10/07/2016

Laggards getting active means divergence

Following up on my last post, here is a bit more evidence that indicates a weakening market.

The image below shows three charts:

  1. Top frame: /ES (SPX futures contract). Note that there are 7 distribution days in the past trading month (higher volume down days).
  2. The green-line chart is a custom index made up of 50 stocks in the 90th percentile for relative strength.
  3. The red-line chart is the opposite of the green line in that it's 50 stocks in the 10th percentile for relative strength. 
Notice how the red line is trending up whereas the green line is trending down. Laggards often get active and rally as the overall market reaches an exhaustion point.