March 2023 | Archimedes Methodologies

Buy on the Canons – Sell on the Trumpets?

Mar 29, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

— If there is one thing that has kept me out of the bear camp, it has been the draconian doom and gloom of the crowd.

— And who doesn’t sympathize with the bears among them? Another banking crisis is at hand; WWW III looms; Rampant Inflation permeates the economy; the Russians promise to destroy us now that we will use Uranium infused bullets and shells (essentially Dirty Bombs) in Ukraine; etc. The bears have a lengthy list of legitimate concerns.

— But the point is that when the crowd tilts too far to the negative side, that also means that they have positioned themselves accordingly. Who is left to sell? And then the market stops falling. Soon enough, the buyers show up. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) kicks in, and it is Spring again in the stock market.

— And in the darkness that pervades a low, I always harken back to one of my most revered mentors, who told me that if buying the stock market feels good, it will likely turn out to be a bad decision.

— He used to call it the “Puke Point.” When you feel ready to regurgitate, it is time to buy. Until then, hold on to your cash.

— And, naturally, the Puke Point is somewhat malleable, like most things in the stock market. A good short-term trade might start with you feeling mildly ill. That is how I view the market now.

— Perhaps a nice rally “leg” will ensue from yesterday’s S&P 500 Futures 3994 buy signal before the market sells off again.

— Hence the Archimedes Hourly Strategy is the preferred vehicle when positioning from “mildly ill” with trouble still on the horizon. Perhaps 4100-4200 might be a reasonable target before it is time to “sell in May and go away.”

— Whereas the Puke Point from your hospital bed, where all seems lost in the cancer of negativity, is more likely to lead to the start of a brand new bull market – typically from the bowls of September or October.

— In my opinion, we are not at the September/October kind of entry point. Hence, following the Archimedes Daily Strategy typically presents a better long-term buy signal. Keep in mind, however, that the hourly signal always has the potential to be an early entry into the daily strategy, as we are seeing this morning.

— Lest we get too comfortable, note that the Unemployment Claim numbers arrive tomorrow morning, followed by a slew of Fed Governors speaking. We need to kill all those jobs to make up for the errors of the Central Planners.

— And the Fed’s favorite inflation measure, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), will be released on Friday.

— One has to brave these reports upon entering the market now. But the more confirmation you need, the more you will pay. And the more you pay, the more money you will lose if your stop is triggered.

— And lest I forget, Friday is the last day of the 1st Calendar Quarter for 2023. Money Managers tend to do strange things into the close, like “Window Dressing” their portfolios.

— For example, large-cap tech stocks have been doing well of late, with companies like Apple close to all-time highs. Who would have thought, right?

— Client to Money Manager, “Hey, why did we perform so poorly for the quarter? I see from my statement that we own Apple and some other names that did well.” Money Manager to Client “well, you know how statistics and performance can be so confusing; look to the long-term, and all will be well.” Money Manager to herself ” I am so glad we sold those bank stocks and bought Apple and a few others on the last day of the quarter – or we would look even more like fools!”

— We use a few ticks below the 5-hour line for the Archimedes Hourly Strategy stops and a few ticks below the 5-day line for the Archimedes Daily Strategy stops.

— Without a subscription, the decisions we discuss now and then in this free blog will not be timely. But there is always something to be learned from following our decisions, even from afar.

And so it goes…

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

Stuck in the Middle With You

Mar 27, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

– ☽ – We start with the Monthly Chart for the big picture. On a negative note, the price has traded below last month’s low, a Low of the High Bar Sell Signal – at least if the Candle closed below last month’s low. We don’t trade monthly charts, so the argument is by analogy since the market is fractal (price behaves the same way in every time frame).

– ☽ – Obviously, monthly charts trade too slowly to be useful for buy and sell signals. Still, we note the price action for our narrative.

– ☽ – But the monthly chart shows us the triangle consolidation where bulls and bears have traded places lately, with neither side scoring a macro trend since August last year. We certainly cannot call the bear market over at this point, though bulls have managed to hold the October and January lows.

– ☽ – The March 13th low should be a 20-week cycle low, and the “M” cycle shape is discernable. But whether the next cycle will be short-lived on the upside, with left translation leading to lower prices, remains an open question.

– ☽ – We have been back to cash for the past few sessions. Taking either the bull or bear side from the middle of a triangle ( approximately 4000 in our case) must be undertaken carefully and preferably by skilled professionals who understand exactly what buying the middle of a range means. Even waiting to buy the first breakout from a triangle can be treacherous. Breakouts fail 80% of the time.

– ☽ – If you want to lose money quickly and consistently, try fishing for the bottom. I could build a very nice home with the money I have lost trying to pick bottoms over the years.

– ☽ – Patience is a virtue. You don’t need to be first. When you look back from the next bull or bear leg, you will realize that you did not need to be in a rush. There is plenty of time for a daily swing trend, not to mention a new bull or bear market.

– ☽ – We see from last week’s price action that the price explored territory above the previous week’s high, even though it ended in a draw. I would have preferred that the candle body close above the previous week’s high. Nevertheless, note the accomplishment. The Devil (preferably the Angel) is in the details.

– ☽ – The Weekly Chart can be slow, but the 5-Week Line is pointed north and seems to want to poke through and above the weekly mean. Price also attempts to enter the bull half of the 180^ to 270^ M-Square. If successful, the blue angled Line becomes support, and the 270^ Line becomes the next target.

– ☽ – Stops can always be maintained a few ticks below the blue Line in a trading time frame. We look to a weekly chart for a slightly more granular macro picture. We don’t trade it. But if the target is achieved from a trading time frame, the weekly target is close enough to mount a full challenge to the last swing high at 4243.25.

– ☽ – Lest any creeping bullish bias on my part leads us astray; Steve Puenz put together the chart above regarding panic cycles.

– ☽ – It is undisputed that Full Moons, New Moons, and Lunar Eclipses have a funny way of packing Hospital Emergency Rooms. Whether or not the Moon truly affects the stock market, enough institutional traders with big books believe so, and that is all it takes. This would not be the first or only self-fulfilling prophecy in financial markets. Regardless, we need to carry this forward in our narrative.

– ☽ – At the Daily Chart level, the 22-week trading range is still roughly 3750 to 4200. The market will open around the middle of this range this morning.

– ☽ – But if the market continues higher, all our turn windows were accurate as the swing low remains intact as of March 13. If not, rallying into the March 21 Spring Equinox proved fatal, as I pointed out in previous writings.

– ☽ – And even with the failing bank news, if the Master Cycle (still maintaining an 80%+ correlation) reasserts, then the March 13 low becomes dust in the wind, and it will all turn out as we forecast as far back as November.

– ☽ – Of course, that is a very big “IF.”

– ☽ – Traders will BLSH (Buy Low, Sell High) until there is a strong breakout from either direction of the balance range. Don’t forget your Balance Rules.

– ☽ – While BTFD (Buy the F’ng Dip) was the old mantra, STFB (Sell the F’ng Bounce) may replace it.

– ☽ – As noted above, last week’s poor bullish follow-through from the previous week was disappointing. Poor follow-through and reversals are hallmarks of a trading range.

– ☽ – For the week ahead, traders will see if the bulls can create another follow-through bull bar.

– ☽ – Stalling again around the 20-week exponential moving average maintains the status quo.

– ☽ – Tee up your Gap Rules this morning. Let’s see if the price can conquer the 90^ line around 4028.50.

As always, be careful. The Trading Room will be live Thursday. On the other days this week, my live charts will be up most of the time, and I will pipe Rose into the room on Wednesday. I am traveling, so bandwidth can be an issue. I will have a two-gig pipe for Thursday, so we can trade if our overnight friends don’t steal all the thunder.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

Higher for Shorter?

Mar 23, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

-☿- I will be in the Trading Room within 30 minutes after the NYSE Open and for the first few hours of trading afterward. I will be calling out trades on the 15-minute chart. I will be on the mic – so there will be very few timely text alerts. Why not consider a free trial this morning?

-☿- The Founders Group moved our Archimedes hourly and daily strategies to cash earlier this week at 4027.75.

-☿- The call was manual (not algo-driven). We perceived the exit as a good time to take profits and go to cash before the Fed announcement slated for yesterday.

-☿- While it was not necessarily our recommendation, our more aggressive Founders Group compatriots shorted the market.

-☿- Our practice is to move to cash before ultra-significant economic events. Yesterday’s Fed announcement was one of those events.

-☿- Our exit decision was affirmed after yesterday’s 0.25% rate hike. After turning South from the WEM High, the algorithms formally painted a sell signal near the close at 4021.75. The summary of the Fed’s comments indicated higher rates that will begin to come down sometime in 2024.

-☿- And we still see the arguments tipped slightly toward the market grinding higher from the March 13th low through May.

-☿- Granted, the market’s advance and slope have been somewhat weak, but that sometimes happens when the sectors are mixed.

-☿- And if you like banks or other financial sector members for the long term, do you buy on the canons or the trumpets, as Ben Franklin would say?

-☿- At a minimum, the triangle on the Monthly S&P 500 Index Chart indicates confusion – bulls and bears trading leadership with neither dominating.

-☿- But our edge is that our algorithms will tell us what to do and when. They are in cash/short signals for now.

-☿- It is simply the case that the algos moving swiftly back to buy mode would not surprise us. That is my unscientific opinion.

-☿- And granted, it does feel like everything, and I mean everything from stocks to bonds, is living on borrowed time. And they may very well be.

-☿- But I have learned over many years that even when we expect a storm, it takes longer than we might ever have expected for the storm to arrive. And it would be a mistake to jump the gun.

-☿- Bad as it is (and it is really bad), our country has survived worse. The stakes are high, but many white hats are doing the hard work of preserving our country and turning it around behind the scene.

-☿- As one small example, the Arizona Supreme Court ordered signature verification for Kari Lake last night.

-☿- If we had to predict, the “crash” everyone expects may not arrive until the 18.6-year cycle peaks sometime in 2027. And the rally into that “crash” could be something to behold, not unlike the feverish rally into the 1929 peak. We shall see.

-☿- Meanwhile, with the Fed out of the way, let’s follow the Archimedes Algorithm and the price action. We will know what to do and when. At least the 200-day line is still alive on the cash SPX chart.

-☿- And when the crowd is as bearish as they are now, instinctively, it makes sense to consider the other side of their trade, especially if our algorithms say so.

-☿- The S&P 500 Index macro fulcrum remains at 4000.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

The Equinox Arrives? What Does it Mean?

Mar 21, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

-♂- Since our last correspondence, the Founder’s Group has enjoyed several profitable round trips on the Archimedes Hourly Strategy. The Algo remains in an Archimedes Daily Strategy buy signal at 3895.25 triggered on March 15th, slightly before 1 pm EST.

-♂- As usual, we are looking to the 5-day line currently at 3981.75 to potentially add to positions if the Archimedes Algorithm continues to point north. While somewhat paradoxical, a material and sustained violation of the same level triggers an exit of our entire position from the market. In a sense, that is why we call it a low-risk entry or inflection point.

-♂- Not much is at risk when we buy under the 5-day line as the first stops are triggered. We don’t place formal stops on existing positions right there anyway, as we have a proprietary way of handling our positions. As mentioned, stops are a last resort or fail-safe measure for us. We prefer to exit profitably on waning strength.

-♂- Today, we plan to sell our entire position into the NYSE Open so we are in cash for tomorrow’s Fed announcement. Our systems are not telling us to do so, it is a call that emphasizes our first principle of capital preservation. We don’t mind returning to the market at higher prices. We already have triple-digit returns from January 1st.

-♂- It seems unwise to risk navigating the volatility that is sure to follow the most important Fed interest rate announcement in recent times. The Fed’s Hobson’s choice may further incite inflation in favor of saving the banking / economic system. On the other hand, the Fed risks its credibility by not continuing the course of higher interests rates for longer to fight inflation. And let’s face it, an economic calamity is what the Ruling Cabal wants to reset everything to global communism anyway.

-♂- What a cluster&*^% all of this is. The Fed, Treasury, Congress, and the Defense/Intelligence apparatchiks have created a nightmare both through incompetence and perhaps by design. We are committing economic suicide as competitor countries (e.g. China) are poised to clean up due to our egregious errors.

-♂- And then President Trump is slated to be arrested today. If so, we join the ranks of Banana Republics everywhere. Perhaps Argentina is a good model as to where we are headed. Their inflation has been 100% over the past year.

-♂- So there must be a diversion – a major distraction! The Ukraine War is failing. Banks are collapsing. Don’t be fooled. Keep your eyes on the economic ball and the War Mongers.

-♂- Ukraine, China, Russia, World War III, inflation, collapsing banks, and the economy – these things matter when the Cabal tries to suck the air out of the room by arresting President Trump or through any other distraction.

-♂- Today is the Spring Equinox and New Moon for the new Lunar Year. Happy New Year! If the market is rising into this special date, it can reverse. No guarantee – Spring is normally a time for optimism, and the market typically turns higher here.

-♂- Notably, our market proxy, the S&P 500 Index, has turned higher almost to the hour of the 60-Year Master Cycle turn on March 13th. But what is “normal” these days? Carry the possibility of a reversal south in your narrative, but realize that it would be the exception to the usual rule.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

Heaven or Armageddon? What Comes Next?

Mar 14, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

♁- To suggest we are at a critical moment is an understatement. Let’s examine the stock market’s location using our usual proxy, the S&P 500 Index. Because I mainly trade futures, I will use the front-month Emini continuous contract. Today is a good time to step out and look at the big picture.

♁- Let’s take it a step at a time, beginning with a look at the triangle consolidation that has been underway since August 2022:

♁- What is a triangle if not confusion and consolidation? As of the last seven months (7 being a key number for the stock market), bulls and bears have had equal power and have been battling for control.

♁- For our purposes, the most important question is, what does it look like if the bears win? A picture can replace a thousand words:

♁- A good target for the panic cycle implied by an inversion of the Master Cycle is the midpoint of the 100-year channel shown above.

♁- Keep in mind that this is a monthly chart. It moves very slowly until it doesn’t. You can analogize it to the two previous bears starting in 2000 and 2007 out to the left side of the chart. Both of those declines exceeded 60% on the futures contract. Remember that this is a log chart. The current slide will look understated compared to the previous two bears.

♁- If we take an average of 60% for the two previous bears and project it to the current bear, we land right in the middle of the current circle (a circle is the three-dimensional representation of a cycle).

♁- Depending on how quickly the price would get there, it would join the middle of the rising 100-year channel, roughly 3000 or so on the S&P 500 Futures contract. Note that this was our original forecast from January 2022

♁- Geometrically, the next market reversal (from the direction leading into it) comes this summer (July) from a monthly chart perspective.

♁- This is not a forecast. With bulls and bears still wrestling for control, prognosticating would be unwise.

♁- But the chart immediately above allows us to examine a possible worst case for a fully invested bull if the price breaks the pattern and stays below the red line. Obviously, a bear would smile ear to ear for the given opportunity.

♁- Right now, and viewed solely from the monthly chart perspective, the battle is about breaking above that falling red line for the bulls and maintaining price underneath the line for the bears.

♁- Note that investors must be careful in triangles. Often the first breakout fails, and the market completely reverses, eventually breaking out in the opposite direction. Your tactics must take this risk into account.

♁- And don’t forget that any break below 180^ will cause the price action to accelerate. It falls off the proverbial shelf, and gravity takes over.

♁- All of this raises the question, do we abandon the 60-Year Master Cycle over a couple of poorly managed banks and a poorly managed country? Sorry for the loaded question, or the answer would be an obvious “yes.”

♁- A better way to analyze a potential cycle inversion is to realize that brief anomalies will occur only to see the cycle resumed. Also, Forecasts derived from 60-year-old data have inherent limitations. As examples. planetary differences and non-trading days (such as weekends and holidays) don’t always align.

♁- Below, you can see the difference between the full 2023 forecast for the Dow until the end of March compared to the current actuals:

♁- Our combined indicators brought us to cash (short) well before recent declines. We are in the catbird’s seat. I am not up for a sudden move into the markets now. I am primarily watching the bond market and the MOVE (bond volatility) Index.

♁- Here is the 60-year Master Cycle if we allow for the inversion:

♁- The Consumer Price Index was just released. It was in line with expectations but still 6%. It was lower than last month’s 6.4%. I don’t think this “meeting of expectations” necessarily boosts the market. For the moment, inflation is less of a concern than systematic risk.

♁- For the most part, the S&P 500 is testing the neckline breakdown of the Head and Shoulders topping pattern at 3925. If the market rejects the price by failing to close above it, we have a 300-point breakdown target of 3625.

♁- Not that it matters much, and we will let the price action guide us, but I am still expecting a bottom around mid-month, an attempted rally into May, with Armageddon to follow. But we cannot trade my opinion, right? Or at least we shouldn’t.

♁- You remember my “opinion” track record? 50/50. How about the Archimedes Algorithm? More like 85%+. Who/what would you rather follow?

♁- We remain 100% cash or short for our more aggressive friends. But we want to throw our line back in the water when the opportunity ripens.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

The System is Straining

Mar 13, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

♄- I am reserving most of my observations for premium subscribers, but I want to share a few thoughts with you.

♄- Two of my recent concerns had been a Master Cycle inversion and a credit event. We may have both, with banks collapsing all over the place. The small to regional banks are the most vulnerable.

♄- Having started and owned a bank, my perspective is from an insider’s point of view.

♄- Once again, the banks suffer from errant Fed policy and grievous Congressional spending, encapsulated in a Fourth Turning and War Cycle.

♄- The Fed incentivized banks to put their funds in long-term treasuries to keep the Congressional spending going and to shore up the U.S. Dollar. It would have been better to incentivize banks to lend.

♄- But the Federal Government needed the money because the backfire from stealing Russian reserves due to the unwise Ukraine sanctions meant that very few countries wanted to buy our treasuries anymore. See how this works?

♄- The purchased treasuries were returned to the Fed overnight in reverse REPO transactions for a measly 0.50% interest payment.

♄- When rates go from 0% to 5% as now, especially this rapidly, the principal value of the treasuries decreases if the banks want to sell them before they mature in 10, 20, or 30 years. Some instruments have dropped 25% in value if the bank wants to sell early.

♄- The banks must adjust their balance sheets to reflect the temporary principal loss even if they don’t want to sell the securities. They call this “marking to market.” In marking to market, the banks need more money to meet their regulatory capital.

♄- So Silicon Valley Bank, the 20th largest bank in the country and a top-rated bank until a week ago, disclosed that they needed to raise a few billion to shore up their balance sheet. When their uninsured depositors (96% of their deposits) realized that the bank’s viability was in question, they pushed a button to move their funds (no lines when there is a run on the bank as in the old days). It is all electronic now.

♄- In the circumstances, the bank must sell its treasuries early and realize the loss to meet depositor demands. As they take the beating without new capital, they eventually run out of funds because they don’t have enough money to meet the needs of the “run on the bank.”

♄- So, the Silicon Valley Bank bank and several others collapsed Friday. The Feds stepped in and put the insolvent banks in receivership.

♄- Over the weekend, it became clear that the entire banking (and brokerage) system could collapse this morning. In an emergency meeting Sunday, the Fed agreed to lend against the full value of bank treasuries to prevent a run on other banks. You see, 96% of all bank deposits in the country are uninsured.

♄- The overnight futures market responded favorably to the Fed’s emergency move, but the Globex equity futures market is at new lows this morning.

♄- Anything can happen, including a complete panic. A panic resonates with the 1903 panic cycle and tracks a full inversion of the 60-year Master Cycle.

♄- Friday, the Master Cycle dropped to an 80% correlation. As I mentioned in previous writings, anything less than 80% constitutes an inversion in our discipline. So we are prepared.

♄- Our last sell/short signal was 4069.75 on the Archimedes Hourly Strategy and 4038.25 on the Archimedes Daily Strategy last Monday and Tuesday. So our subscribers are either in cash or short.

♄- We will now look for a buy signal. We will know when we see one. But because of where we are in the cycles and the time of year, remember that we are likely ending something here rather than beginning something anew. The third anniversary of the Covid Crash low is in a few days. The number “3” and third anniversaries are important in Kinectics.

♄- The Room will have charts and comments posted today, and we will trade on Thursday this week. Please consider a free 7-day trial subscription to help guide you through this.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

Lowering the Boom

Mar 8, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

♆- Fed Chairman Powell whacked the stock and bond markets with his testimony yesterday.

♆- Our second strategy, the Archimedes Daily, went to cash at its 4038.25 stop to close out the 2/2 buy signal. The hourly strategy had returned to cash/short the previous day.

♆- All subscriber strategies are in cash (or short for more aggressive subscribers).

♆- Subscribers received the live sell alert yesterday by text, giving them several chances to exit before the market collapsed in earnest.

♆- Apparently, the Fed did not read my notes yesterday. I thought they would goose the stock market until the next meeting, then take the gains back. I could not have been more wrong.

♆- I suppose with his congressional testimony, Fed Chairman Powell took his remarks more seriously. He is still trying to fix the grievous errors that brought us this inflation in the first place.

♆- Anyway, there were no surprises. The Fed is doing what it said it would do. And I suspect they will keep going until something breaks. I am expecting some “credit” crisis or event to end this.

♆- Of course, a country firing off a Nuke or EMP, or perhaps China invading Taiwan, remains a proverbial Black Swan event. Having said that, it would not be a Black Swan if we could anticipate it. The Swan will likely be obvious, with nobody even contemplating it now. The law of unintended consequences in full regalia.

♆- I would caution that similar price setbacks to yesterday occurred at the previous intermediate lows in this bear, and the market immediately reversed higher. We are on the nominal Hurst 20-day cycle Future Line of Demarcation, a perfectly valid type “B” interaction.

♆- Let’s follow the Archimedes Algorithm and go where it takes us.

♆- As I have been cautioning, even with all of the tools at our disposal, the risk of a cycle inversion keeps us from having strong, bullish (or bearish) convictions.

♆- It was about this time in 1903 that the financial panic ensued. That was two Master Cycles ago.

♆- W.D. Gann commented that years ending with a “3” typically start a bear year, but the rally from the 2nd year may run to March or April before the bear ensues (“or reasserts itself as in 2023”). [Emphasis Added].

♆- Cycles can extend, contract, and invert from time to time. Anomalies can occur as well. So, always watch the chart in front of you – what the market does matters most.

♆- The weight of the evidence is that the tape was/is turning bullish, only to be negated by closes below the 2/2/ low at 3925. There is no apparent reason for the bullishness, but there never is at this stage.

♆- As I mentioned when the rally began last week, “V” bottoms are rare, and the low would be retested. Here is the retest. But the market low on 2/2 may have been a retest of the Helio cycle low and turn the week before. So yesterday’s low could be it.

♆- In the optimistic case, the market will not reach the 2/2 low. Instead, it will pick up sooner from a rising trendline or the Hurst 20-day cycle FLD.

♆- In another case, the market will run all the stops under the 2/2 low, scare the crowd, then turn higher. Recall the old-style bull market behavior that seems so long ago.

♆- In the worst case, kiss current prices goodbye. The market has not yet found the bear market low and meanders to the measured move around 3200.

♆- I have always expected the worst case since my January 2022 outlook. A generational trip to the 100-year channel would seem in order.

♆- Most recently, I have been expecting the Southern route to begin after a rally into May. I am still on that path as long as the 3/2 low holds. Short term, I have been looking for a rally, at least into the day before the Spring Equinox – 3/20, as long as the Master Cycle does not invert.

♆- In my experience, intervening news or events such as Powell’s speech only temporarily derail the market’s preordained path.

♆- We are still working on the Website and all the new services – and I won’t always put out public comments here any longer, but believed a few comments were in order after yesterday’s Fed speech and market rout. Fed Chairman Powell has a second day of testimony today. Let’s see if he tries to soften the blow.

♆- Don’t forget the jobs data coming out today and tomorrow. In the wacky world of finance, to “fix” the inexcusable inflation at hand, it helps to put a lot, and I mean a whole lot, of people out of work.

♆- How do you feel about Central Planning? Does it seem to work? I think not. And this is what the Globalists want to foist on the entire world through the commie World Economic Forum. President Orwell is about to turn our entire healthcare system over to the corrupt World Health Organization. Brussels will soon be telling your local doctor what to do, and they can seize your land if they don’t like what you are doing with it. You cannot even make this stuff up. It is so frightening.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

Fed Speak Could Boost the Rally

Mar 7, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Morning:

♂ – Fed Chairman Powell gives his semi-annual testimony to Congress today.

♂ – The market is usually quiet before the speech is published, but the question and answer session might cause a rift, so be careful.

♂ – The Archimedes Algorithm issued a sell signal for the Hourly Strategy mid-day yesterday.

♂ – The Daily Strategy (which has a wider tolerance for volatility) is still in hold mode.

♂ – We would look to add to the Daily or re-enter the Hourly at the daily mean, depending on the market’s reaction to Powell’s speech.

♂ – As always, don’t take your advice from a blog but do your homework or take a subscription.

♂ – While it could be my imagination, and it is pure speculation, it seems like the Fed talks dovish between meetings, possibly to keep the stock market afloat or even boost it.

♂ – They lower the boom at the next meeting (about two weeks from now).

♂ – As I counsel from time to time, the path of the stock market is often preordained, which is why it baffles most people.

♂ – Since last October, the market has rallied despite all the bad news.

♂ – To think we would be sitting here with the terminal Fed Funds rate expected to exceed 5% from 0% in a short period with the stock market still rising would have been unthinkable even a year ago.

♂ – After some initial volatility, the stock market will likely resume the rally. After all, what will Powell say?

♂ – Let me paraphrase (before the next meeting) “we think our medicine is working. Inflation seems to be easing, but we will take the incoming data and raise rates to fight inflation until it is licked.”

♂ – At the next meeting, “Inflation has been stubborn, but we will take the incoming data and raise rates to fight inflation until it is licked.”

♂ – After the speech – rally. After the meeting in two weeks, look out below. Anyway, we shall see.

♂ – Meanwhile, we are finishing the Website programming to convert to the new services announced on March 1st, including the free trial.

♂ – As previously mentioned, I will still publish thoughts here occasionally, just not daily.

♂ – Premium subscribers, I will be in the Founders Room this morning to interpret the Fed-speak. Make sure your mobile device is configured for text messages.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

Hat Tip to the Master Cycle

Mar 5, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Evening:

☿ – It is one thing to handle the market as it comes to you, but you enter an entirely new paradigm when you can predict the turn windows well in advance. Granted, you don’t take the curve blindly at 100 mph, but when the stars align you know what to do.

☿ – And if I told you I predicted the market’s path over the past 15 months with 85% plus accuracy more than a year before it happened, would you be interested? Well, I did. Below are the charts published just since early February, identifying the Thursday/Friday turn. Go back through this blog, the information is all there.

☿ – Actually, we could have made the prediction many years earlier. Soon, I will publish a prediction for the next five years, but I hesitate in doing so knowing what lies ahead.

☿ – Let me be clear, I am not bragging. Nobody is more amazed than I am. But when you unlock the mathematical codes, anything is possible. These codes have been hidden for millennia. I am not the only person to crack them, but it is a small club. And when you are in the club, it is an unwritten rule that you not reveal the information.

☿ – You see, the codes are not just about the stock market. They are universal. The same codes apply to physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry.

☿ – Nikola Tesla had the codes. Upon his death, the FBI cleaned out his safe and the technology for free and abundant energy along with it. Free energy does not serve Big Oil or the power of the World Economic Forum. We had the cure for most cancers by the mid-1850s using the codes. But that doesn’t serve Big Pharma. And if the little guy had the stock market codes, Wall Street would have nobody to rob. It is a zero-sum game. Someone is either taking your money or you are taking theirs. It is an age-old story.

☿ – The codes were purposely obfuscated beginning with the Roman Empire because elites throughout history coveted the knowledge and did not want it in the hands of commoners. Rome even changed the calendar to keep the public off track of how things work in the world and physics. It is all connected. And the Vatican Library has all of this information under lock and key.

☿ We fret like rabid dogs over this report and that policy. In reality, the path is preordained. Sure, the market can be rocked at the margins by current events, but it eventually returns to the path. It has DNA, a signature, and a frequency. Some call it the Law of Vibration.

☿ – I will save the story for another time – maybe an upcoming Webinar. For now, the market actually started waking up with the Helio cycle turn the preceding Thursday. But the current path can be ordained from the following charts published on these pages beginning February 10th.

☿ – Would you like to learn how to do this? I am working on a series of Webinars that I will announce soon. While there are certain secrets I will likely never reveal, I will reveal enough that you will be able to do this and more.

☿ – So we are always in long on both the Daily and Hourly Archimedes Strategies at S&P 500 Futures at 3931.25. Subscribers got the signal live last week. Closes below the 5-day line triggers our maximum tolerance stop, but we tend to look for exits beforehand.

☿ – The market is ahead of itself, and “V” bottoms are rare, so a retest of the recent lows is possible. But the Master Cycle predicts the market moving higher until it stalls again in May. That is where it gets interesting.

☿ – And we are still in the inversion window for a few more sessions, so the market is not solidly out of the woods yet.

☿ – But I would not want to be a bear right now, that is for sure.

Enjoy the ride while it lasts. Consider a monthly subscription as it will more than pay for itself. Attend the webinars to learn more.

A.F. Thornton

Founder's Trading Journal

A New Dawn – 3/1/2023

Mar 1, 2023 AF Thornton 0 Comment

Good Afternoon:

☉ As winter transitions into spring, BluPrint Quantitative is transitioning too. We have some exciting announcements.

☉ Henceforth, we will be known as Archimedes Methodologies, Ltd. Our new email address will be TradingArchimedes@gmail.com. Our new website address will be TradingArchimedes.com. All former websites and email addresses will still work and direct you to the new site for the next year.

☉ The motivation for the name change is twofold: (i) there has been confusion with other firms that started after us with similar “BluPrint” or “Blueprint” names. Second, the name better reflects the Geometry, Physics, and Astrometry (Kinematics) supplementing the traditional technical analysis in our algorithm.

☉ We will continue offering a timing service for public subscribers and a series of educational Webinars. The timing service offers two levels of swing buy and sell signals; a short and intermediate-term swing trading service. Subscribers will receive all necessary support to act on the signals.

☉ The cost will be $297 monthly until September 1st, when the price will increase to $369.

☉ On September 1st, all existing subscribers will be grandfathered at the $297 fee for the life of their subscription.

☉ We will earn this fee in droves. At this writing alone, our subscribers avoided a 6% loss since our last sell signal on February 2nd. They avoided a 30% peak-to-trough loss based on our January 2021 sell signal and October 2022 buy signal. More gains were possible from the October 2022 low to the February 2nd sell signal.

☉ And if one had shorted the market on the sell signals and reversed to long on the buy signals, returns compounded even further.

☉ A subscription allows you to earn potential triple-digit annual returns, as we have demonstrated over the past three years.

☉ While the past cannot predict the future, and there can be no guarantees, we believe we proved ourselves these past few years by successfully navigating the most challenging stock market in 15 years.

☉ After struggling with renaming the algorithm, we have decided to mix the new with the old. Henceforth, we will call it the “Archimedes Navigator™.“

☉ The Archimedes Navigator™ is a fractal trading algorithm that works in all time frames. I will occasionally break out the individual algo components (like the Helio and Athene) for educational and demonstration purposes.

☉ All monthly subscribers to the timing service will now have access to the Founders Room and live text alerts when we issue new signals. The Founders Room will serve as our primary meeting place and bulletin board. The “Files” section in the room will have all the information you need to understand and trade the signals.

☉ Instead of an elaborate morning blog that takes me several hours to prepare and write, I will send my thoughts to subscribers throughout the day by text. I will also post the comments in the Founders Room, and we will email the comments at the end of the day to all subscribers.

☉ We will also use the room to gather on short notice for events that require more than a text alert. The room also has a mobile app for your phone or Ipad. You can enter and view the room anytime from any mobile device and access live video and posted live charts.

☉ As you can see, we will use the Founders Room in many ways. And I will still demonstrate day trading and feature guests from time to time in the room.

☉ I will announce the day trading on more of an ad hoc basis each Monday. Generally, though, we will day trade at least once a week.

☉ We are also announcing a progressive series of three educational Webinars. The purpose of the webinars is to break out the components of our algorithm in a logical sequence and teach the methodologies. Premium subscribers will receive substantial discounts on all webinars.

☉ The importance of learning the methods underpinning the algorithm cannot be understated. Our algorithm is merely one way to combine them. Alternative combinations are infinite, and you can customize them to your trading style.

☉ The third program in the series will be an in-person mastermind held quarterly at a destination resort. It will be limited to five invited participants, last about four days, and include live trading. I will personally mentor these students and groups going forward.

☉ Graduates will become members of the special Founders Group, know everything we know, and have access to all proprietary indicators.

☉ Details and prices will be announced in the next few days.

☉ Our website will occasionally be down (and may look funny) as we implement the new changes.

☉ Existing blog fans can sign up for a free trial of the new service before committing.

☉ I will still post occasional commentary and YouTube videos on these pages, just not every day.

Thank you in advance for your support of these changes. We are excited to take committed investors and traders to their next level of success.

A.F. Thornton

Archives March 2023

Buy on the Canons – Sell on the Trumpets?

Stuck in the Middle With You

Higher for Shorter?

The Equinox Arrives? What Does it Mean?

Heaven or Armageddon? What Comes Next?

The System is Straining

Lowering the Boom

Fed Speak Could Boost the Rally

Hat Tip to the Master Cycle

A New Dawn – 3/1/2023

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