A sharp plunge yesterday might have brought emetic relief to a stock market bloated with indigestion, but it was not to be. Instead, shares teeter-tottered most of the day, eventually ending up on the plus side, with the Dow Industrials registering an unpersuasive gain of 57 points. The reason the market was unable to do what might otherwise have come naturally is that European and Asian markets had remained relatively placid Tuesday night, alleviating such feelings of panic and disquiet as must have permeated Wall Street at the close of business on Tuesday.

Despite the complacent lull in the financial world’s fight-or-flight response, bears made a good-faith attempt to return things to their natural order, pushing the Indoos about 130 points lower by mid-day. But with global fears evidently in short supply, hapless sellers soon exhausted themselves, allowing Da Boyz to perform their trademark levitation trick with relative ease.  

(Click on chart to enlarge)

The illusionists will have an even better opportunity to impale shorts today and tomorrow, since it would require only a modest levitation to turn mellow stochastic indicators now evident on the daily chart into turbo-thrusters.  Notice in the chart above how a second, ascending stochastic bottom was starting to form beneath yesterday’s price low in the Dow.  This incipient saucer pattern would be aborted by any weakness today, since a decline in share prices would turn the stochastic lines downward. However, one more rally like yesterday’s would bend the lines higher, affirming not only a bottoming pattern, but one whose ascending lows would diverge quite bullishly relative to the corresponding price lows labeled in the chart..

I have a gut feeling about how things will turn out, and I explain why in the Touts section of Thursday’s Rick’s Picks . Be sure to check it out if you want to be well prepared the Next Big Thing.

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Want to Forecast Like a Pro?

Plans for the first online Hidden Pivot seminar are nearly complete. The two-day event will be held via Webex in late March or early April, most probably on successive weekend mornings. There will also be at least one lengthy Q&A session to follow, just as there has been on Sunday afternoons to conclude the on-site course.

This will be an excellent opportunity for those of you who were unable to attend the classes I gave last year in New York, Sydney, Vancouver, San Francisco and Denver. If you’ve visited the chat room and marveled at the forecasting skill of seminar grads, this seminar is designed to quickly bring you up to their level. While I cannot guarantee that the course will turn you into a fabulously rich trader,  I can promise that with a little diligence and practice, your ability to precisely predict price reversals in stocks, indexes, options and commodities will be at least as good as anyone whose forecasts you have ever paid for.

I will be able to offer this course for under  $1,000, since many of the expenses that I've incurred in holding a “live” seminar – including hotel and travel costs, and the rental of a conference facility -- will not be a factor. If you are seriously interested in attending, click here to get on the mailing list.