Panic selling in equities followed by panicked buying
Stock Index Report
by Carley Garner
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2010-02-05
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February 5th, 2010
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Panic selling in equities followed by panicked buying
After melting through 10,000 with ease, the Dow clawed back on the close to settle slightly above. The March Dow futures contract failed to reach the milestone but it is clear that there will be no free lunches for the bears.
There are no shortages of hedge fund blowups and many believe that it was the liquidation of leveraged commodity and stock positions that enabled such a dramatic fall from grace. At one point today, the S&P was approximately 60 points off of yesterday's highs. We haven't gotten to the capitulation seen in 2008 fueled by fund and small speculator margin calls and the subsequent liquidation but this has certainly been a reminder that complacency has no place in these markets.
Market psychology has changed, most traders have adopted a "sell rally" policy but that doesn't mean that the market will go straight down. In fact, there were rumors of a large and well known bank buying a total of 600 S&P futures late on Friday. Assuming a value of 1050 in the March contract, that is about $262,500 per contract...I'll let you do the math.
In the January issue of Futures Magazine, we were quoted several times in reference to our opinion of "Hot Markets of 2010". In the article we predicted a large upside breakout in the U.S. dollar early in the year and later noted that such a move would put pressure on the metals and grains. In this newsletter, we have mentioned several times that a stronger dollar would be trouble for domestic stock indices. Unfortunately, we don't always follow our own advice...If you are following our short put option recommendation, we are growing slightly anxious but are not yet uncomfortable. Despite spikes in volatility and put premium, we feel as though a relatively large bounce is looming and this will be just what we need to exit the position favorably. Luckily, as an option seller your timing and price speculation doesn't have to be perfect!
Our weekly chart is pointing to 1020 in the S&P, but we think higher before lower. The last time around, the rally fell short of our targets...we will see how things pan out this time. We are looking for a rebound in the S&P to 1085 and possibly even a bit over 1100 if the news is supportive. If you are trading the
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Carley Garner
Senior Analyst and Broker; Stocks and Commodities Magazine columnist; Author of "A Trader's First Book on Commodities" and “Commodity Options” published by FT Press a division of Prentice Hall.
Stock Index Report has contributed 289 issues.
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