Sell Signal? What Sell Signal?

Yesterday, my new short term system gave me a buy signal, but my intermediate term system (Seven Sentinels) gave me a sell, albeit not confirmed. I was pretty sure the bearish sentiment would limit technical damage, but I was expecting a bit more pressure to the downside to shake weak-handed bulls. Well, bearish sentiment limited the damage alright, but there was no way the bulls were going to let anyone back into the market without paying a higher price.

The catalyst? It would seem Japan’s plan for a 5 trillion yen fund to purchase bonds and other asset backed securities translated into the notion that the U.S. may conduct further quantitative easing after all.

The dollar paid a price for Japan's announcement as it dropped 0.8% against competing currencies, but the stock market benefited as close to 98% of the companies comprising the S&P 500 closed higher. And this was on volume too, so it would seem institutions are participating in this rally.

And the Sentinels? Here's what I said before the open this morning in my account talk thread:

"If traders try to short this expected gap up at the open we may end up with a big price advance for the bulls by the close. It's entirely possible that the SS could flip back to a buy under these circumstances."

Not only "could" they flip back to a buy, they did just that. Bearish sentiment strikes again.

But now that the S&P has convincingly closed above resistance, sentiment will need to be assessed again. Do the bears think this is another shorting opportunity, or are they beginning to capituate? I suspect bull converts will be difficult to come by.

Here's the charts:

$NAMO.jpg

Back to buys here.

$NAHL.jpg

Looking bullish again here too. Two more buys.

$TRIN.jpg

Two more buys.

$BPCOMPQ.jpg

And BPCOMPQ crossed back above the upper bollinger band, flipping it back to a buy.

So all seven are once again flashing buys, which puts the system back on a buy.

This market continues to impress to the upside and after today's rout of the bears one would think bullishness would start to creep in, but that's not a given as the world economy has not really changed. It's all about emotion right now...bearish emotion, and until that changes, or something occurs to spook the market, the upside will probably continue.
 
CoolHand,

At the risk of sounding rather dumb, why does bearish emotion lead to higher equity prices? Is it because da'Boyz make their purchases when the sentiment is negative?

What is the thought behind bearish emotion leading to bullish action???
 
Boghie;bt2111 said:
CoolHand,

At the risk of sounding rather dumb, why does bearish emotion lead to higher equity prices? Is it because da'Boyz make their purchases when the sentiment is negative?

What is the thought behind bearish emotion leading to bullish action???

That is one of the keys to understanding market psychology. There are two sides to the market. Bulls and Bears. Each are in a tug of war with the other over control of which direction prices go, whether it be an individual stock, an index, a fund, etc.

The current market has been pretty bearish for the most part, which means bears are shorting the market. If enough of them tip the boat to the bearish side the big money sees an opportunity to put on a short squeeze, which is when they drive prices higher (buying) to force the bears to cover, which pushes prices even higher.

Too much bearishness tends to move markets higher, while too much bullishness tends to move markets lower. As long as the prevailing sentiment remains bearish, we will probably remain in an uptrend.
 
Sentiment is useful at extreme levels. My take is that when there is a large majority of one or the other, there is no one left to move the market their way.

Here's an extreme example:

If 100% of investors were bullish, who is left to buy? In theory, no one, because they would have bought already if they were bullish. The only place for the market to go when there are no buyers left, and there are 100% potential sellers, is down.
 
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