By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market has finally broken out to the upside — sort of. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index finally made a new 2011 high, at last joining the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Value Line, Nasdaq 100, DJ Transports, DJ Utilities, Nasdaq Composite, and the NYSE Index, among others. The Russell 2000 is not quite at a new high, but it’s close.
The 3 Gurus Global Webinar starts tomorrow and Larry McMillan has announced his topic, "Option Strategies That Are Working Now." The following questions will be answered during his presentation:
By Lawrence G. McMillan
After a severe scare on Monday, which I label the "Emperor has no clothes" decline, the market has responded well, due in large part to some positive earnings report. Now the problem -- if there is one -- is the resistance from the February and April tops in the 1340-1345 area. Another failure at this level would be quite bearish.
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained bullish, even with the selling that occurred last week.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
It has been an interesting week. On Monday, we had what I like to call the “emperor has no clothes” selloff. Seriously, to whom is it news that the U.S. financial situation is a mess? Apparently, it was to some, as Standard & Poor’s placing of the U.S. debt on “credit watch” spurred massive selling. However, somewhere on the way to financial collapse, the bears ran out of gas. That day, the S&P 500 Index SPX +1.35% rallied to close above 1,300, putting in a bottom for the day at 1,295.
This morning, the $VIX April futures settled at 14.86, the lowest futures expiration since June of 2007 which was near the end of the last bull market. The $VIX index also opened this morning at a recent low of 14.31. Even though this might be considered overbought, with $VIX trending lower the market remains bullish.
From the floor of the CBOE, OptionMonster and TradeMontster founder Jon Najarian discusses why you should attend The Three Gurus Webinar featuring Fari Hamzei, Price Headley, and Larry McMillan on April 26-27th. See the video below and sign up today.
By Lawrence. G. McMillan
$SPX touched support and its rising 20-day moving average at 1310, and probed slightly below that level today before rallying.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that the equity-only put-call ratios have remained on buy signals throughout the pullback over the last week.
There was similar action in the volatility indices ($VIX and $VXO). The calm in these volatility indices is another bullish indication, despite the falling broad market.
Only breadth is giving a negative signal at this time.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was not able to make new highs over the past week. In fact, selling set in and knocked the market down. However, there is still a general bullish overtone to the indicators, and so the bulls have certainly not capitulated yet. Ostensibly, the catalyst for this selling is the continuing, worsening situation in Japan. However, it is just as likely that the market had reached too much of an overbought condition, and that had to be worked off — which it has been, for the most part.
