May still lie before us. I do not possess a crystal ball. But, there is a technical structure I am observing that may suggest a further decline ahead of us in risk assets. This article will lay out the idea in detail.

I am not here to confirm or deny anyone’s bullish or bearish expectations for the markets. I endeavor, instead, to objectively assess the situation in anticipation of its unfolding. In the spirit of that, let us summarize the merits of the bullish and bearish cases, respectively:

Bullish case:

• It has been my expectation that a reduction of pandemic-related restrictions combined with the weak Omicron variant (leading to herd immunity) could produce a feeling of worldwide relief that could support a very strong appetite for risk assets for quite some time, perhaps even several years
• We seem to have not—by many sentiment measures—experienced the type of euphoria we typically see at major market tops
• Many of the destroyed growth names have already endured terrible and lengthy bear markets and if those were all to end soon, their next moves could be tremendously bullish
• We will be hard pressed to find historical examples of markets topping prior to rate hikes being implemented, and, in fact, they often top long after the rate hike cycles begin (and there has been no yield curve inversion, GDP continues to grow, etc., etc.)
• There is an enormous amount of “cash on the sidelines,” some estimates I see place that in the trillions of dollars.

Bearish case:

• The short and intermediate trends remain decidedly down, and if we go much further, longer term trends may also become threatened
• The events in Europe may cause rapid-onset contraction in many economies (Russia’s of course, but also, say, of Germany’s, as 70% of their energy supplies come from the now heavily sanctioned Russia—see how the $DAX has interpreted these events)
• A rapid contraction will of course not been seen by leading economic data
• Any such unanticipated contraction may become contagious

Weighing these two groups continues to lead me to believe that we are in a correction, and not a bear market. A point of clarification: when we use the phrase “bear market,” we can mean two things: oftentimes, we mean by that a long, and drawn-out decline in asset prices lasting many months or years; or we can mean a “technical bear market,” typically understood to be a decline of 20% from a recent high in a major index (such as the S&P 500). When I conclude that a “bear market” continues to seem less likely to me here given the totality of the evidence listed above, I am referring to the former sense and not the latter.

And one thing that I will be suggesting today is that I am open to the latter. That is to say: though I do not expect anything like the GFC or the dot-com bubble bursting, I am open to some further lows ahead that may even put the S&P 500 in a “technical” bear market.

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To begin, I would like to look at the basic structures on $BTC. Where liquidity flows, so flows the Bitcoin candles, and it’s far easier to use technicals on a single chart like this than to try to do so on a complex of variable risk bonds or something like that.

Some general notes:

• It has the appearance of two, consecutive head and shoulders patterns
• The top of the one on the left coincided with the beginning of the decline of all the high growth names
• The top of the one on the right coincided with the top of the Nasdaq
• Thus, if we can draw some conclusions about this asset’s future, they may assist us in predicting the course of equities

Now differences between the two head and shoulders patterns are interesting:

• The right shoulder of the one on the left never seriously broke down below its respective neck line; the right shoulder of the one on the right did
• The right shoulder of the one on the left developed into a falling, bullish wedge; the right shoulder of the one on the right has produced (so far) a far more directionally agnostic wedge. Though symmetrical triangles are understood to be directionally agnostic (the “bullish divergence” on the RSI many believe they see is rendered null and void as no new low in price is present), following a steep decline, they are perhaps more reliably interpreted as “continuation wedges,” which gives the present picture a far more bearish look than how things looked last summer

Read more “Extreme Caution Remains Warranted: A Strong Further Decline May Still Lie Before Us”

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