Today's Markets

As I've done all week, I want to back up use a longer time frame to show the market. The bottom line is I'm just not happy with the way Mr. Market is acting, and the longer version demonstrates why.



On the SPYs we have the following action:

-- A two day rally, followed by a bull market flag.

-- A big 2-day drop, leading into a triangle consolidation that lasted 4 days

-- A three day rally

Notice the pattern -- rally, steep sell-off, rally. And in all the time we've added about 2.68% but have gotten there in an incredibly messy way.



On the QQQQs, notice we have

-- A two day rally and a triangle consolidation.

-- A steep two day sell-off

-- A five day rally that nets us 1 point over 10 days, or a 2.28% gain.

Notice the pattern -- rally, sharp-sell off followed by a rally. This is an awful lot of wasted motion.



On the IWMs, notice:

-- A 2-day rally followed by a one day triangle consolidation.

-- A steep 2 day sell-off followed by a 4 day triangle consolidation pattern

-- A three day rally that nets us almost 4 points or 5.7%.

A case can be made that the IWMs are doing well because of the net gain. But again, loot at the trading.

Traders want to see trends -- and I don't see any at this point. I see a lot of fits and starts and a great deal of tentativeness on the part of everybody in the market.