pebblewriter

Tag: VIX

  • VIX Forecast: June 12, 2012

    ORIGINAL POST:  11:00 AM

    With all the volatility these past few days, VIX has put on a spectacular show — gaining 3.69 yesterday alone (18.6%).  The weeks ahead promise to be just as exciting, but not for the reasons most expect.

    As discussed back on June 2 [see: Channeling VIX] the “fear index” was on track to complete a Crab Pattern (in purple below) and fulfill its Inverse Head & Shoulder pattern target.  These were targets originally set back on April 18 [see: VIX at a Crossroads.]  With VIX at 18.70, we forecast a high of 27.13.

    It topped out at a nearly perfect 27.73 on the 4th and has been sliding ever since — with yesterday being the notable exception.  Now, as many investors are wondering which way is up anymore, we’ll plot out what appears to be a very clear path forward.

    continued…

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  • Channeling VIX

    VIX has very nearly reached the channel mid-line, Inverse H&S and Crab pattern targets I posted back on April 18  [see: VIX at a Crossroads], though we’re 2 days behind schedule.

    Our IHS target was 28.10 and the Crab pattern target was 27.12, expected to occur on May 30.)  Friday’s high was a very close 26.71.  It’s close enough to be considered complete, but a little follow through Monday morning would tie things up in a nice neat bow.

    continued below…

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  • Calm Before the Storm?

    Fridays before a holiday weekend have a tradition of being very, very quiet.  Today seems to be no exception.   Unless something weird happens, we’re aiming for a close around 1323, up a few points.

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  • VIX Inverse H&S Completes

    Other completed H&S patterns:  RUT, NYA, COMP, NDX

  • Go Away in May?

    Maybe it should read “be put away in May?”

    It occurred to me over the weekend that Friday’s posts probably sounded a little schizophrenic.   “Next Stop 1462?” does seem a little out of step with “VIX Ready to Rumble.”  Is it me, or is the market perhaps a little schizophrenic?

    This morning’s drop does little to clarify things.  Again, we reversed right at the H&S pattern shoulder line — dropping as low as 1395 on the Chicago PMI survey (off 6 points to 56.2 for the third monthly drop in a row — see details below.)

    Furthermore, the RSI TL we were watching so closely last week appears to be holding.  It broke on Friday, but has snapped back to the point where we can probably ignore Friday’s action.

    As anticipated, VIX did do a little rumbling this morning, up almost 7% to 17.41, currently loitering at 17.30.  These RSI channels have done an amazing job at forecasting VIX over the past couple of months.

    Unfortunately, we’re no closer to resolution of last week’s “analog vs alternative” quandary.  For a long, tedious discussion please re-read the past few posts from last week.  The cliff notes version is: “50:50.”  That is, both options are on the table, and will be until we see some sort of break out. I’m keeping my powder mostly dry until the path forward is more clear.

    I’ll continue to watch the red-dashed RSI TL on SPX above.  I’m also watching the McClellan Oscillator, which is often a good indicator.  Like many other indicators, it’s on the verge of a breakout or breakdown.  Now, if we can only figure out which one…

    The economic data continues to forecast slowing.  But, at what point will the market care?  As we’ve discussed many times — good news is good, and bad news is good (if it stimulates another round of QE.)  It seems the only thing that might quash the QE hopes is an announcement from the Fed that it’s off the table (don’t hold your breath.)

    Stay tuned.

    ******************
    The April PMI survey isn’t pretty.  The production component dropped a huge 11 points — the largest drop in 11 months.  But, the Buying Policy component is particularly telling.  It asks respondents to report how far in advance they must order what they need for their businesses.  It’s a good handle on the tightness in the supply chain.  This month, it fell dramatically — from 45 to 28.  In other words, there’s plenty of capacity — not a good sign for those expecting the economy to heat up.

     

  • VIX Ready to Rumble?

    Back on the 18th [see: VIX at a Crossroads] we charted VIX’s future, observing that it had fashioned a perfectly good falling wedge into a downward sloping channel. We talked about how a drop to 16 would be the ideal level for an Inverse H&S pattern to develop.

    Guess what?

    It’s interesting that VIX is reaching its ideal shoulder line just as SPX is reaching its. To make things even more interesting, the RSI channels support the idea of a reversal here.

    Stay tuned.

  • VIX at a Crossroads: April 18, 2012

    Where there was once a falling wedge, there is now a channel.  The April 10 breakout that looked so promising completed a Bat pattern and promptly reversed nearly 61.8% of the move from the 13.66 bottom.  Is this the end of the ride, or are there bigger and better things in store for VIX?

    I have tentatively added another channel to the RSI to accommodate the latest spike.  It would likely guide the next leg down, if indeed that’s forthcoming — which I mostly doubt.

    Of course, every time we complete a Bat pattern with a Point D at the .886, we’re also establishing a potential Point B in a larger Crab pattern.  In this case, that would result in a completion Point D at the 1.618, which is 27.12.

    That’s an interesting price, because it equates with the 2.618 of the small Butterfly pattern potentially setting up on the hourly chart.

    Things get real interesting when you back out and look for competing or complimentary patterns.  On the 60-min chart, we can see that the move off the bottom conforms to a upward-sloping channel (in white) so far.  This channel will intersect with the downward sloping main channel (yellow) on Friday — which, of course, is OPEX.

    It’s only fitting that the point at which VIX must commit to one channel or the other arrives on OPEX.  The situation reflects the alternatives we’ve been discussing for SPX.  The analog we’ve been watching indicates a short-term top is at hand, and we should see a brief but scary sell-off in the next few days.  This would correlate with sideways action in VIX, followed by a breakout of the yellow channel to follow the white one — probably topping out at the 27.13 level at the bottom of SPX’s decline to around 1305-1317.

    The alternate SPX view is that we go on up and tag the rising wedge’s apex without the sell-off first.  There’s certainly enough important news in the pipeline over the next few days to bring either course to fruition.  Such a movement in stocks would mean the white channel breaks down and the yellow one holds — knocking VIX back to the 14.5 — 15.8 range.

    Of course, such a move would complete most of an inverse H&S pattern (in yellow) and set up the next upside break out.  Technically, we have enough of a right shoulder as it is, but a drop to around 16 would be ideal.

    In summary, my leading assumption is sideways until OPEX, then a breakout up to the 23-24 range to complete the IH&S that correlates with the SPX’s H&S move down.  We should then see a back test of the yellow neckline and subsequent push to the 27-30ish range to correlate with SPX’s move to 1307-1317.

    It would be a break of the yellow channel (which has a grand total of two anchor points on its upper bound) that would be similar to the Mar 16, 2011 breakout to 31.28 (see below.) But, such a move would bring it back the midline of the long-term channel that’s been such a magnet for breakouts over the past few years.

    That midline, by the way, is in the same neighborhood as the Inverse Head & Shoulders target of 28.20, which would be very doable if SPX were to plunge 70-80 points over the next week.

    But, keep the alternatives in mind.  The market is exceedingly hinky lately; and, as much as I like the analog, it’s certainly not guaranteed to play out.  As always, please use stops.

    Good luck to all.

  • Bottom Fishing

    EOD:  2:25 AM

    SPX overshot the Crab’s 1.618, whichever Point X we use.   The next major lines of harmonic support are are the red pattern’s 2.24 at 1342, correlating with the purple pattern’s 2.618 at 1341.

    Given the level of oversold on the day, here’s an alternative view.

    UPDATE:  11:55 AM

    The Crab Pattern I posted about earlier pulled a fast one on us.  It either busted, or I drew it wrong.

    Technically, it’s forbidden for Point C to exceed Point A — kind of like Wave 1/Wave 4 overlaps in Elliottworld.   But, it happens.   I’ve redrawn the Crab to begin with the March 23 1386 low instead of the March 29 1391 low — which means that the 1.618 extension is 1364.92 instead of 1372.51.

    Note the daily RSI tag on the same trend line (red, dashed) that stopped the Oct 4 and Nov 25 declines. The previous tags are highlighted in light blue.   This decline is picking up momentum, so the RSI TL and the Crab pattern might get mowed down.

    But, be cautious.   Like any trading system, once you start bending the rules in Harmonics, it opens up a can of worms.  Markets frequently overshoot logical targets, and it’s no cause to discard the methodology.

    I’m taking some profits off the table at these levels, and will let the rest ride essentially risk free.  Note that 1364 is the .707 of the 1340-1422 move.  If it doesn’t hold, the next support is at the .786, which would equal 1357.  An intra-day push to 1357 and close at 1364 would be interesting.

     

    ORIGINAL POST

    After yesterday’s close below the rising wedge, we can safely consider it officially broken.  Now, the question is whether SPX will freefall in an epic fail of the bull market, or find support at some interim level for another leg up.

    In the near term, we’re approaching a potential Crab Pattern turning point at 1372.51.  We might have reached it yesterday but for the little acceleration channel SPX has been in since 1422.  Today, the channel passes right through 1372, so we could get a good test.

    This isn’t a big pattern, so we might not see earth-shattering results, but it should be good for at least a nice bounce if not an outright reversal.

    I think an outright reversal might be in the cards, though.  The hourly RSI shows positive divergence with this morning’s leg down, and daily RSI shows a tag of an important internal trend line.  But, it’s the weekly RSI chart that, as a bear, really gives me pause.

    Expanding the RSI chart gives us a clear view of a trend line that might provide significant lift at these price levels (ignore the compressed upper chart.)

    I’ve also been watching VIX’s price action, constructing some probable channels months ago: the yellow channel guiding the downside, transitioning to the red channels for the subsequent rise.  Since then, I’ve barely adjusted them.

    Note how well they’ve called the turns.  At this point, they hint at a likely breather for VIX.  All things considered, I think we’re likely to see a backtest of the VIX falling wedge that will correspond with a return to the other side of the red channel.  It could happen any time, but might well occur coincident with the afore-mentioned bounce in SPX.

    All this begs the question, what kind of bounce will we see?  As we discussed the other day, this rising wedge is a reasonable facsimile of the 2010-2011 one [see: Analog Watch.]

    The most likely drawing of the current wedge puts the apex around 1460-1470 somewhere around May 7-11, meaning we reached only 88.6% of the potential in both time and price at the recent 1422 high.  [see: Was That It?] If we repeat the pattern, we’ll head back up to tag that apex — exactly as we did in May 2011 at 1370 (note the dashed white line that connects the March 2011 apex to the May 2011 top.)

    More importantly, however, we’d tag the upper bound of the huge rising wedge (red dashed) that dwarfs the rising wedge (yellow, solid) that just broke down.

    I’ve drawn its upper bound as the biggest, boldest red line I can muster on the above chart.  Why?

     

    Stay tuned.