Fake Meat for a Fake Market

We are at the phase of this market cycle where a downtrodden name like Beyond Meat below on the monthly chart, simply being added to a meme stock ETF, is sufficient to ignite a 130% (not a typo) short squeeze higher for the plant-based meat alternative. 

Mind you, this is a firm whose products have generally missed the mark repeatedly, as people simply do not want to eat these Franken-food meal alternatives after, perhaps, trying it out once. And the monthly chart illustrates as much over an extended period of time.

Once again, this BYND action on news of the MEME addition drives home the massive distortion between equities versus real world economics. I recognize that is often the case, but as with anything else it comes down to the degree of distortion. Here, the gap is as wide as we have seen in modern American history. 

As for the overall tape we have a meandering session on the Nasdaq headed into the serious part of earnings season tonight with Netflix kicking things off, followed by Tesla tomorrow evening. 

Gold is finally shaking out hard, and a 20-day moving average test is likely in store. However, I am certainly an interested dip-buyers when that test occurs.