell mode is not the dumbest thing one can do - those bulls who stayed long this year while the AK indicator was in sell mode have that covered - though we plan to move the AK portfolios to the long side on any move to new lows next week.

We have studied bear markets, and there is nothing about this one that says it will break from its traditional breakdown followed by recovery pattern. Wave 1 and 2 were the topping action earlier in the year. Wave 3 was the meltdown that landed in September/October/November (which is still playing out), and thus what should follow the sharp spike down below the October 10 lows is a wave 4 sideways churn trading range pattern with Dow 7000ish as the bottom, and Dow 10,000ish has the top. Do the maths. That's a near 50% rally for the Dow (and you can bet we'll be buying something with a little more Ommph! than the Dow.) Since wave 4s are M shaped rally, pullback, rally, pullback moves - within a very wide trading range over the prolonged periods of time - these near 50% moves should land multiple times before wave 4 is complete. Yes, this will likely end very badly for the bulls - as this great bear is for real - though wave 4s of this magnitude offer tremendous amounts of profits for those looking ahead with a wary eye on what comes next. We expect to act very early next week, possibly as early as Monday. The more red ink we see the more comfortable we are in buying long.

Have a nice weekend.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist, AlphaKing.com

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Listen to & Buy the New Stock Market Blues Song!

Listen to & Buy Stock Market Blues Here

Stock Market Blues is a song about how NOT to get the stock market blues, with an Amusing, Educational lyric full of age-old Wall Street axioms, cliches, great advice.

Unusual rhymes will make you smile and recognize the rhythm of Wall Street. A Smooth Jazz Melody written & performed by Kevin Disimone of Bloodline, accomplished musician and songwriter. Lyrics by Robert Bendekgey, Trading Strategist at AlphaKing.com which is UP 95% year to date thru 11-19-08 and updates, publishes performance daily for all to see!


Friday, October 10, 2008

Bear Market History Made!

Weekly Trend & Trade Review

Trader Talk

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading indicator. The accumulation/distribution profile remains negative, confirmed with a very bearish leadership profile, with 22 stocks making new 52 week highs versus 4,340 stocks making new 52 week lows.

The 4% rule remains bearish, while Federal Reserve policy remains bullish. The VXO volatility indicator closed the week at 86, continuing the bull market for fear. Please note the high for this sentiment gauge is a whopping 172 during the 1987 crash, so while 86 is super-high, it may have a lot more to go. The primary Elliott wave count suggests the wave 3 of 3 meltdown run is nearing the end of the crash phase.

Traditional seasonal trends have us looking for a difficult third quarter for the bulls, while the Presidential cycle remains bullish for the remainder of 2008. The Benner-Fibonacci cycle will remain bullish until 2010, though this prolonged time period may include one or more cyclical bear phases. The AlphaKing combination cycle sees a bear market slump running all the way into mid-December when the next major turn-date is slated to land.

Summary:

WOW! does not begin to describe the trading action this week. Triple WOW! Quadruple WOW! Maybe even 700 billion WOWs! For those who may have missed it, the stock indexes fell over 20% THIS WEEK. That fits my definition of a crash, any day of the week. And the thing is, it all seems so orderly that we fear we've seen nothing yet. Percentage-wise, the losses are on par with both the 1987 and 1929 crashes, thus we weren't kidding when we said this was a meltdown of historical proportions. And while those comparisons suggest a recovery bounce should land at this juncture, the internal wave count and general calm feel suggest there's one more scary plunge to come. One that sees the VIX fear index best levels seen in 1987. Are we talking DOW 7,000? Or 6000? Or 5000? Or worse? Yes. Maybe. Perhaps. Perhaps worse...

We have our plan for what comes next, and we should have a giant head's up as to when the plunge is nearing its end. Before then, we expect the coming days to be very tricky for most people with money in the financial markets, and, perhaps, even worse for those people who have little clue as to how the stock market really effects their daily lives. It's one thing to be scared witless while playing a potential profit opportunity that blew up, and something else much more onerous to suffer a hard squeeze of the coronaries when you aren't even sure why you're experiencing such emotion and have no money directly on the line. But fear it the average Joe and Jane will, whether they have money at risk or not.

We hope that our words - and, more importantly, our actions - have helped you weather the plunge so far to date from both a financial and emotional stand point. We have studied history. We have studied crashes. We have built a system designed to handle any situation. We are not surprised by the action this year. Just as we are not surprised by how well our portfolios have acted. You have to look no further for evidence of what we should have expected during a big bad bear market plunge, than seeing how our strategies handled the 1987 and 2000-2002 bear market plunge years. Visit the archives to see annual rates of change of all of strategies that we published around the Christmas and New Year period last year. Then compare to how our portfolios have done this year. We think it makes interesting, insightful, viewing.

Have a good weekend. Take a deep breath. This is probably going to get worse before it gets better, but, better days, and profits on longs, are rapidly coming our way. But first: the capitulation plunge end game...

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist, AlphaKing.com

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Still a Bear Market

Trader Talk

The major stock indexes enjoyed a partial rebound of yesterday's mega losses, though volume was a tad light for such gains.

Officially, the NASDAQ advanced 5.0% on 2.4 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials rose 4.7% on NYSE volume of 6.1 billion shares. The leadership profile remains very negative, with 23 stocks making new highs versus 604 stocks making new lows.

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have no new trades at this time.

The bulls stepped up to the plate today to prevent a follow-through to yesterday's misery, temporarily delaying any crash run of the quick type. Hopes are rising that the red ink yesterday will move Congress toward a YES vote on the bailout package. We continue to believe that such a focus on the bailout misses the point of a stock market in trouble due to fast-approaching recession. Thus any and all rally attempts going forward should soon fail. Indeed, yesterday's collapse landed in five waves, while today's partial recovery in three. That's classic bear market action that should lead to continuation of lower lows and lower highs. The stock indexes closed at a point where further gains are going to be difficult to come by. A retest of the 2002 bear lows remains our downside target for this leg of the bear.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Friday, August 29, 2008

Weekly Trend and Trade Review

Trader Talk

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, non-confirming the bullish stance of the AlphaKing Trading indicator. The accumulation/distribution profile remains positive, with zero distribution days since the new buy was issued. The leadership profile remains mildly negative, with Friday's close yielding 65 stocks making new 52 week highs versus 127 stocks making new 52 week lows.

The 4% rule remains positive, confirmed with bullish Federal Reserve policy. The VXO volatility indicator closed the week at 22.6, remaining in the complacency camp. The primary Elliott wave count continues to suggest a wave 2 counter-trend advance within a bear market continues to unfold. If so, the wave 3 melt-down run should start once the near double top, or actual, double topping pattern completes. A move above the October 2007 highs negates this bearish view, and would confirm a new cyclical bull market underway. Such new highs are a very long way away.

Traditional seasonal trends have us looking for a difficult third quarter for the bulls after a modest summer rally attempt stalls, while the Presidential cycle remains bullish for the remainder of 2008. The Benner-Fibonacci cycle will remain bullish until 2010, though this prolonged time period may include one or more cyclical bear phases. The AlphaKing combination cycle sees a bear market slump running all the way into mid-December when the next major turn-date is slated to land.

Summary:

Overall we would suggest the trading action this week should be forgotten as meaningless. The news was mediocre - for a change - and trading run on super light volume. Every rally was met with a sell-off, and every sell-off met with a rally. Next week - following the markets being closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday - should be more normal in both trend, meaning, and volume. While our indicators remain bullish, our overall view is that we are in some kind of bear market counter-trend advance, and as such we believe it is simply a matter of where the stock indexes run into trouble, rather than if they falter. That said, the overall technical set-up ex-volume suggests another big leg up for the stock indexes is the more likely outcome going forward. Don't try to over think things at this juncture, as there simply is not enough information to make an accurate assessment of what comes next. Patience, Grasshopper, patience. And, yes, I will take another cold one to go with that dog. Happy Holiday, fellow workers.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist, AlphaKing.com

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Bulls get Benefit of Doubt

Trader Talk

The major stock indexes traded back and forth the unchanged level today, with the stock indexes once again experiencing super light volume.

Officially, the NASDAQ fell 0.2% on 1.5 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials rose 0.2% on NYSE volume of 3.5 billion shares. The leadership profile remains negative, with 54 stocks making new highs versus 220 stocks making new lows.

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, non-confirming the bullish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have a new trade below.

The bulls are trying to hold support. The bears are trying to keep the S&P500 and Dow Industrials from a breakout above the 50 day MAs. Is the sideways churn over the past month a mini head and shoulders top that is destined to result in a collapse? Or is it a sideways triangle to consolidate the rally gains off the July 15 lows? (Triangles are usually continuation patterns, which means an upside breakout is likely to start the next leg of the rally.) Both are possible, and the battle for the stock market trend is held hostage to that decision. While the low volume and modest list of stocks making new lows tip the odds of victory with the bulls, the fast approaching September/October period has the bear's mouth watering. Tricky times, but a victory answer should land in the non-too-distant future.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Day 3 of Market Correction

Trader Talk

The major stock indexes fell hard once again today on on-going weakness in the housing sector, along with higher than expected inflation, doing nothing to ease trader jitters. Volume was a tad higher than yesterday.

Officially, the NASDAQ fell 1.1% on 1.8 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials dropped 1.1% on NYSE volume of 4.2 billion shares. The leadership profile remains negative, with 42 stocks making new highs versus 286 stocks making new lows.

The short term momentum oscillators remain positive, confirming the bullish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have no new trades at this time.

The relatively low level of stocks making new lows, along with reasonably benign volume on down-days, suggest the current stock market weakness is a normal corrective pullback within an on-going up-trend. We are getting close to levels where the buyers would be expected to step forward, and day four on one-way moves often provide great turning points. Today was day three of the recent selling pressure. The big question with entry trades on day four is whether the low lands at the open, or at the close. Both work well in testing. Our plan is to shoot for the close as being the low, and thus we'll wait till tomorrow's update to switch the unleveraged QQQQ long trade for the Index portfolio to the leveraged QQQQ long one (QLD.)

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

New Buy Signal for Stock Market

Trader Talk

The major stock indexes fell today as more financial companies reported heavy losses and write-downs. Volume was interestingly lighter than yesterday. The leadership profile has flip-flopped back into negative territory, with 117 stocks making new highs versus 202 stocks making new lows.

Officially, the NASDAQ fell 0.4% on 2.1 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials dropped 1.2% on NYSE volume of 4.7 billion shares. The short term momentum oscillators remain positive, confirming the now BULLISH stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have new trades below to exit all short positions, and to begin the dollar cost averaging process of entering new long picks.

The stock market has been in a bear market since October of last year. Peak losses were over the 20% range. Thus both time and price destruction commonly seen during bear markets has been within expectations this time around. The FED has been aggressive in pumping money into the financial system, while the financial markets experienced a capitulation of sorts, with record numbers of stocks making new lows, and the volatility index almost hitting the wash-out 40 level. Thus the ingredients are present for the bear market to be over, and a new bull market underway.

Fundamentals lag stock market and economic trends, so the bad news may not be telling the real story. Of course the bears could have it right, and our new buy signal quickly turn into a whipsaw sell in the non-too-distant future, but one could have written that at every positive turning point the stock market has experienced in history. The most important element when it comes to making money in the financial markets over the long term isn't whether this or that signal proves to be real versus a failed whipsaw one, rather it is about keeping losses low on the failures while letting the winners and the gains run when the new trend turns out to be the real deal. Our research shows that the AK Trading Indicator is the best there is at delivering that high gain/low loss requirement. It has spoken, and we are acting. The QQQQ long position for the Index portfolio will be changed to a leveraged long ETF on any pullback close to the 50 day MA for the NASDAQ going forward, while we will add new long positions to the other portfolios each day until we are fully invested, or our trend following indicators turn negative.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Friday, August 8, 2008

Weekly Trend and Trade Review

Trader Talk

The short term momentum oscillators remain positive, non-confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading indicator. The accumulation/distribution profile remains negative, with a failure of high volume to confirm Friday's advance as a follow-through day that would have triggered a buy signal for this very important confirming indicator. The leadership also remains negative, with Friday's close yielding 130 stocks making new 52 week highs versus 222 stocks making new 52 week lows.

The 4% rule remains positive, confirmed with bullish Federal Reserve policy. The VXO volatility indicator closed the week at 21.9, moving back into the complacency camp, and remains contrarian bearish. The primary Elliott wave count continues to suggest a wave 2 counter-trend advance within a bear market continues to unfold. If so, the wave 3 melt-down run should start in the non-too-distant future as wave 2 completes.

Traditional seasonal trends have us looking for a difficult third quarter for the bulls after a modest summer rally attempt stalls, while the Presidential cycle remains bullish for the remainder of 2008. The Benner-Fibonacci cycle will remain bullish until 2010, though this prolonged time period may include one or more cyclical bear phases. The AlphaKing combination cycle sees a bear market slump running all the way into mid-December when the next major turn-date is slated to land.

Summary:

The stock market advance this week confirms the Elliott Wave 2 counter-trend topping move is not yet complete, though may be very close to doing so. The NASDAQ advance, in particular, looks about done, as all waves appear in place. The Dow Industrials and S&P500 closed smack on their 50 day MAs, and whether they too break out and launch to the upside to mimic what happened to the NASDAQ, or if they stall here and the slide resumes, should be answered early next week. The lack of volume on the rally continues to argue that we are experiencing nothing more than a bear market trap for the bulls.

Our trend following indicators may also get caught up in this fool-the-most-people move, but as trend followers we will gladly trade in line with our indicators. That means holding shorts if the stock indexes begin to slide early next week, or move to the long side of the market on any failure to reverse as a buy signal is triggered. If such a buy signal turns out to be the real thing, then we'll happily make money being proven wrong in our thinking that we remain in a bear market. If such a buy signal proves us correct that the bear is alive and well - by triggering a sell signal soon after the buy - then we'll gladly reverse our positions and accept such volatility has part of the process of making money over the long term using a research proven trend following approach.

The goal is to make a solid return when the trend delivers on a new trading signal, while keeping losses small on failed signals, rather than being proven right all the time. No one, no investment system, can do the latter with any degree of success, and trend following is the next best alternate to having a time machine that can give us tomorrow's hindsight today. The average annual rate of return for the AK Trading Indicator - using the NASDAQ Index to gauge results - is 15% long only (unleveraged,) 30% (leveraged,) and 19.7% long/short (unleveraged,) 35.2% leveraged (from 1973 through the end of 2007.) The average trade is close to 17% on wins, versus 3% on failed signals (unleverged,) 34% on wins versus 6% losses (leveraged.) Thus results since the June 24th sell signal are very much in line with expectations.

We will not act before our indicators tell us to, as there have been many times in history where a new trend change signal was close to being signaled yet the signal never happened, as one aspect of the AK Trading Indicator we like is its ability to only limit signal changes to those that likely matter the most. Annual trading results of all our portfolios are shown in the archives of our Updates between 12/24/2007 and 1/2/2008.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist, AlphaKing.com

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Thursday, July 31, 2008

3 Waves Up, 5 Waves Down

Trader Talk

The action today was the exact opposite of yesterday where a rally was followed by a sell-off, which was followed by a late-day surge, while today we saw a drop at the open, a rally intra-day, followed by a late-day plunge. Volume was on par with yesterday.

Officially, the NASDAQ fell 0.2% on 2.4 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials dropped 1.8% on NYSE volume of 5.4 billion shares. The leadership profile remains negative, with 103 stocks making new highs versus 225 stocks making new lows.

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have no new trades at this time.

The overall pattern remains solidly bearish, with the downward stair-step pattern of lower lows and lower highs remaining intact. So too continues the bearish trend of five wave sell-offs followed by three-wave partial recovery bounces. Today's action looks like a five wave down move followed by three-waves up topping action. If so, it should be all downhill from here. The economic news showed weaker than expected GDP growth, and weaker than expected unemployment numbers.

The Big Kahuna of the latter lands prior to the open tomorrow, and could be the last straw that opens the selling flood-gates to confirm the super-bearish potential of the Elliott Wave set-up. As trend-followers with major skin in the game, we look forward to the next stock market buy signal, though so far there appears to be little in the way of hope for such bullish nirvana. When that changes we will gladly change our stance from bear to bull. Till then, watch out below....

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

No More Truck Leasing?

Trader Talk

The major stock indexes opened brightly to follow on from yesterday's rally, only to fall hard intra-day, before a late-day recovery bounce helped land another close in the green. Volume was on par with yesterday.

Officially, the NASDAQ advanced 0.4% on 2.3 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials rose 1.6% on NYSE volume of 5.6 billion shares. The leadership profile remains negative, with 120 stocks making new highs versus 225 stocks making new lows.

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have no new trades at this time.

The overall pattern remains solidly bearish, with the downward stair-step pattern of lower lows and lower highs remaining intact. So too continues the bearish trend of five wave sell-offs followed by three-wave partial recovery bounces. Today's action leaves the S&P500 at the Fibonacci 80% points lost during the prior slide level. The bulls are dead in the water while the stock indexes remain below last week's highs, and even if they were able to engineer a breakout above those keys levels, the down-trending 50 day moving averages are moving fast into position to stall such an advance in its infancy.

We saw interesting snippets of information travel across the financial media today that got surprisingly little commentary. The major car companies and major lending companies anounced they will no longer be offering car leases to consumers or businesses. This is due to vehicles at the end of the lease being worth much less than the car companies and lenders thought they would be worth. That leaves the lenders and car companies in yet another deep hole. The current plan to stop car leases altogether seems to us to radically change the car buying and overall economic landscape. Consumers commonly take on three types of debt. The largest debt being used to buy a home. The next largest to purchase or lease a car. The next largest revolving credit card debt.

The first two of them - houses and now cars - have essentially bankrupted many big time lenders and players involved the business of lending to consumers for those big item purchases that are the cornerstone of the American Dream. One wonders how the car companies will deal with no car leasing business, or even how they can survive taking another hit as leased cars already out on the streets get traded in for less than they are worth as the lease agreement expires. One also wonders when credit card debt - which is the last bastion of consumer credit still standing - also takes a hit.

Hard to imagine that this massive financial instrument can survive unscathed from the credit bubble collapse when the other two big sectors of consumer borrowing have taken such a beating. While the financial media seemed to ignore today's news on car leasing troubles, we believe it is simply a matter of time before the headlines are filled once again with the grim reality that the big players in the debt financing business have taken on more than they can chew. Needless to say, we remain bearish in-line with our trend indicators.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Still a Bear Market

Trader Talk

The major stock indexes were down 2% yesterday so of course today they were up a similar amount, with such volatility no doubt good for the business of anti-stomach ulcer drug makers. Officially, the NASDAQ advanced 2.5% on 2.3 billion shares, while the Dow Industrials rose 2.4% on NYSE volume of 5.4 billion shares. The leadership profile remains negative, with 80 stocks making new highs versus 233 stocks making new lows.

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading Indicator. We have no new trades at this time.

The overall pattern remains solidly bearish, with the downward stair-step pattern of lower lows and lower highs remaining intact. As trend followers we do not need to be able to predict the markets to make money, and certainly no one can predict stock market turns and trends with any high degree of success over the long term. With that said, here's what we believe to be the higher probability plays going forward. The first is based on Elliott Wave and our experience of the breakdown/pullback historical pattern of expectation. That says since the S&P500 fell in five clear waves over four days prior to today's bounce, and today the S&P500 shows a Fibonacci 50% recovery of points lost during the prior slide, what should follow very soon is a continuation of the collapse, all as part of something very bad indeed for those long the market.

The second most likely outcome is based on our experience of technical analysis, which says those 50 day MAs shown in the charts below look mightly enticing to the bulls, and it wouldn't be a major surprise to see those technical-lines-in-the-sand be the final resting place for this counter-trend advance within an on-going bear market. We have seen no sign yet that the stock market wants to flip to bull mode, and we remain very cautious until the investment ducks start to turn for real. The next down move should be much more scary than we have seen so far during this bear, and we believe strongly that it remains a question of when the next down-leg of bear starts, rather than if.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist AlphaKing.com.

For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing

Friday, July 25, 2008

Weekly Trend and Trade Review

Trader Talk

The short term momentum oscillators remain negative, confirming the bearish stance of the AlphaKing Trading indicator. The accumulation/distribution profile remains negative, with a failure of the second 2%+ high volume follow-through advance needed to confirm a new buy signal from this very important trend confirming indicator. The leadership profile remains bearish, with Friday's close yielding 98 stocks making new 52 week highs versus 236 stocks making new 52 week lows.

The 4% rule has turned positive, confirmed with bullish Federal Reserve policy. The VXO volatility indicator closed the week at 24.1, showing some lessening of fear, and remains contrarian bearish. The primary Elliott wave count continues to suggest a wave 3 melt-down run remains underway, with the current wave count wave (ii) of Wave 3, and an out-right crash in the wave (iii) of 3 should land in the non-too-distant future as the wave (ii) counter-trend push exhausts itself.

Traditional seasonal trends have us looking for a difficult third quarter for the bulls after a modest summer rally attempt stalls, while the Presidential cycle remains bullish for the remainder of 2008. The Benner-Fibonacci cycle will remain bullish until 2010, though this prolonged time period may include one or more cyclical bear phases. The AlphaKing combination cycle sees a bear market slump running all the way into mid-December when the next major turn-date is slated to land.

Summary:

While the rally off last week's near crashing lows has been swift, the internal technical set-up appears to confirm the move nothing more than part of a counter-trend rally within an ongoing bear market. The stock indexes have so far retraced a Fibonacci 38% of points lost in the wave 1 collapse, which is the first potential stopping point for Elliott wave 2s. The 50% and 63% Fibonacci retracement levels are near the 50 day moving averages for the stock indexes, which remain the most likely stopping points for this advance. What should follow - once the wave (ii) ends for real (either here or at the 50 day MAs) - is a bona-fide melt-down run and probable crash in wave (iii) of wave 3. The current rally - which should end very modest, if it hasn't ended already - should be the last chance to exit longs and enter shorts ahead of the pending collapse. Things should move very quickly to the downside once wave (ii) has ended, so any portfolio pruning should be done sooner rather than later, as later may never happen. Capital preservation remains the key to the next few tricky months.

Kevin Wilde, Chief Trading Strategist, AlphaKing.com


For Free charts with trading signals and fundamentals ratings, visit AlphaKing