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Today's subject title is perfect for what just took place on the open this morning. For the last four trading days, we continued to point to the NASDAQ indexes to determine if we'd get another decent leg up in the market, and this morning we got the confirmation we were looking for, albeit one day late. It appears there's a fair amount of pent of demand to trap short sellers in this market and that's exactly what we're seeing today. Dating back to the day after the elections, we took a stand suggesting these markets stood every illogical reason to move higher on the heels of what many though was the beginning of a market meltdown. However, all we've seen since the markets hit bottom shortly after the elections is continued strength and a very resilient environment for stocks. Why? We'll point you to that post-election edition here titled, "Careful Throwing in the Towel - It's the Perfect Environment for a Snapback". You can go back and read our reasoning on the topic, but in short, where else are investment dollars going to provide any sort of a decent return other than stocks? Right now, the markets continue to express their carefree demeanor that they're really not too worried about jobs, the fiscal cliff, consumer demand, a housing recovery, or really anything of the sort. Not even waning third quarter earnings were enough to shake the big money tree enough into being scared.

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Good morning all, or possibly good afternoon depending on when you read this. Hope you had a great weekend. Before we get into today's analysis of the indexes and what we can be looking for in the days ahead, we thought we'd provide a quick update on the four remaining open trades we have left from suggested entries in recent weeks and months, depending on which idea we're referring to.

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This week is shaping up to potentially provide some extreme drama as soon as tomorrow for the broader markets. While the media points to an all-important jobs report tomorrow morning, I'll point again today to what we believe is far more important than tomorrow's jobs numbers. Remember, corporate earnings continued to perform throughout weak jobs ever since the markets bottomed in the spring of 2009, yet the media continues to emphasize how important the jobs numbers are every month. Last time I checked, the markets have sold off since September even with improving jobs numbers, so that takes care of that. Jobless Americans can't stay unemployed forever. As a matter of fact, I think the current administration has given the unemployed far too many free weeks of fun in the sun without having to suck it up and find work. I've always said, if you give people an out, they'll take it, so let's not be so surprised about how many people are or aren't unemployed in this country.

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Good hump day all. We're continuing to get follow through weakness to the downside across all of the major indexes again today. Not good for those who don't read our newsletter, however, for those of you who do stay on top of it and entered into some put options on the index ETF's per our suggestion on Monday, you are nicely implanted in the money now. Yes, you can make money in a down market. If you acted on our suggestion, you're in an excellent position at this point to lock in profits and/or set a trailing stop and let the trade continue to work for you. Keep in mind though, when it comes to short-term trading, it's important not to be too greedy. 30%-40% options' profits at today's low over the course of a couple of days in a weak market environment is a lot better than a sharp stick in the eye, so always consider the profits and the timeframe before you make an attempt to stretch a single or a double into a homerun.

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That was one of the best Monday Night Football games I've watched in quite some time. Looks like the Giants and the Redskins are developing an exciting new rivalry with RG3's splash entrance into the NFL and Manning's unwavering professional demeanor. What a game. Yes, I know this newsletter is all about stocks and the general markets, but when you publish an edition every single trading day without fail, finding new ways to open the commentary and keep things entertaining can sometimes be challenging, especially when the markets are simply cooperating with our analysis and not a whole lot is changing with our forecast. I've never really thought of us as weather forecasters. When you think about it though, that's exactly what we do is call for rain or sunshine for the markets, and right now, we've got rain in the cards with a potential storm brewing. The big question still remains if this is just a small storm passing through, or is there a bigger one sitting just off the coast that's about to work its way on to Wall Street, and subsequently Main Street?