Mr. Market served up a new all-time high with a characteristic dash of humor yesterday — i.e,  in the closing seconds of the day. Actually, he went one better than that — literally — by creating the new high just a single tick above the old one from July 24. Do we dare short this short-squeeze-powered monster? I’d raised the prospect in yesterday’s tout, noting that the hysterical price action of trading vehicles pushing above old highs (and below old lows) is perfectly suited to our ‘camouflage’ entry tactic. As it happened, we would not have needed camouflage, since a 1986.25 target I’d posted in the chat room an hour ahead of Wednesday’s climactic upthrust nailed the intraday high within a tick. But staking out a short position at the final bell is asking for trouble, and so I advised doing so only to subscribers able to monitor the trade, and to cover it if necessary, during the night session. We should remain wary nonetheless of a bull trap, since the hubris attending a breakout to new all-time highs is always going to coax forth a dangerous mix of daring and complacency.

We went short in July at a 1984.25 Hidden Pivot target that I’d been drum-rolling for weeks, but we covered the position the next day when the futures head-faked to a (very) marginal new top at 1985.75. Picking the top of a bull market that hasn’t had a significant correction in…years is always going to be challenging, and my gut feeling is that the actual high will be seen in retrospect as having been more or less unshortable. We aim to keep trying, though, simply because we can, perhaps even making a few bucks on pullbacks that prove to be short-lived. With a free trial subscription, you can join us at ringside in the Rick’s Picks chat room if you think you might enjoy the thrill of stalking The Top.