I was on the road yesterday, so I listened to CNBC on XM while tooling around town. I lost count of how many pundits sounded downright angry about how the market was melting up. “It makes no sense!” they cried, citing countless statistics from plunging retail sales to plunging earnings expectations. Not one of them brought up VIX.In a market where most of the trading is by computers which are merely responding to preprogrammed signals (aka algorithms) it has become quite simple to nudge the market one way or another.

Given that COMP has really struggled to get and stay above its SMA200, VIX is telling the computers to buy. It already got the ball rolling by plunging below its SMA200 and is now reiterating the signal by simply breaking down below the red channel bottom.This is a well-worn trick, illustrated best by the period 2015-2016. Every time SPX needed to get back above its SMA200 (in order to delay the 1823 tag until the channel bottom arrived in Feb 2016)……VIX was there with an assist, dropping below its own SMA200 (the red moving average.) When things got really dicey and a big push was needed, VIX broke down below the well-established trend lines (below in red.)Now that it’s doing the same thing again, and oil and gas, interest rates and currencies are all following suit, the message is unmistakable: buy, machines, buy!

Will the few remaining carbon-based investors also comply?

continued for members…ES and SPX both have another shot at a right shoulder for an IH&S pattern. But, the COMP problem might well prevent such a risky gambit.  If it gets that far, the test will happen at the intersection of the SMA10 and SMA200.

Currencies are all helping out. …as CL is finally starting to show signs of a reversal (even though RB isn’t yet.) Even bonds are on the bulls’ side today.

Though, the yield curve model remains bearish. Gold, on the other hand, has reversed and is back below its .886 — triggering a short signal with stops back at the .886.I have more doctors’ appointments this morning, so will be offline for at least a few hours.

GLTA.

UPDATE:  9:00 PM

Almost got a little momentum going there, but the algos snatched 10 points back in the last 30 minutes — mostly VIX.

A dip to the SMA200 or SMA10 still makes sense, especially if they can limit COMP’s dip as well as they did today. Loads of Fed governors speaking tomorrow, should be quite telling after the uber dovish message sent by the minutes.