Alright...I almost decided to sell some stock today. After all, we are in a bear market. I was looking at the charts trying to find a reason to sell. Instead, I found a reason to hold and sell later.
If you look at the last 20 days in the chart below, you can see that in the next 3 days, the 20 SMA line (yellow) is, by default, going to rise higher because we are about to drop 3 down candles (left side). The upper Bollinger band is going to move higher in concert, since it is +2 STD from the SMA.
Therefore, the RISING 20 SMA will lend SUPPORT (a rising floorboard) for this market as it bounces around between the upper Bollinger band and the 20 SMA. If we hold near 1280, the 20 SMA will rise to 1265 by Friday, and the upper B Band will be 1300. So, maybe we can get that ceiling to that psychological level of 1300.
Another consideration is oil dropping, and also the initial jobless claims tomorrow. The estimate is for 420K. That is a rather high bar, if you ask me, and there is a good chance it could be quite a bit lower especially after last weeks huge number.
Couple that with the fact we will likely hold almost all of yesterdays rally gains today, and I can see reasons why either Thu or Fri will be better to sell. Still, to avert risk, you may want to lock in a small gain COB today, like 10-20%. I just may (I don't want to get slaughtered!).
Then again, as I type, we are rallying on dropping oil. What are the chances oil will also be down tomorrow if it goes down hard today? The B bands and 20 SMA will rise in the next couple days, but then, it will be fairly sideways for quite a while...possibly making us rangebound 1260-1300. The real confusion is where will the market be in 3+ weeks from now, I'm out of IFTs to buy! Hmm, bonds are down today, that is good for stocks. The AGG is near 99 flat...an important support level. If it breaks, it may take a big leg down, and that money can go into stocks. Lets get one more big short squeeze, a break of 1292, test of 1300...and I'll be happy and sell.