SPY and the QQQ both set up an ascending triangle. That's when a stock keeps hitting the same ceiling while the floor underneath it rises, like it's coiling up to punch through the top. It almost always breaks upward. This time both of them broke the other way. There's a catalyst, obviously, the pattern triggered. But it's like a silent catalyst, and it's the first time in my life I've seen one break down like this with nothing behind it. Usually this is right where the news presents itself. This time it's not. Something ain't normal here. Stranger danger. A run is the scapegoat. What I mean is, Iran is the kind of surprise that smacks the tape and hands everybody a reason to point at. There's nothing like that here. No headline, no surprise, no story to pin the selling on. It just broke and the reason never showed

For weeks I've been saying this market was coiling and needed a catalyst. Both the QQQ and SPY were forming a fierce pennant at the top of the range, which is price squeezing into a tighter and tighter box until it runs out of room. SPY looked like it wanted to break out. The QQQ looked like it wanted to break down. Neither one of those meant anything. A pennant is a jack-in-the-box. It's getting ready to squeeze, and that's all it is. It doesn't tell you which way and it doesn't tell you when. You can stare at it all day and it won't answer you until something forces the issue. So I stopped watching the pattern and started watching what price did at the edge of it. What I noticed is as SPY was trying to breakout, it wasn't getting that big move and just coasted at the

For weeks I've been saying this market was coiling and needed a catalyst. Both the QQQ and SPY were forming a fierce pennant at the top of the range, which is price squeezing into a tighter and tighter box until it runs out of room. SPY looked like it wanted to break out. The QQQ looked like it wanted to break down. Neither one of those meant anything. A pennant is a jack-in-the-box. It's getting ready to squeeze, and that's all it is. It doesn't tell you which way and it doesn't tell you when. You can stare at it all day and it won't answer you until something forces the issue. So I stopped watching the pattern and started watching what price did at the edge of it. What I noticed is as SPY was trying to breakout, it wasn't getting that big move and just coasted at the