We're up 160 points since I called the return of the bulls earlier today. Pity I hadn't just gone long there. I kept thinking, as I always do on trend days, "it has moved too far to fast - I'm not going to trade against it, but I am too late to get on boards, so I'll just stay flat".
The situation with US equities is quite scary right now. I'm glad to be flat, and start the week with a 15 pip loss (not so good). However, I'm really not sure how to judge this market. If fundamental news comes in weak, the markets rally on the higher probability of a rate cut. If fundamentals come in strong, the markets rally on the good news. I don't want to get caught up in thinking that this is a one way bet, but with the Fed likely to cut rates even further, and the dollar devaluing at such a rapid rate, the Dow can only go up.
Once again (recalling my experience of the February crash), I'm rather disappointed in not having the foresight to make a low stake long term buy on gold and YM a few weeks back. Buying EUR/USD would have been quite sensible as well.
I feel my fun is being spoiled this week. My favourite trade of the month, the nonfarm payrolls, is coming up this week, and for the first time in a few months I'm unsure of the reaction. I've done quite well taking a position into this number, or trading off S/R as established by the H/L of the 15m bar after the number for the last 3/4 months. I sold into the number last time (but only took 50 pips out of 200 odd after not having the guts to hold) when I saw an estimate of +118K (thinking that was rediculous). The number came out at -4K, and I covered too soon.
This month, I'm seeing predictions around the +100K mark, which seems more reasonable, but I'm pencilling in a lower number. Given that revisions also make up an important part of this release, I'm a little unsteady this time. If the nonfarm employment change is 20 to 40K less than expected, are the markets going to have a small correction down, or would this be an excuse to rally 1% in 10 minutes as it makes a rate cut even more likely?
Sometimes I worry about being bearish. Perhaps the bottom is in, and we will see 15K going into end of year. The Fed and the markers are acting with such infuriating audacity, but there is no sense losing pips trying to fight it. We have had our minor (10%) correction in the markets-perhaps it is time to start buying again...to hell with the fundamentals - nobody else seems to care about them.