Taking Big Tech to Task

With the CEOs of FB GOOGL and TWTR getting grilled today on Capitol Hill regarding the variety of exclusions they enjoy (Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, especially), the current mega cap landscape at least somewhat rhymes with the railroad trusts in this country over a century ago. Back then, Teddy Roosevelt earned a reputation for his trust-busting. And you can be sure there are ambitious politicians right now eager to do the same this century. 

Of course, there are stark differences between now and then. But for our purposes as market players we are gauging the market's reaction going forward. 

Specifically, are we at a meaningful turning point in the large cap tech leaders housed in the QQQ? Beyond FB GOOGL TWTR there is, of course, AAPL AMZN TSLA, among many others, including MSFT getting sold despite a solid earnings report. 

As I write this, I see plenty of folks on financial social media streams urging a levelheaded approach as this pullback "is nothing more than a consolidation," or something to that effect.

Two quick points about that: 1) We always strive for a levelheaded approach with Members, so of course I agree with that; but 2) Every single major market pullback, even the one last February/March, stars with a seemingly innocuous shakeout which is argued as a mere consolidation. 

The humility required to negotiate pullbacks often comes at the expense of brazenly buying into every dip at full blast, which has been a tough go of it in the new Fed era. However, over time those market players and pundits who become too cavalier with declaring various pullbacks as garden-variety, seemingly out of habit, often suffer the most fatal of blows due to how overly-aggressive their strategy has been all along unbeknownst to them as each micro-dip was indeed bought since March. 

On a separate note, natural gas is quietly trying for a well-defined 200-day moving average on its ETF's daily chart, updated below. Natty is more than capable of trading in its own world, regardless of what any other market or asset class does, for better or worse. This time around, I think it is for the better as a long winter approaches.