There Are No Shotgun Trades

The last month or so of trading conditions have been as frustrating and grinding as I can recall, with the financial news media banging the drums on a daily basis about the Dow and S&P making one new marginal all-time high after the next (and AAPL COST MSFT NKE, etc.) even as small caps and transports noticeably lagged. In addition, more than a handful of otherwise sound, quality technical long setups not only failed to sustain upside breakouts but they now threaten to be outright failures. 

Thus, I backed off a bunch of longs this morning and am reassessing the action as we head towards Jackson Hole next week. The FOMC Minutes on Wednesday of this wee could also be a potential lightning rod, especially if the Minutes reveal more voting members are indeed supportive of a taper sooner than later. 

Another point worth remembering in markets like these: There are no shotgun trades, meaning no one is forcing you to do anything. Trading conditions have revealed themselves to be downright fickle. The good news is that volumes should pick up the closer we get to Labor Day and beyond, and we should see an accompanying directional move out of a the vast array of price ranges we are seeing right now.

For now, we are simply looking to see whether the IWM holds below $220 and if large cap tech begins to wobble.