Good Idea; Poor Execution

A rally led by suddenly-downtrodden Apple and the biotechs seemed like a swell idea this morning, just when bears figured they had bulls trapped in a corner to deliver a knockout blow or two after a pre-market fade. 

However, as I write this I see the IBB ETF back to red, and AAPL and XBI (smaller cap biotech ETF compared to the larger IBB) well off morning highs and could easily flip red, too. Goldman Sachs is red again, and the crude oil bounce has yet to inspire much faith. 

Simply put, this market is doing its best to chop and frustrate as many players as possible, with the best antidote likely being to resist being as active as usual. That has been my posture, at least, as we have discussed this strategy with Members since October. 

To make matters worse, the WMT post-earnings dive is wreaking havoc on the XRT EETF for retail, with only a few studs like GOOS ignoring the swoon.

With all that said, my sense is that shorts need to remain usually nimble with Thanksgiving one week away. There have been years where Thanksgiving week was an ugly one for bulls, but also plenty of ones where shorts simply chose to cover and get into the holiday spirit. 

As usual, we want to update a focused and cogent like of relative strength names, such as GOOS (a name I own long-term, too), on top of some cyber-security standouts, so that if we do get that holiday rally we know where to look in a pinch. 

For now, we want to be sure to continue to not make any unnecessary blunders as the correction keeps running its course.