Another Op-X Friday

 The markets seesawed Friday in playground fashion, giving up very little real estate in the morning before closing the day only slightly higher. There is a lot of indecision (but no panic) here as we push higher and now threaten last May's highs. Volume continues to remain light as investors holding don't seem all that anxious to sell. Potential buyers, meanwhile, wonder if they're going to be left stranded at the top of the teeter-totter before those below abruptly hop off and move on to play on the swings, the slide or some other attention-grabbing apparatus.

 Clearly, the markets will need new (or former) participants if they are to push higher. There is (or should be, at least) some incentive here for Wall Street to stabilize the markets as best they can in order to get regular investors back into the market. This is not going to be an easy sell as most people remember all too well the brutal sell-off that took place from the last half of 2008 into March of 2009. Furthermore, there will be no hope whatsoever in coaxing money back into the markets if the people Wall Street are courting are left staring at psychotic charts that continually whipsaw back and forth in an algorithmic feeding frenzy.

 The irony here is that there is a very high percentage of regulars left over from the dark days of 2008 and 2009 who aren't even interested in buying as the markets move higher. Many have been trying to short the market at every perceived top, and will likely continue to do so until Wall Street has taken most of their retail bear money.

 Of course, out of all that comes one of the questions people continually ask: "Why not gold?" 

 Let's take a look at it from Wall Street's standpoint for one minute:

 If you were continually under attack by every tinfoil hat gold bug on the internet (and Lord knows there are far too many of them), why would you move so much as a single cent out of the stock market and into gold, only to support a bunch of miserable conspiracy theorists who can't stand you, your profession nor the country in which you do business?

 And what has gold done for itself that the markets have not since 1980? Perhaps you might bring this chart up with a gold bug some time as they certainly don't want you to know anything about it.

 Left click on chart(s) to expand

 There is much to consider as we move forward. I am not saying precious metals are a bad investment, in fact, I own silver bars, silver coins and a little gold, myself. The difference is ... I didn't buy any of it with the ridiculous hope the entire system will collapse and that I'll be bartering my precious metals for food, fuel or toiletries somewhere down the crazy river ...

  

    

 Here are some charts ...

 There still isn't really much point in being a bear, but I'll leave that up to you.

 The S&P 500 futures may not be done yet ... I'm still watching 1362.75 but any significant break of that and we'll likely be headed to the 1430's soon enough.

Always perform your own due diligence. These are only my opinions.