Dow Theory, AppliedDow Theory is a foundational set of principles that underlies modern technical analysis. One of the main tenants of the theory involves trend confirmation by comparing similarities between equity indices' price behavior. Originally, the Dow Transportation Index was used to confirm trend direction in the Dow Industrial Index. Now things are a bit more complicated, with multiple indices covering a wide array of sectors and ever-evolving niche technologies.
To get a confluence of direction across the four major American indices (DJI, SPX, IXIC, RUT) to close the week has not been a simple task. I believe this is one of the reasons why a systemic selloff has been delayed in spite of the increasingly opaque economic picture. There are just too many cross-correlates that offset each other on the basis of what each sector "should" do in such-and-such situation. For example, the notion of fleeing to technology as a safety measure may have manifested as a "real" reaction in the middle of 2020, but it was the media's promulgation of such an idea that popularized it into today's common market wisdom. In any case, I would argue that fleeing into tech will work until it doesn't - and that day is looking closer by the hour. Literally.
Just take a look at the four charts displayed above - each of the four indices mentioned sports a bearish hourly candle to close the week. While this is subtle information, I was able to see the price action from a tape reader's point of view, and I will tell you that the price movement during this last hour was categorically different than any I have seen in months. This was real selling; institutional selling en masse. Each of the four underlying ETFs were seemingly stuck in quicksand for an hour and in order to confirm this back=end observation, I turned to the charts after the close.
The results depicted above depict consistent heavy selling across all four indices, in the form of nasty looking candles to close the session. Charles Dow and his then-clever, and now-accepted theory, would point to this as a prime example, were he still trying to convince the world of its validity.
While nothing is certain in markets, this is some pretty compelling data suggesting that, at the very least, there will be some serious volatility for the first time in a long time.
I'm short, but it's not so simple with the other side being a hysterical bubble and all. My suggestion is to get creative and take advantage of the four-way confirm.
-ConfirmPig
TVC:IXIC
CURRENCYCOM:US100
TVC:SPX
CURRENCYCOM:US500
TVC:DJI
CURRENCYCOM:US30
AMEX:IWM
TVC:RUT
