Which way now?

I mentioned previously that the down-gaps on the S&P had filled in.  I also mentioned that there seemed to be resistance at around 4180.

Well, the market blew through that resistance line and climbed all the way to the 200-day moving average.  It stopped there and is on the verge of a pullback, maybe.

 

RSI is at 68 and MACD is at 92, so the oscillators are signaling that the market is overbought.  Anything could happen, but I'm expecting a pullback, at least to about 4100 or so.  That would be close to a Fibonacci line, I think.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert at this stuff, and you certainly shouldn't make any decisions based on what some guy posts on a blog.  This is for entertainment purposes only.

Coupons are back

Some months ago, Harbor Freight decided to do away with their popular coupons.  I was disappointed.

Recently, though, they seem to have had a change of heart.  Coupons are back!  :D

I don't often buy stuff from Harbor Freight, but I do scour the online coupon database from time to time.  On occasion, I'll find a screaming deal that I just can't let pass me by.

I've bought a number of clamps from there.  You won't find more bang-for-your-buck anywhere else when it comes to clamps.  I especially like the Pittsburgh quick release bar clamps.

I think it's great they brought the coupons back, and I hope their little coupon-less experiment didn't lose them too much market share.

In a heartbeat

There's been a good bit of 1980s nostalgia in recent years.  I haven't watched Stranger Things yet, but I've been thinking about giving it a try mainly for the nostalgia.

It all makes me homesick, frankly.  I'm homesick for the decade of my youth.

We didn't have easy availability of music and video that we have now, but that made us appreciate what we did have all the more.  And it left plenty of time for playing outside.  I used to ride my bike all over the place.  Now I haven't even sat on a bike in years.

Anonymity was the default state.  Whatever you did, you could be confident that no one was going to film you doing it.  This enabled mischief, but it also enabled the learning of valuable lessons.  It enabled liberty and growth and the accruing of wisdom.  We learned about living by doing.  Now the Eye of Sauron is everywhere, and we're all scuttling fearfully through our lives like goblins.

If I could go back to the 1980s, I'd do it in a heartbeat, man.  In a heartbeat.

Gaps got filled

I mentioned a little more than a month ago that gaps on stock charts tend to want to be filled.  It's one of many old sayings among stock traders.  As old sayings tend to go, they're not right all the time, but they're right often enough for people to notice the pattern.

The broader market did indeed rally to fill those gaps, just as I suspected it might.

 

It looks like there's some resistance around 4180 or so.  The MACD is on the high side and the two lines are beginning to converge, so I'd look for the market to begin a decline with the next couple of weeks.

It should be obvious to everyone by now, but I'll say it anyway: we're in a stagflationary environment, and we've been in one for some time.  We need a Paul Volcker, but we don't have one, so we'll be stuck here for a while.

Dragonflies abound

I've noticed that there are several dragonflies patrolling the yard now.  In the past, I've only ever seen one or two at a time.  Now I see three or more at a time.

I suppose the mosquito population has something to do with that.  Predators go where the prey are.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad to see them.  I hope they eat every last mosquito out there.

The things we see

I noticed something the other night.  I was lying in bed and looking at the ceiling, and I noticed an interesting shadow.  The light from the digital clock's display was causing the ceiling fan to cast a strange shadow on the ceiling.  It looked like the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

I've had that clock for several months now.  The previous clock, an old one with a red LED display, stopped working, so I replaced it with one with a bigger, brighter blue-white display.  This was the first time, though--just this week--that I noticed the shadow it cast.

I could have seen that shadow at any time since getting the clock.  All I had to do was look up from my bed while the lights were off.  But I never did.  That shadow has been there these past few months, plainly visible, but I never saw it.

It makes me wonder how many other things like that we miss, things that are in plain sight that we pass by every day but somehow never notice.  Just how fully do we exist in this world anyway?  We're more like characters on a tv show, oblivious to the viewer and everything else in the room in which the television sits.  If we're missing things that are right under our noses, how can we be expected to find things that require a bit more work to reveal?

Next time you're lying in bed at night and getting ready to go to sleep, don't close your eyes just yet.  Take a minute or two to look around.  You might be surprised by what you find.

Some days are better than others

I've had a headache for the past two days.  It hasn't been severe, but it hasn't completely gone away, either, and longevity has a severity all its own.

The past couple of days have seen a lot of rain, too.  That's good.  June was hot and dry, and the ground baked, so we needed it.  The rain hasn't cooled things off much, though, and that's bad.  The high temp for tomorrow is supposed to be 93.

Dog days indeed.