The Potter and Handle Pattern

Despite Goldman Sachs staging a spirited rally last Friday, large banks in the XLF ETF have mostly given back the bounce late-last week in favor of their continued underperformance throughout the winter months. 

This morning, they are clearly lagging, even underperforming their regional counterparts. 

Specifically, the likes of BAC MS WFC are weak on all timeframes. I am looking to see if the initial buy marker dip-buy has legs this morning, which would likely keep bank bears at bay for now, or at least blunt their strength.

But if the market rolls back down to fresh session lows, we have the banks on watch now from the short side. 

On the XLF (sector ETF) weekly chart, below, the rally since February puts the structure into context, of lower highs and lower lows. A rollover here would simply cement the bear thesis of a rising wedge (light blue lines) and nothing more. 

Elsewhere, TWTR is back to red as I write this off the NFL news. The chart remains broken on many timeframes, which means not chasing into news-related pops is still correct. Holding $17 now as support would be another minor step in the right direction bulls after they held $16 last week.