Read ‘em and weep, OPEC! The accompanying chart suggests that huge cutbacks in output will do nothing to prop up the price of crude. By my runes, the January contract is headed down to at least 34.57 per barrel, subject to a possible head-fake up to 42.31, the Hidden Pivot midpoint associated with the target. Scalpers can try to leverage the bounce by bottom-fishing at 38.01, stop 37.79. That’s the ‘D’ target of the pattern shown, but it’s too close to a whole number to be treated like a gift from above.

The futures reached our 876.20 target and then some, hinting that the bull cycle begun from 688 around Thanksgiving may yet thrill us with another thrust before buyers take a well earned rest. We pondered an 887.70 target during yesterday’s tutorial session, and that still looks like a logical spot to contain a last-gasp feint. If there’s a falloff from a high at that price, we’ll be looking hard in the chat room for a place to attempt bottom-fishing over (perhaps) the next 4-6 days.

As long as I have to keep hanging out a bullish target (i.e., 969.25) each day, I can barely look myself in the mirror. Bullishness does not come naturally to me, most particularly at times like this, when a 2000-point plunge in the Dow would barely even begin to discount reality. Still worse would be for me to get caught with my pants down around my ankles, green-lighting 969.25 just as the plunge finally begins to unfold. For that reason, I’m going to keep a close eye on the abcd pullbacks, even as I continue to billboard our mildly surreal rally target. The target will remain viable unless point ‘C’ (813.00) is breached to the downside. However, it would take only a print at 857.00 to raise serious doubts concerning the bulls’ resolve, since that would create a bearish impulse leg on the hourly chart. For trading purposes, you can play the long side leveraging whatever opportunities the intraday charts may provide. We’ll definitely try to short 969.25 if we get the chance, though, and I’ll provide guidance to do this using SPY options when the time comes. If you’d like to be apprised via an onscreen pop-up, keep your bulletin launcher switched on for the remainder of the week.

There was a one-day profit of as much as $1,400 per contract for anyone who shorted the 140^12.5 target that I’d flagged here last week as a possible blowoff top. That is exactly where yesterday’s powerful thrust climaxed before giving way to a pullback that bottomed at 138^29. We’ll be better able to judge whether a major top is in when we see how the correction plays out. It projected down to 138^12, but if there’s an upturn from 139^01 instead, followed by the creation of a bullish impulse leg on the lesser charts, that would be warning of another spike above Wednesday’s historical — hysterical? — high. Anyone who followed my advice precisely yesterday would have exited on a trailing stop no worse than 139^14.5 after the day’s low was in. That would have yielded a profit of about $950 per contract. If you still hold a position, you’ll be on your own, but you should let at least a small piece of it ride for a possible four-bagger.