Are These Dirtballs Good, or What?

Monday's vicious shakedown was poetry in motion. An hour into the session, stocks were falling so hard that you might have thought the world was about to end. Far from it, as suckers who sold into the avalanche were soon to discover. DaBoyz had laid the groundwork for Monday morning's crime spree by goosing shorts the night before. This caused the E-Minis to gap 13 points above last week's highs, putting bears back on their heels. The perps then spent the next 16 hours distributing stock at prices above the highs before pulling the plug. Had they been child molesters and I mean no insult to pederasts in comparing them to traders they could not have had more fun if they'd had free run at an orphanage.

Buyers Couldn't Wait

The purpose of the distribution was to get the pros sufficiently short to provide some buying power when stocks fell. But they evidently couldn't wait until Tuesday, let alone until later in the week, since urgent short-covering commenced a little more than halfway into the session. You can see the results in the chart (inset). The squeeze recouped nearly half of the day's losses, presumably leaving bears sufficiently anxious to keep stocks buoyant on Tuesday even if a few real sellers shows up.

We'll be neutral at the bell, since the futures even at their lows failed to exceed the two prior lows we require to generate an impulse leg. A weak one is all we got, suggesting that another round of punitive selling is no more likely than a rally toward new all-time highs.

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