It is the Friday before a long weekend and volume is lighter and the FAANG names mixed but the algorithms are hard at work again and pushing things straight up. Breadth is better than 2 to 1 positive and new highs have expanded to around 150 but that is still quite light. Despite this huge move over the last five days the indices still have more work to do to make it back to highs.
My friend Dan Rosenblum commented that 'the algos have changed everything. I am pretty sure we have never had a six day run like this in market history'. I believe Dan is correct and that most market participants fail to appreciate that face. That is because there are always so many market players that want to pretend that they saw it coming. They may not even be fully cognizant of how they rationalize the behavior but they try to take it in stride because that is the best way to deal with It.
Over the fullness of time I think people will look back and appreciate to a much greater degree how unusual this market action is but while we are in the midst of it, we won't really see it.
As I write I see the indices going straight up to another new high. There is absolutely no justification for that sort of price action, but you are foolish to try to argue with it. There is no way we can know how long this will last.
Many traders were hopeful that the blow-up of the short volatility trade would give us a more 'normal' market again. Instead the opposite seems to have occurred. This feels more manipulated than ever and is crushing anyone and anything in its way.
I'm looking for some news buys and have not added much. I did take some Snap (SNAP) and added to Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) but mostly I'm just looking forward to a very relaxing three-day weekend without any computer algorithms.
