Short at Today's Close (S&P 500 2159)

Primary indicator has turned bearish.  Accordingly, closed  the long position and went 100% short at today's close (S&P 500 2159). 

Long S&P 500 at Today's Close (S&P 500 1951)

Secondary and Primary indicators have turned bullish.  Accordingly, closed  the short position & went 100% long position at today's close (S&P 500 1951).

Going Short at Today's Close (S&P 500 1930)

Secondary indicator has turned bearish.  Accordingly, closed  the long position and went 100% short at today's close (S&P 500 1930). 

Long Term Indicators have Turned Bearish

Both long term indicators have turned bearish:

1)  The Volatility Trend based indicator turned bearish at the close on December 30, 2015, where the S&P 500 closed at 2063.36.

2)  The Stock Trend indicator turned bearish at the close on January 11, 2016, which saw the S&P 500 closing at 1923.67.

When both indicators turn negative, we have a confirmed bearish condition in the stock market.  On a tactical basis, positions in stocks will be kept until the market reaches the level it broached on the first bearish signal at 2063.36.

Nice Gain on Short Sale - Closing it Out & Going Long at Today's Close (S&P 500 2043.94)

Nice gain shorting the S&P 500 at yesterday's close.

Intermediate indicators remain bearish but we should see a short term bounce.  Accordingly, closed  the short position & went 100% long position at today's close (S&P 500 2043.94). 

Selling Long, Going Short with 1/2 postition at Today's Close (S&P 500 2063.36)

Secondary indicator turned bearish today.  This prompted the following actions:

1)Sold complete SPY long position &
2)Went Short w/1/2 position

Both transactions were done at today's close (S&P 500 2063.36)

Limping into the New Year

Stocks are ending 2015 pretty much how they began it, limping and tired from a bruising year of headline risk, trendless economic data and an ambivalent investing public.

The recovery may be continuing, but nobody much believes in its sustainability as commodity prices collapse, wage stagnation continues and fears of robots and terrorists feature widely in the collective consciousness.

This is actually a good thing.

The slightly elevated volatility and lack of winning asset classes serves as a comforting rebuke to the bubble-callers. Earnings pretty much went nowhere for the S&P 500 – but neither did prices. Small caps and risky bonds fell. Averaging in this year’s flat return for stocks with the robust gains of 2013 and 2014 takes the 3-year and 5-year performance for the asset class more in-line with historical norms.

As of today, S&P gained an above-average 16% for the 3 year period and a perfectly average 10.4% for the 5 year period. In this context, the bull market has not “run on too far, too fast”; rather, its performance is well within what’s to be expected over the long-term.

But there isn’t any great news these days, other than the fact that the Fed got off zero and we didn’t have a crash. So we have that going for us, which is nice…

Short-term traders are watching the price of crude oil to detect tradeable bounce opportunities in the stock market (yes, they are temporarily correlated again) while long-term investors just shrug. A very small handful of macro players got the big picture right – long the dollar, short anything related to global growth or industrial activity. Most of the hotshots, however, did not and are licking their wounds.

But the page turns in a few days, even if the present conditions persist into the New Year.

Everybody loves a clean slate.