Some this and that

AAII sentiment is showing the most bullish ratio since the rally began in March. 42% are bullish while 28% are bearish for a ratio of 1.5 bulls vs. bears. That's still not extreme bullishness by any means especially in the context of this massive rally but it does give the nod for a pullback.

I'm noticing gold is trying to make a base here and I emphasize the word "trying" because it's too early to tell. Originally when gold had its first big drop from the recent peak I suggested it would be just a correction (even though I think the LT trend is close to being over from a time perspective) with room to go to 1100-1120. I also said to see if it can base from those levels as an indication that gold would go higher again. Well, here we are and gold is indeed trying to make a base but again, it's too early to say one has been made.

I'm finding a lot of people want to buy gold at around the $1050 level as a long term entry point. Well, if we get to $1050, then you better watch out below because like I always say, when the market gives you those convenient entry points it's usually an invitation to take away your money.

We are seeing dollar strength right now due to the Greece situation. There's the risk that debt agencies may start to downgrade other European countries and that fear would result in the Euro being put under more pressure not only from a quality standpoint but because it would make it likely that the European central bank would be even more reluctant than the Fed to raise rates. I've never liked Europe from an investing point of view due to their poor demographic profile and socialist mentality relative to the rest of the developed world. However I'm of Italian decent and I do like Europe for their culture, soccer and exotic looking women (I shouldn't be saying that anymore because I'm married now).

I continue to just watch the markets here until the dust settles. Do I have regret for not pulling the trigger yesterday on the short side? Not really because I would have covered it by the end of the day which would have resulted only in a modest profit. Also, I'm always very hesitant to make short trades in a bull market especially when the trend has been so solid with plenty of doubters of it which makes it even more likely to somehow keep on going. In a bull market, when I'm cautious I usually just raise cash as opposed to going short because as I've said many times before, a bull market can be very resilient when there's danger signs and just keep going higher before correcting or it can take weeks before bearish omens show significant results and in those weeks it's easy for a bear to get stopped out for losses and we’ve certainly have seen this in the past 5 weeks during this trading range.

I'm finding it more interesting, profitable and less stressful to look for individual stocks that are showing good actions but are not highly correlated to the market. I heard from a report on BNN that correlations between the general market and individual stocks are dropping. That's a welcomed sign and it also means that the market is now becoming more a stock pickers market.

I've been under the weather lately and so I haven't completed the list of stocks I said I would post....stay tuned.