Never let it be said the stock market isn't interesting, and occasionally surprising. You likely already know stocks rallied on Thursday, so we're not going to belabor the point. You also likely know the reason for the rally.... the European Central Bank announced a package of pretty big changes designed to jolt the continent's economy back into action. What's surprising is, while investors responded with the expected celebratory buying, not everything that should have happened in the wake of the ECBs news actually did happen. It looks like there are pockets of doubt about how successful the whole thing's going to be. So what didn't happen? The one thing we didn't see was a biggie - the euro didn't lose value. It's an important ingredient to the Mario Draghi plan since it makes European-made goods and services cheaper for overseas consumers to purchase. The euro actually closed higher on Thursday (though it did hit a four-month low the day before). Seems like most currency traders were shrugging off the ECB's plans. What do they know - or what do they at least seem to think - that the equity market doesn't see? Hmmm. Yeah, I suppose you could make the case that the Draghi's plan was already baked into the euro's value heading into the announcement. After all, it did hit a four-month low right in front of the news. I have a hard time thinking traders were thinking that strategically or that accurately (or that far out) though. There are also doubts about the punitive interest rates the ECB will now be charging. Yes, rather than at least offering a minimal rate of return on deposits, the bank will now actually be charging interest on overnight deposits. Part of the end-goal there is to encourage commercial banks to do something else with that cash, like invest it, lend it, or whatever, though the more specific reason is to hopefully stave off deflation; the inflation rate in Europe now stands at a mere 0.5%. I suspect the move will accomplish the first aspect of the goal - to keep cash from being idly parked. There are a lot of ways to do nothing with cash, however, and if there's nothing investment-worthy to take on, I'm willing to bet banks will find another way to be idle with cash that doesn't actually cost anything. And bear in mind, while banks may be holding a lot of unused cash, it's not like it's all the banks' cash to do with what they want. Non-banking corporations need to lead the CapEx effort, but most non-banking corporations don't give two flips about where their cash is sitting. As for staving off deflation, again, the most effective way to fight deflation is to give businesses and consumers buying power, which means job-creation. Apparently the Eurozone didn't learn from the United States that creating a business-friendly environment is pointless if businesses are terrified to hire or to grow. Our country worked its way out of a recession not because of government stimulus, but rather, because it had little choice but to rebound. Time, not policy, will eventually heal that wound in Europe too. My guess is, the ECB pseudo-stimulus plan unveiled today won't actually make a dent because it doesn't solve the bigger problem... which is a lack of willing-and-able spenders (overseas spenders too) to fuel economic growth. The availability of uber-cheap money compared to just very-cheap money isn't the issue. The unemployment rate in Europe is 11.5%, and none of those people have more money in their pocket after today. Companies don't want to hire because they have little faith in the future. You know what though? The reality of the situation doesn't matter right now. Right now the markets - here and overseas - love the idea of a European stimulus and have decided the impact of a European rebound on the American market is another reason to buy U.S. stocks. Never mind the flawed thinking and ugly reality and the ridiculous valuations. The only thing that matters today are the headlines, which are to be taken at face value - no more, and no less. And yes, while being a little snide, I'm also being serious .... at least until the overlooked reality starts to sink in. That could be days or even weeks though, and stocks could be much higher by the time we see that reality now today's move jolted the indices into what looks like a full-on bullish mode. Speaking of the market... Right or Wrong, Momentum is Momentum I don't know. Maybe today was the overdue mini-blowoff-top we should have made days ago and we'll start to selloff beginning tomorrow. Honestly though, as unmerited as it should be I can see a day like today cementing into traders' psyches how the only right play here is a bullish one, creating the very rally those folks on the sidelines don't want to miss any more of. That's the indirect was of saying I'm a short-term bull here, but not because I think stocks can justify higher prices based on fundamentals. I'm converting to the bullish camp because despite the recent rally, bearish sentiment remains oddly high and stocks tend to climb walls of worry. It doesn't hurt that stocks responded very favorably to relatively hollow news about a renewed stimulus effort in Europe. It's a sign of investors looking for a reason to see the glass as half full. Ridiculous? Sure, but it's a reality we can't dismiss. Perhaps more important to us, we saw the Russell 2000 break past its resistance at 1148 we talked about yesterday. I do believe we are overbought in the very short-term and will likely see a modest pushback tomorrow and/or early next week. With today's action under our belts though, I'm guessing any dip would be pretty short-lived and we'd see a quick renewal of the uptrend put into motion Thursday. A lot of folks are kicking themselves for missing the bulk of the rally, and they're waiting to get in so they don't miss any more of it. And just so you know, no, there's not a lot of rational thinking out there in the market's ether. This is all founded on a lot of emotionally-driven strategies and hope right now. It happens from time to time. I could say more, but we've got some other things to take care of though so those comments will have to wait until tomorrow. Portfolio Update One of the biggest reasons we don't care if stocks are rising for a silly reason is, well, we're still benefiting from the rising tide because we've got four open trades right now. All of them were up nicely today. In fact, all of them outpaced the market on Thursday. The one we're most excited about following today's action, however, is Cloud Peak Energy (CLD). Not only did it push past the minor ceiling at $18.56, but it kept on trucking to move back above the 20-day moving average line. It's possible that news of Cloud Peak beginning a metal exploration project was the prompt for the strength, but I don't think it was the core reason for the strength. I still believe the market is warming up to coal again, and CLD is at the top of traders' coal stock lists. Maybe even more encouraging is the fact that coal stocks as a group were today's second-best performers in a pool of about 180 industries. The only area that did better was platinum stocks. The move seems to have rekindled an industry-wide uptrend for coal. Hurco Companies (HURC) also cleared a big hurdle of its own... the resistance level at $28.00. It also cleared the hurdle on very strong volume, so odds are good there's enough buying interest here to keep the rally in motion for a while. And, for what it's worth, the Elite Opportunity got into a new position today. I can't tell you what it is, but here's a little teaser - it's a company that produces free cash flow about as well as any company could, yet it does so by providing a technology-based service (where free cash flow can sometimes be elusive). It's also in the midst of a rebranding and retooling effort under the leadership of a relatively new CEO who's navigated a couple of other companies to amazingly fruitful acquisitions. He's got a great shot at getting his new employer into a situation where it becomes an acquisition target too. Frankly, I'm shocked you can still own this stock at a forward-looking P/E of 10.5, although I'm confident the market's not going to let it stay at that bargain price much longer. In fact, once this stock blasts past its 50-day moving average line I can see it just being catapulted back into its upward trend. Like we said, we can't tell you what the ticker is, but we can tell you how to find out for free - get your free two-week trial to the Elite Opportunity service and browse though the newsletter archives available to all members. This is one of those cases where even if you aren't actually interested in becoming a permanent subscriber to the EO, the trading suggestion unveiled today is worth taking the time to get your free two-week subscription. Here's how to get it , or cut and paste this link: https://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1/