The market’s hanging in there, finding support at the purple midline and a red channel line  after retracing completing a bullish Bat Pattern yesterday. The bulls need ES 1786/SPX 1785 to hold.

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INITIAL POST:  9:20 AM

Between bank downgrades, the ADP report and a raft of bearish analogs floating around out there, it’s a tough day to buy the dip.  But, that’s exactly what the charts, particularly a rather bullish analog, are telling us to do.

Look for the eminis to potentially tag the white .786 at 1782.63 and for SPX to bottom out at current levels (1785.91.)

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The rising wedge is broken and ES is nearing our first target from yesterday.  Have we already topped out?

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The chart of the day:

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I hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend.   Equity markets close at 1PM EST today.

Most of the indices and currencies we watch have been coiling — tracing out triangle or flag patterns this past week.  A break out is now imminent, but it will be a trap.

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Do you love this rally?  Are you ready to throw caution to the wind and plow every last cent into stocks?  If your answer is “no”, you’re in good company.

Triangles are all about indecision.  And, we’ve got plenty of that.  Jumping in at all-time highs feels just plain insane — despite the cheerleading from the boob tube crew.

Yet, there’s a little more upside left — or, so say the harmonics.  We just need to break up through this triangle…and then navigate the mine field of harmonic and channel resistance that awaits.

The important patterns at the moment are:

• breaking 1807 and putting the purple pattern out of business
• breaking through the purple channel midline
• getting past the light blue .886 at 1808
• topping 1809.25.

Since the .886 and purple midline are both around 1808, we’ll keep a close eye on things there.

The dollar’s harmonics suggest a sizable drop to 80.06 or so.  But, there’s the possibility that this counter wave will extend a little further to the channel top before selling commences.

UPDATE:  11:40 AM

ES broke up through the triangle top, reached 1807.50, and is currently back-testing. One word of caution: what happened yesterday with the break above the IH&S neckline could happen again.

The 1798 level has attracted a tag twice now.  A third tag at the white channel bottom later today (the purple circle) would make for a well-formed flag pattern… and, flush out all the weak bulls sitting in traffic or on a tarmac on the way to Grandma’s, secure in the knowledge that their stops will protect them.

UPDATE:  12:00 PM

DX just tagged a TL connecting the last two tops and the purple channel midline. And, the red .618 is just above at 80.819.  A reversal should be close at hand.

UPDATE:  12:25 PM

Interim target?

Another day, another case of whiplash.  The dollar is indicative of the volatility — a downtrend to the white .886 that reversed back up to the .382 before heading lower, right?  After retracing about 101% of Sunday’s low, it reversed and regained the white channel — only to abandon it again this morning.

The EURUSD has been almost as schizophrenic, reversing after completing a Bat Pattern — but failing to break out after the catch at the white .500.

The USDJPY broke out of a very well-formed channel (in white below) a few days ago with an even better-looking channel (in purple), only to put in a backtest that’s a full-on nail biter.

The close-up:

Then, there’s the equities markets…we’ve got dueling H&S Patterns (both bullish and bearish), violated Harmonic Patterns and violated channels coming at us right and left.

This morning’s post-consumer confidence plunge (completing an H&S Pattern) probably had more than a few bulls reaching for the sell button.  But, it stopped .25 shy of yesterday’s low and recovered the neckline in a matter of minutes.

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Things are on track for the big Butterfly pattern to complete very soon — even as soon as later this morning. For those who have been following this website for any length of time, this is a major milestone we’ve been anticipating since Mar 29, 2012 — shortly after this website was launched [see: All the Pretty Butterflies.]

The S&P 500 is one of many major indices approaching or reaching important Fibonacci reversal levels, as we discussed last week [see: Around the World.]

To recap the current state of affairs…

• The Nikkei reached 15,597 this past Friday.
• The NYA already came within 13 points of our 10,239 target.
• The DJIA is only 200 points from our 16,300 target.
• The FTSE 100 is only 6 points away from our 677 target.
• And, SPX is only 15 points away from the 1823 target.

It bears repeating that these harmonic targets — being so large and from such a long time ago — rarely provide on the nose reversals.  The April 2010 reversal, after climbing from 666 to 1219, came up 9 points short of the .618 Fib level.

The May 2011 Gartley Pattern completion came up 11 points shy of the .786.  The September 2012 Bat Pattern completion, on the other hand, overshot the target by a couple of points.

Bottom line, when you’re within 1% of a target after a 1,142 point move (from 666 to 1808) it’s hard to predict exactly where things will turn.  It also bears repeating that these patterns, though not known to all, are known to many large institutions that — with relatively little money — could decide to blow them out of the water if it suits them.

These are the same institutions which have a very strong vested interest in a market that never, ever declines.  They peddle mutual funds, underwrite stocks and bonds, facilitate M&A transactions, and have huge trading books of their own (not to mention trillions in derivatives.)

With the Fed throwing free money at them, how hard would it really be to run prices up past a key resistance level?  We’ve seen it happen many times in the past year alone.

As always, trade safe.  Volatility will be elevated this week.

UPDATE:  9:40 AM

ES just backtested the purple channel midline and should be headed for the red 1.618 at 1815.35 as soon as SPX fills this morning’s gap (1804.84.)

UPDATE:  10:00 AM

SPX gap almost filled, should flesh out the rising white channel.

UPDATE:  11:55 AM

ES and SPX are a little out of sync.  ES overshot the purple midline, and has been straddling it ever since — hinting at a backtest of the last minor top at 1800ish or the white .500 at 1800.67.

UPDATE:  3:10 PM

ES just reached 1800.50, which should offer decent support.  As mentioned earlier, we should see a reversal here.  If it slips any lower, the next support is at 1798.59.

With markets approaching potential reversal targets in numbers, next week should be the moment of truth for the Fed’s experiment in wealth creation.

Targets from two days ago [see: Around the World] versus yesterday’s close:

Index	Nov 20 Target	Recent High
Nikkei 225	15,597	15,620
FTSE 100	677	671
NYSE	10,239	10,226
SPX	1823	1802
DJIA	16,300	16,030

 

The dollar is holding on to a well-developed channel after reaching and backing off our upside target.  The falling purple channel is pure conjecture at this point, having not even left the station.

One possibility for the E-mini’s:

UPDATE:  11:30 AM

If it seems like ES has been stuck in the mud all morning, blame SPX.

It’s just now finally reaching the .886 Fib level that the E-minis reached at 10am.  In the meantime, ES completed a nice little Crab Pattern that should help kickstart a proper right shoulder for the IH&S we talked about yesterday.

I can’t say exactly how far, but a 10-pt drop would fit the channels quite nicely: ES1788 and SPX 1789.

UPDATE:  12:00 PM

Or…not.  The tiny H&S is kaput, hard to say about the IH&S.  The existing RS is only 1/3 the size of the left.  It’s not a deal killer, but it’s not ideal.  If the breakout is to hold, we should get no more than a backtest of the neckline.

On the other hand, the trajectory is pretty darned steep.  Maybe it’s decided it doesn’t need the IH&S.  Maybe it’s going for a neckline at the double top.

Maybe TPTB decided it was too risky from a harmonic standpoint to leave the 1799.75 high out there (it would leave open the possibility of a bearish pattern.)  It’s what I would do if I were in charge of ensuring ES 1837 by 3:30AM Monday morning.

The same thing just happened to DJIA, with a break above the previous high in an obvious IH&S situation.

But, the rising wedge is still very much intact; so, it’s not necessarily over — despite breaking the neckline.

We’ll see if it can break out past 16,036.22.

UPDATE:  3:40 PM

Breakouts all over the place.  ES has topped 1803 again and is heading for 1806.44, with the next resistance at 1815.35 and then the big kahuna at 1837.26.  For SPX, it’s 1807.16, 1817.84 and 1823.42.  As discussed Wednesday, the futures could top out as early as Sunday night.

Downside target should be in the 1700 range; but, I have a lot more work to do on it.  And, don’t take this to the bank, folks.  Just because it’s worked on the .618, .786 and .886, there’s no guarantee it’ll work at the 1.272.  There are a lot of vested interests out there who will work to prevent any downturn at all.

And, that’s the key to Harmonic-based trading.  The Fib levels clearly point out where reversals might occur. It’s up to the nimble trader to figure out whether or not a reversal will occur.

If the überbulls are right and we’re about to experience a 90’s style market, 1823/1837 could slip past with nary a whimper.  As always, use stops and trade safe.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Every once in a while the market needs a little reset.  The bullish sentiment gets too high, and they need to let just a little air out in order to prevent the balloon from bursting.  But, funny thing about these resets: they can get out of hand.  Yesterday’s came very close to doing so, and it will take a very strong performance these next couple of days for the bulls to be firmly back in charge.

The E-mini fell through several levels of support, finally bottoming out where it needed to: 1774.50.  As it rebounds today, the first real test should come around 1790 where it runs into a couple of channel lines as well as the red .618 and the purple .786.

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