Damn.

The market wants to move higher. Did anyone notice the VIX today?

As we've witnessed along the way, the VIX has under-performed during recent market declines, and over-performed during recent rallies. Today, the VIX went nuts, breaking below it's 20-day average, which has acted as a decent signal over the last year....

The $SPX finishes the day in a predicament. The highlighted zone has previously acted as a level of support, which the $SPX has now found and is testing as resistance.

I could go on and on about the mixed signals on the averages, but I won't. I will caution you about bullish divergences again, and tell you that this rally has provided plenty of these signals along the way.

Crude oil and commodities in general have been a part of the reason money is coming back into stocks.I mentioned last week that Crude Oil had generated a sell signal on the P&F chart, and so far it has led to a serious retracement. Combine that with the dollar rallying off support, and there is cause to see higher stock prices. This is why I started this weeks watchlist warning you to watch out for three main drivers this week...Crude, the Dollar, and Earnings.

Take a look at the $CRX in relation to the 200 day. If the bulls are going to step back up to the plate, commodity stocks are at value prices, but are looking ready to fall (hence my short positions in energy).

As earnings continue to roll out, it seems as if the market has already priced in the results from poor performing companies/sectors, leaving prices to soar against the rationale that losses and weak forecasts equal lower stock prices. Conversely, the stronger performing companies/sectors are getting pounded on decent results. I don't expect this trend to change. In fact, with WM trading higher after hours, you might as well find the bank with the next biggest write-down coming down the pipe, and get long the common ahead of their upcoming announcement.

If you can't beat them, $%@* them.

Remember, bottoms never form in "V" shapes... but in this case, anything can happen. I suggest you continue to reduce position sizes, take profits quickly, and do what ever you can to cut losses in a timely manner.

In closing, I will leave my book open, so you know when and where I am winning and losing. I got stopped out of my bank puts today and my position in LVS. This is what remains. None of these positions make up more than 1% of my balance.

*I also have a strangle on MSTR, which I didn't care to list on both sides.

*One of my upcoming features will be a tracker that updates my buys/sells/holdings each day, so I don't have to constantly write about it.

UPDATE: I have just learned that the monster trend in crude is done. At least broken, for now. In the meantime, as the market sorts through this, stop trying to trade the direction of the averages and just trade sectors going forward. That is all.