ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

by Larry Levin

When my head trader (and moderator) Dan O'Brien or I express an extremely slow market via texts or in the virtual trading room, we type the "Z's"...ZZZZZzzzzzzz. It doesn't matter how many you use or whether they are capitalized or not, but it does seem to be the universal letter/symbol of someone sleeping. I guess we watched a lot of cartoons as children. Ok, ok, we still watch a few.

Today was a snoozer indeed. The TOTAL range was a scant (read: PATHETIC) 4.80 points from top to bottom. What's more, 3.80 points of this range - 79.2% - was put in place during the first 35-minutes of the day. The remainder of the day reminded one of a dryer's spin-cycle on low: a low volume churning event.

Yesterday I mentioned the Greek bailout nonsense and said the following: "The market this Sunday evening is once again catching a bid from the never ending Greek saga: The Never Ending Bailout. Although EVERY prior announced bailout was utter BS, we once again have a so-called "bailout" for Greeks. It will surely stick one of these days, but I refuse to believe it again until I see it."

I was correct in my refusal to believe it because it was just more hype. Greece does NOT have a real bailout package in place. If we're "lucky," yet another BS story will come out of nowhere to pump the market higher yet again...on lower volume yet again.

Can this continue forever (higher highs on lower volume)? No it can't; however, we are learning forst hand that when the government decides to rig the market even more than its garden variety interest rate setting it can last longer than anyone would have thought. So all we can do is look for signals of a potential volume/volatility spike. Given today's utter lack of action/volatility/volume, I believe we had that today. Although this signal doesn't mean the market must go down tomorrow, it probably should. Oddly enough, I wouldn't be surprised to see better volatility in both directions, perhaps up to SP 1,200.00 early (gap open?) then a reversal.

Whatever happens, one should be ready for some action tomorrow.



Previous Day's Trading Room Results:

Trade Date: 4/12/10

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) No "Secrets" trades filled today.

2) Algorithm positions (6)

3) "Reading the Tape" positions (0) ...combined Secret's, Algo, & "Reading the Tape" total...-2.75



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