After head-butting a seemingly impregnable Hidden Pivot resistance at 368.70 for two weeks, the Cubes pushed slightly above it last week, signaling their unwillingness to be contained. The target offered a potential finale to a bullish ABCD pattern launched last Halloween, but in order to come up with a higher one, we’ll need to go back an additional six months for the start of an even bigger pattern. It is shown in the inset and projects to 382.75, a number you can use to target call butterfly spreads with perhaps a month of time left on them. Thereafter, we’ll want to get short if and when 382.75 is achieved — again using well-out-of-the-money (put-option) butterfly spreads. Alternatively, it will always be possible to short the underlying in a way that doesn’t depend on its reaching the target. I will provide timely tactics for doing so if there is sufficient interest in the Trading Room. ______ UPDATE (Aug 30, 6:25 p.m.): The Cubes are within millimeters of the longstanding rally target at 382.75. (AAPL is close to its own major target; check out the chat room discussion, which includes detailed guidance for getting short.) To short QQQ speculatively, we’ll try to leg into 340/345/350 put butterfly spreads — first by bidding 0.18 for a dozen Oct 1 350/345 vertical put spreads, 1:1, good through Wednesday. Note: They will become easier to buy at that price as QQQ makes its way toward the target, but you can pay up to 0.20 if it feels close. ______ UPDATE (Sep 1, 7:33 p.m.): The short squeeze to a record-high 382.71 on the opening bar has left me as curious as you are about what will happen next. It’d certainly be nice to nail a major high within 0.03 points. We shall see. _______ UPDATE (Sep 4, 10:14 p.m.): The 382.71 high withstood a week of vigorous pooch-screwing, so the jury is still out, albeit comatose with fatigue. Odds against a major top are, as always, horrendous. ______ UPDATE (Sep 7, 10:14 p.m.): Many stocks have stalled, but because this is the lunatick-ingest index vehicle of them all, its manic wafting power may yet carry the world’s bourses higher. Today’s gratuitous new all-time high occurred at 382.78, a split hair from my 382.75 target, but much as I’d love to see the Mother of All Tops right here, I’m not betting the farm on it. It was my minimum rally target from way back when, however, so there’s at least a little satisfaction in the pussyfooting we are seeing now that the Cubes have finally reached it.
QQQ – Nasdaq ETF (Last:381.59)