Market Finds Relief, but Volume Fades

The NASDAQ managed to regain its 200 day moving average, but light trade confirms institutions aren’t willing to stick their necks out supporting this market. A positive ISM Non-manufacturing figure gave a bit of a boost to the markets. However, the European close provided sellers an excuse to tackle the market. In the end, the markets put in a nice day of gains. We are still a long ways away from getting a healthy market with the lack of volume on the upside. Until we see improvement we’ll continue to see lackluster trading. The fear trade lost traction today as the VIX lost its 200 day today. The index regained its 200 day Friday of last week when the NASDAQ and S&P 500 dove below their respective 200 day moving average. We did not see panic rush into the market during this decline. Panic begins with the VIX racing above the 30 level and so far investors have yet to panic. Sentiment is on the bearish side, but actions have yet to show any capitulation. Tomorrow we’ll get a few economic releases, but the big one will come out at 2pm eastern standard time. The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book and the market will certainly get active around its release. Every market pundit is foaming at the mouth with the possibility of the Federal Reserve introducting another round of Quantatitve Easing. It is a sad state of affairs when the addict can only survive on the drug. For trend followers we simply do not care if QE will show up or not. Price will always be the first mover and we want to be onboard. Drop the opinions and follow price! Believe it or not today is Day 2 of another attempted rally for the stock market. It is nice we are above the 200 day for this rally attempt. At this point a rally confirmation is on the low end of the spectrum. We failed to see any panic/capitulation in the market and have yet to see any high volume reversal to the upside. However, a confirmation day here would certainly change our tune in the short-term. Until then, we’ll wait patiently and continue to operate under a sell signal. Cut those loses short.