Markets Come Alive - Sort Of

The first big down day the markets have had since the beginning of May. Breadth was very negative but the volume on the NYSE was still not spectacular with only 1.15 billion shares traded. Very busy compared to last week but still slow compared to any historical context.

Still the market in my opinion had its first pure break in weeks and the first time since late March I was actually somewhat busy. I was not adding to shorts, not yet, but I was taking profits on a few longs that have moved up that I was looking for an excuse to sale. I think we need to stay below 930. If we can do that, I will see how the market feels to try to determine if I want to add some short exposure. I have so many short ideas but unlike longs, shorts have to be timed much more carefully. There has to be a competition between Amazon and Palm as the most overvalued companies on the NASDAQ but both continue to defy gravity.

The futures were really really busy today. This may have been because the front month contract (June) is about to roll off or it may have been the invisible hand was trying to keep the market from really selling off. Either way at 2:36 the futures really kicked in volume just like in weeks past. Invisible buyer? I don't know but today after a couple of point rally on this big surge sellers stepped up to the plate. A big break compared to weeks past.

The next few days will be interesting.