Well there was good news from JPM and BOA (whatever passing stress test means, don't they all pass?) But it seems that the move that began at 3 est today had all the signs of a classic move to take out the short's stops. I was expecting an awful lot of stops to be just above 1380. That was the top of a long channel that goes back to the march 6 low @1332.75 (ES). What surprised me was the strength of the move. There must have been even more stops up there than I anticipated. Though this is a strong market in an election year, I don't think this move will hold for now, because the buying @ 3 pm was mostly shorts covering,. I'm thinking the market will retrace some to be in the right place for the S&P settlement on Friday morning. Then maybe next week, we can get a real nice retrace because we did leave three gaps below us. A little one on Tues - Wed 3/7 , a bigger one on Wed-Thurs 3/8 and a medium one yesterday to today. There was also a fourth little gap Thurs-Fri 3/9 which we almost filled (ranges filled but we were a few ticks away from reaching Thursday's RTH close. Second gaps have a high probability of filling, and third and fourth gaps even higher. I know there are folks that are short out there that are counting on filling that gap up from 1346.25 we left behind on last Wed., but I would think it is a very high probability that we would at least fill the gap up from Monday's RTH close at 1365.25. I think that would be a pretty conservative target, but I'd be surprised to see us arrive at the station ahead of schedule, i.e., before we suffer through options expiration.
Good trading, and good luck everyone, and ain't it a wonderful market. "To the Moon, Alice."