Monday, March 3, 2014

Dow Theory Update for March 3: Stocks plummet but technically nothing has been accomplished




And SPY’s higher highs remain unconfirmed


After my brief hiatus, let’ see what the Dow Theory has in store for us.


The SPY, Industrials and Trasnports and Industrials closed down. The SPY exceeded its last recorded closing highs on February 28th. However, the Transports and the Industrials did not deign to confirm. The longer the non-confirmation persists, the more suspect the SPY’s higher highs become. Today’s action makes such a confirmation even more doubtful.

The market remains caught in a technically complicated juncture. If the February lows were violated a primary bear market would be signaled. On the other hand, if the last recorded confirmed closing highs (December 31, 2013) were broken out, the primary bull market would be reconfirmed. You can gather more information about the current juncture, here and here.

Here you have an updated chart.

The SPY (bottom) consistently exceeded the 12/31 closing highs. Lack of confirmation may be indicative of distribution

 
The primary trend remains bullish, as explained here, and more in-depth here.

The primary trend was reconfirmed as bullish on October 17th and November 13th, for the reasons given here and here.

The secondary trend is bearish (secondary reaction against primary bull market), as explained here.

Gold and Silver

SLV and GLD closed up. GLD made a higher closing high unconfirmed by SLV. For the reasons I explained here, and more recently here, and in spite of all the bullishness than now surrounds gold and silver, the primary trend remains bearish.

For the primary trend to turn bullish, SLV and GLD should jointly break above the secondary (bullish) reaction highs. As a reminder, the secondary reaction closing highs were made on August 27th, 2013. From such highs the market declined without jointly violating the June 27th, 2013 primary bear market lows.

By the way, I alerted that the secondary trend turned bullish long ago (on July 22, 2013), when most market pundits were solidly bearish, as you can read here. Now, those very pundits are very bullish as only the sky was the limit. I take the middle road based on the Dow Theory: Since July 22, 2013 there was technically good reason not to be so bearish; on February 14th, 2014, there is no reason to be long term so bullish.

Here I analyzed the primary bear market signal given on December 20, 2012. The primary trend was reconfirmed bearish, as explained here. The secondary trend is bullish (secondary reaction against the primary bearish trend), as explained here.

On a statistical basis the primary bear market for GLD and SLV is getting old. More than one year since the bear market signal was flashed has elapsed. However, I am extremely skeptical as to the predictive power of statistics. I prefer price action to guide me, and the Dow Theory tells me that the primary trend remains bearish until reversed.

Furthermore, the June 27, 2013 lows remain untouched. The longer this situation lasts, the higher the odds that something might be changing. But I wait for the verdict of price action.

As to the gold and silver miners ETFs, SIL and GDX closed up. The secondary trend is bullish, as explained here. In spite of short term bullish accomplishments, SIL and GLD are not in a primary bull market.

The primary trend for SIL and GDX remains, nonetheless, bearish, as was profusely explained here and here.

Here you have the figures for the SPY which represents the only market with a suggested open long position:

 

Data for March 3, 2014






DOW THEORY PRIMARY TREND MONITOR SPY




SPY
Bull market started
06/24/2013 157.06
Bull market signaled
07/18/2013 168.87
Last close
03/03/2014 184.98
Current stop level: Secondary reaction low

174.17




Unrlzd gain % Tot advance since start bull mkt  Max Pot Loss %




9.54% 17.78%        None


Sincerely,

The Dow Theorist

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