One of the TA's I follow made a very interesting observation yesterday. This is just FYI:
"The CB’s have created this monster that we now call the markets and the primary mandate is to keep them artificially inflated to 1. Create an “artificial” wealth effect, 2. Provide the cash required for corporations to buy back their stock to keep the share price elevated.
If indeed, and I believe this to be the case, the smart money has been net sellers into this rally, this explains a lot of what we’re seeing. Namely, that this is an opportunity for them to distribute to the “uninformed money” at or near the market top. It always happens this way.
Now, we know – or should know – that moves possess momentum, and that this momentum can take prices higher as the fuel that caused rising prices – volume – dissipates. If you look at this rally from SP 1891, it has been on below average & ever decreasing volume. This in itself is a warning. Bear Market rallies exist to entice and delude the greatest number of investors that “happy days” are here again and that the bull market has resumed, so get on board and buy, buy, buy. At this point, the party ends and the crash ensues, trapping those suckered in at the false top. Hell, I’ve even seen Bear Market rallies take out previous “all time highs” by just a but “confirming” that a bull market has resumed, only to roll over, crash and burn to new lows.
The thing that’s different this time around is the coordinated “attack patterns” exhibited by the CB’s to inject cash, confuse and jawbone the markets higher. The canary in the mine though has been the exodus of the “smart money” from the rally. Now you know, as well as I, that with the vast financial fire power that the CB’s possess, they can keep the markets elevated for a long, long time. At some point though, it will all come to a cataclysmic end. The problem is that we just can’t say when.
I think that this new variable, the actions of the CB’s, is confounding not only EW analysts, but technical analysts too. Throw in the fact that fundamentals don’t work well either given the CB interference and you get even more confusion. Finally, add to this the “Rise of the Machines”, and you get a situation where what used to work doesn’t any more, or at least it doesn’t work as well as it used to.
The CB’s, particularly the FED have lost their way and only a violent reset will get us back on course to health markets again. In the mean time, stay flexible/nimble and trade what you see."
FS