E-Mini S&P

Friday's dirge provided yet more evidence that the bull is dying. With weekly options expiring, even undercapitalized pishers can do 100,000-share conversions and reversals all day long without risk. And yet, for all the phony volume, the day was over by mid-session, when the E-Minis peaked three-hundredths of a percentage point shy of a 6907.50 target that had been drum-rolled here for nearly two weeks.  It was nearly seven weeks in coming, and so we might have expected a significant reversal when it was hit. Instead, the futures fell a measly 40 points, caught a tired bounce, then leveled off for the rest of the day. I hesitate to say a top is in, much less the top. But if the irresistible force that has been pushing stocks skyward since 2009 re-emerges on Monday, as is likely, be prepared for more-of-the-same up to at least 6925.00, a Rick's Picks voodoo number.

Bears dove for cover last week after a three-day short squeeze left them with the dim prospect of trying to obstruct a missile bound for new record highs. The 6907.50 target shown was a lock by Tuesday afternoon, when the futures not only punctured the midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance at 6226.25, but closed slightly above it. The question now is how much stopping power the target will show. If little or none, we can expect the rally to continue to at least 6938.00, a target calculated by sliding the 'a' low five bars to the left, to 6540.25. Above it there is only one logical target left: 7499.75.  It comes from a blended monthly chart (A=3502.00, on 10/31/22), and although it will be good enough for government work, we shouldn't expect it to show precise stopping power.

If the futures relapse early in the week, looks for tradable support to develop at 6483.50, a voodoo number. However, we should be careful not to underestimate the potential power of this bear rally, especially if it blows a hole in p=6716.25, a Hidden Pivot resistance that can serve as a minimum upside objective for the near term. Above it there are three 'hidden' resistance points we can monitor to gauge trend strength. They lie at 6768.50, 6812.00 and 6907.50, respectively, and a penetration of each would imply the next is likely to be reached. The last would fall somewhat shy of the old record high at 6953.75 recorded on October 30.  Since a new high could conceivably create a devastating bull trap, we should be more cautious than ever at those heights, and not without skeptici sm.

You can feel the ponderous weight of supply in the daily chart (see inset).  Although the pattern lacks the symmetry of a textbook head-and-shoulders formation, there are enough similarities to infer that bulls are headed for a fall. Friday's nasty bounce, a short-squeeze assisted by an army of by-the-dip dipsticks, left bears bleeding on the ropes. But because they are still breathing, expect a buoyant opening Sunday followed by a mild upward drift. DaBoyz will extract as much mileage from this non-bullish buying to reach the green line, where a conventional 'buy' signal would trigger. It's hardly a stretch to think the squeeze could continue to p=6812.50, and so we shouldn't underestimate the ability of DaBoyz to do whatever it takes to make that happen.  If they should succeed at the unthinkable and achieve new record highs, we will want to get short up there aggressively.  _______ UPDATE (Nov 17, 10:08 p.m.): See my ES posts in the chat room today if you want a road map. The updates got everything just about right from bell to bell. I will be in there again on Tuesday, calling the turns and convinced that the Mother of All Bears has finally arrived. Before November is over, the 500-point drops in the Dow we've seen lately will turn out to have been just a gentle warm-up.  Outside of the Bitcoin crowd,  investors are not quite ready to hit the panic button, so confident are they that the buy-the-dips bozos will step in at any moment. They just might, but we'll want to fade their action with increasing aggressiveness the higher they take this brick. _______ UPDATE (Nov 18, 11:18 p.m):  The futures tripped a minor 'mechanical' buy signal at 6626.75 that is predicated on a 6725.00 target.  Short there only if you've made some

Bears looked pathetic on Friday when they failed to crush the opposition following hard selling overnight. Even so, I continue to believe that stocks have entered a bear market. This implies that a 7057.50 target drum-rolled here earlier will not be reached. I am not chiseling this forecast in stone, however, and I'd suggest using the details of my 15:07 post in the chat room to follow the play-by-play yourself. The critical thing to notice about Friday's bounce is that it came from below the 'd target of the pattern shown in the chart (inset). The overshoot may not look like much, but it is significant in the context of an aging bull market that until now has produced weak corrective ABCDs. To determine how significant, keep a close eye on two 'hidden' impediments above: 6786 and 6918. The provenance of both is explained in my chat room post.

Even with its unusually elongated A-B leg, the pattern shown remains the best source of tradable information we have for the runaway bull market. Price action at p suggests the 7057.50 target is likely to be reached, but until it is decisively breached, we won't concern ourselves with a still higher target at 7531.25 that was identified here earlier. As you can see, the pattern also leaves room for a few scary corrections along the way. The current one will need to come down to the red line (p=6798.88), however, before I suggest buying there 'mechanically'. We usually do these trades on pullbacks to the green line, but in this case, given the steepness of the uptrend, that opportunity may not materialize. The 'textbook' stop-loss for this trade would be at 6712.50, but in practice, we would use a 'camo' trigger to pare down theoretical entry risk by at least 90%. _______ UPDATE (Nov 3, 2:35 p.m.): Today's refreshing plunge has brought greater clarity to the immediate outlook. You can expect the futures to fall to a tradable low at 6681.75. If they rally first to 6885.7, short the crap out of them, stop 6954.00. The latter trade should be done only with a 'camo' trigger that cuts theoretical entry risk to no more than $400 per contract, and only if you've caught a profitable piece of the ride up. ______ UPDATE (Nov 5, 2025): DaBoyz used every sleazy trick in the book to spike ES (see my explanation in the chat room), but they couldn't even goose it to the red line (p=6865.63) before buyers turned tail at day's end. Use the pattern shown, ugly but serviceable, to determine whether They will eventually succeed. A decisive thrust past 'p', especially followed by a close above it, will imply that dangerous

The chart shows two bullish targets that are likely to be reached in the weeks and months ahead. Most immediately, there is the 7057.50 target of the smaller pattern. A more important Hidden Pivot sits well above it at 7351.25.  It is particularly important because it would max out bullish patterns on the weekly chart. Both are likely to be achieved because buyers showed little struggle overcoming the respective midpoint Hidden Pivots. Most immediately, if the December contract pulls back from between the red line (p=6798.88) and the pink one (p2=6928.19), a 'mechanical' bid at the green line (x=6669.50) would enjoy excellent odds of success. _______ UPDATE (Oct 30, 4:23 p.m. EDT): Please check out my latest post in the chat room for new, potentially tradable, details. _______ UPDATE (Nov 6, 7:59 a.m.): See my 5:54 a.m. update in the chatroom for the latest outlook. 

Friday's short-squeeze bounce came from within a hair of the 'secondary' (p2) Hidden Pivot of the pattern shown. The rally subsequently signaled a short sale when it hit the green line (x=6700.19).  The trade was do-able only if you used a reverse-pattern trigger to limit risk. I'm not going to recommend it because the futures are already starting to feel the magnetic pull of last week's high, 6766.75. However, we can still record a paper-trade and monitor it closely to determine whether bulls or bears are in charge at the moment. If the latter, the short should work, eventually falling to D=6500.00 despite the fright-mask intensity of Friday's rebound.

Sellers exceeded a compelling 'hidden' support at 6582 that I posted in the chat room on Friday, implying they will likely return in force this week.  The reversal off a strong opening was unusually severe, even for a Freaky Friday, and I am therefore treating it as the possible start of a full-blown bear market. My reasons are detailed in the current commentary, but the grim technical implications are shown in the chart (inset). A 6.6% fall to at least p=6120.75 is indicated, but this is admittedly speculative, since the futures have not yet touched the green line (x=6466.50) to trigger a theoretical short. There is an alternative, minimum downside target at 6315.75 that we should monitor closely, but I have decided not to feature such half-baked scenarios because I believe Papa Bear has at last emerged from his lair after hibernating for 16 years. Incidentally, a voodoo number above 6300.00 will be worth bottom-fishing in any case, but since it is proprietary, I have posted it in the chat room. ______ UPDATE (Oct 13, 10:45 p.m.): Check out my 4:45 a.m. post in the chat room for guidance on getting long in this vehicle, and then shorting it at 6741.50. I'd suggest a small-pattern trigger (a.k.a. 'camouflage') for the latter trade.  _______ UPDATE (Oct 15, 11:10 a.m. EDT): The trade triggered and was quickly stopped out for a $700 loss per contract.  Although the pre-opening, overnight high at 6741.00 missed my Hidden Pivot target by just two ticks, it thereupon became a 'number of interest' when the high sat for an hour-and-a-half to be anxiously contemplated by traders ahead of the bell. The most important takeaway here: ES was a good short only if it was cushioned by profits made en route to the target. The odds of catching a