Buyers disrupted the promising symmetry of the big ABC downtrend shown, suggesting they may be regaining the upper hand after last week’s pummeling. This implies that if the futures don’t break lower and achieve the 1891.25 downside target soon (meaning today), they’re likely to go for the 1932.25 upside target instead. Shorts would be badly on the ropes if that happens, but it’ll take more than that — take nothing less than a full-blown, short-covering panic — to push this erstwhile cement bag to new record highs. My gut feeling is that the more slowly any such rally unfolds, the better the odds that bears will buy the broad averages up to new highs. Conversely, any precipitous rally is apt to burn out short-covering quickly and well shy of a new record. ________ UPDATE (12:38 p.m.) Notes that I posted in the chat room around 6:30 a.m. caught the sleazy dynamic of this morning’s open. It featured a moderate short squeeze to a bull-trap high, then a sharp reversal to the downside. Surprise surprise. Because these ginned-up rallies are no longer fooling anyone, DaDirtballs will have to take stocks lower to foster enough complacency in bears to set up the next killer short-squeeze.
