Always an option although keep in mind that one contract of /PA represents about a quarter of a million-dollar position in palladium ($222,274 right now). That’s over $2,200 in gains or losses for every 1% move in palladium prices & /PA can easily swing 5% or more in a day. There is a micro contract (/PAM) but it is so thinly traded that even Interactive Brokers, who cater to professional traders, doesn’t offer it for trading.

It very well could. Despite the overwhelming negative impact COVID-19 has already had & will likely continue to have on the stock market, one potential catalyst for a possible rally and/or a consolidation around current levels for a while is the extreme level of the $VIX & bearish sentiment, which often marks temporary or even lasting bottoms.
Extremes in sentiment, just like overbought & oversold conditions as well as divergences are not buy or sell signals & can become ‘more’ extreme but yes, that is one checkmark for the case for the current divergences to play out for a rally. Not the way I think it goes as of now but certainly possible & I will try to adjust/adapt as quickly as I can if the market is about to rally 10%+

Yes,I’d say there is a good chance that we’ll blow right on down through those lows. The fact that the market quickly wiped out those massive 1-day gains from yesterday is a major blow to those that figured the worst was over, even if just for a few days or weeks. The case for a rally & those daily support levels on QQQ & SPY as well as the 60-min divergences to still hold & play out hasn’t been eliminated yet but will likely be soon if the market takes out Monday’s lows with conviction.

Welcome & congrats for making the decision to move the bulk of those long-term funds to cash. While cash (savings, short-term CD’s, money market funds, etc.) is probably one of the best places to put a decent portion of long-term funds until the technical & fundamental outlook for the stock market & economy improves.
Historically, gov’t & investment-grade corp bonds were typically a good place to be during times of market turmoil although, for the reasons I’ve covered recently, the R/R for both Treasuries and invst-grade corps is not favorable at this time.
Stay safe.