Agreed. I’ve maintained all year that this market, once it has finally topped, won’t be like the 2000 & 2007, which saw pretty impulsive & persistent selling once the top was finally in. More likely, it looks as this market has been very slowly grinding out a top & the next major move down is likely to roughly mirror the slow grind leading up to this topping process over the last couple of years. The US is most likely to be a zombie economy going forward for years, not falling off a cliff rather more like a slow grind back & forth, in & out of recessionary/expansionary levels. At least that’s just a hunch, we’ll just have to adjust to the charts as they develop.

jf- Only time with tell if I’m right or wrong on this one. I’m always open to all possibilities but find little value in posting ambiguous, contradictory analysis. If I don’t have a decent read on the charts, I will say so and although I can make a bullish or bearish case on the market, any sector or stock at just about any point in time, I typically try to keep things simple by pointing out the technical developments that support the bullish or bearish case for the market or a sector/stock that I’m following, again, if my opinion is strong enough. Doing so will inevitably cause me to eat crow at times as I don’t publish C.Y.A. analysis (i.e.- providing both bullish & bearish scenarios all the time & jumping on whichever one plays out) but I think there’s more value in providing actionable analysis vs. contradicting analysis.

Eric- As these are long-term weekly charts, their primary use is to help get an idea on the bigger picture: What the overall larger trends are & where prices are likely headed in the coming months. Best to use the daily & 60-minute time frames to help hone down the timing on any entries & exits. Also keep in mind that the S&P 500 (or any of those other global indices) is a compilation of the most bullish & bearish stocks & sectors at any given point in time. As such, best to try to identify the most bullish & bearish sectors within the broad market & then sniff out the most bullish & bearish stocks (or sector ETFs) within those sectors for long & short trading opps.

I’ll also add that until we can say with a very high degree of confidence that the primary trend in the US markets is either clearly bullish or bearish, as the SPX has traded in a large, sideways range for the last 2 years thereby making the primary trend indeterminable/sideways, it is probably best to trade or invest with a long/short mix: the most bullish longs & the most bearish short trade ideas. Once the primary trend becomes clear, trend traders would align most of all of their trades with the primary trend while swing traders can attempt to profit both long & short trading major rallies & corrections.