Charting the S&P 500: Weekly Candle Has Bearish Implications

A six-week run for the bulls since late March has been completed. What is significant about that? Well, in my technical work we often see trends last for about six bars and then begin to stall or reverse. This is not a guarantee to happen, but the timing does make some sense.

The recent move higher in the S&P 500 has lasted this long but so has the Nasdaq move. Again, there is no hard-and-fast rule that says this uptrend should end but certainly the odds are against continuation.

We are in a seasonally bearish period for stocks, interest rates are rising, earnings for the most part are in a “sleepy” phase that won’t likely be a catalyst for the markets to rise further. In addition, we have seen oil rising back up, while the Iran War is not considered over and some lingering worry exists. Volatility has been rising, too.

The indicators, however, remain supportive of the bullish trend. MACD is still on a buy signal while relative strength remains impressive. Moving through the upper Bollinger band (top pane) for the fourth consecutive week was stupendous, but finishing with an upside down doji means sellers took over on Friday.

At the midpoint of the second quarter the stock market is up an astounding amount, which just cannot last or be repeated — or can it?

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Posted by Bob Lang

Bob Lang is one of the country’s top options traders, an expert market technician, and a highly sought-after mentor and teacher. He is a private trader in equity and option markets and created his own hedge fund and options trading company called Explosive Options. He is also founder and Chief Options Analyst at Aztec Capital, LLC. He has been a regular contributor to TheStreet Pro's paid subscription products since 2009. Lang is both a short-term trader and long-term stock investor. He utilizes technical and fundamental analysis to find investment opportunities. His coverage for TheStreet Pro specializes in options trading, stock investing, and technical analysis. One of Lang’s claims to fame is his creation of the acronym FANG to describe the top tech companies at the time (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google). The acronym has since expanded considerably and is still widely used today. He is the author of the book “Know Your Options” and holds an MBA from the University of Redlands. When he’s not providing financial commentary for TheStreet, he can be found on the tennis court, reading, or traveling.

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