What was the ceiling during the latter half of August has since become the floor. At least for the NASDAQ anyway. Both the NDX and the COMP continue to chip away at the week's low in what appears to be an attempt to take this market lower. Interesting because these same indexes spent the last few weeks of August chipping away at that same level, but from underneath. The markets need to make up their minds and do it in a hurry before everyone decides to pack it in and look for other ways to invest their money. Yes, there's a bit a cynicism there and I am slightly kidding, but let's get real here. This market needs some direction and needs it fast. Advertisement Is that small cap really a stock to watch? Free Analysis. Is that small cap stock the real deal or a bust waiting to happen? Enter the stock symbol or company name for a free, instant stock analysis. Know what direction the stock is moving and how strong the trend is. Access This Free Stock Analysis Advertisement Even I'm looking for the media to shake things up over the next few days, that would at least give us something to rant about, and possibly some sort of volatility to work with here. I will say in all fairness, the S&P and the DOW both are leading the week. Neither of those indexes have backed off much following last Thursday's sharp move higher, which is quite contrary to what the NASDAQ has done. As a matter of fact, both the DOW and the S&P have very quietly put in new 52 week highs over the last couple of days. A rotation into more defensive names? That's what it looks like. Not the biggest vote of confidence for the general undertone of the markets. However, if the DOW and/or S&P take charge going forward, then so bit it. There was a time many moons ago following the tech crash of 2000 when the S&P, the DOW and investors in general all had enough of the NASDAQ for a good solid couple of years. Basically, we're in a hurry up and wait mode with where this market wants to take us prior to the election. Again, we'll reiterate the weekly and monthly charts still suggest further upside, even with the possibility of a decent pullback in the near-term. If you're interested in playing some index options, I'd play contrarian and be very nimble. In other words, buy index ETF call options a month or two out on very short-term capitulation type lows and close them out on any sharp moves higher. I wouldn't necessarily try and short any of the major indexes right now because you can very well wake up to a huge gap up on any given day. If you go back through recent weeks, you'll notice when this market pops to the upside, it does it in lightning fast fashion. Just look at last Thursday's one day wonder. Before we put the major indexes to rest today and move on, we want to remind you after last Thursday's big pop to the upside, we made it pretty clear not to chase that move, but to rather wait and see if the big money was convinced this market should go higher. We haven't seen any sort of conviction either way just yet except for a little follow through from the DOW and S&P. However, we will soon enough. And, as soon as anything significant happens, you'll be among the first to know. It's also worth pointing out even gold is struggling to break new ground to the upside after its recent run-up, which we suggested would likely be the case now that it has run into a very key resistance level. Look for gold to top out soon. Now... Our Own Selfish SmallCap Network Plug We spend so much time forecasting the markets, looking for quality trading ideas and figuring out how we're going to smash the average returns of most, that we never really take the time to communicate much on just what's going on with the SmallCap Network site and its future for our Members. We're going to take a little time and catch up on some of this today. There's no denying we've probably brought our readers more quality and highly profitable ideas throughout the year than virtually any other free newsletter out there. As a matter of fact, I'd challenge any paid newsletter to produce the same or better results. I know, you probably get all kinds of newsletters out there, from super speculative penny stock newsletters to all of the doom and gloom newsletters, but if you really know what you're doing, you know the ideas we've brought you this year have been ideas that you could act on, had enough liquidity to exit profitably and didn't consist of outlandishly stupid claims that a lot of penny stock newsletters make but never actually achieve. The bottom line is we've produced real winner after real winner, not a bunch of touted false claims of gains that never could have been achieved due to markets gapping up or lack of liquidity issues. With all that being said, maybe you didn't know this but many of our ideas begin with our Members. We get a lot of suggestions every day from various SmallCap Network Members. They give us an idea, we then either become more and more intrigued or we simply just can't see the potential value of their idea. That's what makes markets though, not everyone agrees. However, when we receive an idea a Member likes, and then we do enough diligence that produces conviction to make it a featured stock, or suggest it to the rest of our Members, it has worked out in a big way more often than not. That's the value of a Network. Connecting, sharing and benefitting from the knowledge of others is what we believe sets the SmallCap Network apart from the rest of the sites out there that focus on small stocks. As a matter of fact, no other site out there dedicated to small stocks gets more traffic than we do. If there is, I don't know about it. Our goal is to provide you and everyone you know with a platform to share your knowledge and ideas. Investing in small stocks can provide ridiculous returns you won't find anywhere else, but at the same time they can be very frustrating and devastating if you don't know what you're doing. We've got a lot of very smart investors and traders within our Member base. The challenge is and always will be providing everyone with a platform that's easy enough to use and understand in an effort to help each other make more money in the market. Just yesterday afternoon, we made a small inroad toward this master planned community. We launched a new main menu header for the homepage and rest of the site. Please check it out when you have a minute. We've incorporated feedback from other participating Members of our site to help provide you with an easier more intuitive way for you to publish a blog, write an article, make stock picks and so much more. We've also listened to our Members and have aggregated all of the content data collected from the site and are now displaying results like who the best stock pickers are, who's articles are most popular, which analysis has been read the most etc... the list goes on. Do check it out when you have a chance and don't be afraid to start contributing, you can become a regular contributor of the site and start publishing your thoughts, ideas and analysis as soon as today. It's easy and it can be very rewarding to know you helped someone else do well in the market. Our next set of changes we'll be making live soon is going to allow any and every Member to follow their favorite SCN Contributors and Members. When the best stock picker makes a new pick, you'll want to know right? That's exactly what we're looking to accomplish. Although it's a work in progress, the end goal is to have a vast network of participants all contributing and sharing their knowledge and ideas, so we can then provide opportunities for the sharpest investors and traders within the community an opportunity to be recognized and rewarded for their hard work and success. Whatever you decide to do, whether you start actively publishing or simply remain a voyeur, at least go in and make some stock picks. Let everyone else know which stocks you like. You don't even have to let anyone know why. You never know, you may be a lot better at identifying great investment ideas than you think. Then again, maybe you're not as good as you think either. :-) Either way, our platform has something for every trader and investor at every level. For those of you who are new to the markets, it's a great way to play without putting up any real capital and there's plenty of excellent "how to" information for your perusal. As for those experienced traders and investors who who've been at it a while, it's always good to keep tabs on the perspective of other successful players in the markets, it's important to remember we'll never know it all. SCN can also be a great resource for new ideas. If you've been around the markets long enough, you know to never underestimate a quality resource for new ideas, that's one of the most challenging things to find in this day and age. Lastly, always feel free to let us know what you think. The SmallCap Network is a work in progress and we're very interested in reading your thoughts and opinions about where you want to see the SmallCap Network go in the months and years ahead. Hopefully you'll be there with us all along the way. Have a great rest of your day.