Rick Ackerman

The futures were unable to summon the energy on Friday to screw even the proverbial pooch, although I still suggested trading, or at least monitoring, a bullish 'mechanical' possibility that is detailed in the chat room. It would attempt to leverage a 6975.00 rally target derived from a conventional ABCD pattern that is made more explicit in a version of the chart linked in my post. I have stripped the one accompanying this tout of visual qualifiers because of my growing fear that AI can be used to rip off my system. The rally target is associated with a pattern smaller than the one yielding a 7030.75 target drum-rolled here earlier. It will remain valid regardless of what happens to the Hidden Pivot at 6975.00, which you can short if you have profited on the way up.

The bearish outcome shown in the chart goes a step further than can be confidently predicted, but it is supported by the pattern itself. Make no mistake, a further fall to the green line would trigger a 'mechanical' buy with excellent odds of success, but only of a limited kind. That implies that a bid there, stop 356.57, is likely to reverse back up to the red line, the 372.25 midpoint Hidden Pivot. Some shares could still be held above it for a play to d=387.92, but I'd suggest taking profits on at least half the position at p. The nearly 8-point stop-loss on entry should be pared down with a camo trigger.

Rates on the Ten Year have receded from a high-water mark two weeks ago of 4.48%, a threshold that came close to throttling mortgage activity with a move above 7%, as well as all other forms of debt financing. It's difficult to predict at the moment how much more relief borrowers will get, but T-Notes seem likely to fall to at least 4.18% from a current 4.32%. If they touch that Hidden Pivot, any bounce would presumably be merely corrective, since it would follow the creation of a bearish impulse leg via a penetration of March 17's important, 41.89 low.

Although Gold was nearly flat for the week, a fist-pump on Wednesday precisely to the 4890.10 secondary Hidden Pivot shortened the odds of a continuation to a by-now familiar target at 5144.00. Although a pullback to the red line would trigger a 'mechanical' buy, stop 4467.50, unless you know how to craft a camo trigger, I'll recommend doing this trade only at the green line (x=4382.40), stop 4128.40, even if the futures are unlikely to fall that far to get a running start on d.

Although the blitzkrieg rallies of late 2025 are fading from memory, the bull market that energized them is still alive, although shuffling along with a more mature gait and stride. Bulls are certainly taking their time getting to the 86.105 garget shown, but it seems likely to be hit later in April. This event will provide an important test of a key Hidden Pivot resistance, since the target is the terminus of a clear and compelling rABC (reverse) pattern. It should offer tradeable resistance in any case, but we should hope for a decisive breakout above it if the long-term bull is to be presumed viable ahealthy.nd

GDXJ popped last week to within an inch of a longstanding target at 133.49, and although it did not quite reach it, price action was sufficiently robust to imply that a new, more ambitious target at 139.49 is now likely to be achieved. It is derived from a lower point 'a' within a larger structure that allows running room to as high as 150.33. First things first, however, so we'll keep our focus on the pattern shown for trading purposes. I don't often recommend 'mechanical' buying at the red line, here 121.17, but in this case it looks worth a try.  A 115.07 atop-loss would apply.

It is neither bulls nor bears who move the markets, but crooks, mostly. Spectacular but fleeting rallies draw nearly all of their buying power from panicky short covering that is easily triggered and deftly harvested. I have previously discussed this phenomenon, which is most visible when stocks take unseemly leaps at the opening bell. Although few shares will have changed hands in the gaps this creates on charts, it effectively fattens the bank accounts of everyone who held stock before the leap. How do the thieves (aka 'broad-tossers'; see photo above) who control the markets do this trick? First, in order to deplete sellers, they pull their bids in the wee hours of the morning. When there is no news of special interest, stocks will tend to drift lower, especially if there are no significant buyers on the way down. The trend will begin to feed on itself as shareholders grow uneasy. If Wall Street's Wharton-educated crooks have orchestrated the heist properly, a selling crescendo will cause stocks to bottom about 30 to 60 minutes before the start of the regular session. Then, with sellers exhausted and no offers in sight, it is bears who will start to grow anxious.  Their increasingly urgent bids to close out short positions will continue to accumulate as the opening approaches. It is then that the Masters of the Universe, mainly specialists licensed to maintain orderly markets, but also to steal from amateurs, will spring the trap, pulling their offers to reset prices to a level that can satisfy pent-up demand. That price will often be well above the previous day’s close. Voila! Instant new $$ billions for the white-collar carnies who operate the world's bourses.  Why Stocks Idled The foregoing helps explain why stocks did nothing on Friday. Until a few months ago,

A pullback to the green line (x=6467.33) would trigger an enticing 'mechanical' buy, notwithstanding the bearish drumbeat of a war with no clear ending. Investors demonstrated on Thursday they don't really care about the headlines, so overwhelmingly eager are they to throw money at stocks. Even a big leap in oil prices elicited hardly a shrug. Although NYMEX crude hit $114 barrel at the intraday peak, up 14%, the E-Mini S&Ps ended the session with a short-covering scramble that left the index up five points on the day. I still believe this is just a bear rally, but its near-term potential is to the 6810.00 target shown in the inset, or even to the 7030.75 Hidden Pivot 'D' of a larger pattern I identified in the chat room. The chart shows how a dip next week could make the short-term picture even more bullish. _______ UPDATE (April 8, 8:15 p.m.): Today's deftly orchestrated, rip-'em-a-new-orifice short- squeeze has cleared the way for an almost certain rally to the 7030.75 target identified above.  Its close proximity to the all-time high at 7097 would turn nearly everyone super-bullish, particularly bears, presumably setting the hook for The Big One following a run-up to marginal new highs. Isn't that what bear rallies are for?

MSFT's dip on the opening to the green line triggered a 'mechanical' buy with the potential to reach 387.92. Bulls were halfway there on Thursday when the stock closed above the red line, a midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance at 372.25. If it can do it again on Monday, that would make further progress to the d target all but certain.  I have shown only a portion of the bullish pattern for proprietary reasons, but it is an rABC that meets all my rules.  I still expect the stock to fall eventually to 332.67, which implies that this rally should be shorted aggressively at 387.92, albeit with very tight risk control.