The stock market has been particularly volatile, and non-directional. $SPX daily changes have been -27, -12 (although intraday it was -32), +54, -32, and +31. In case you need help with addition, that's a net change of +14, which is not very much. However, for day traders and others using short-term signals, it has been a good week

The rallies were identifiable from deeply oversold conditions, especially Tuesday's +54 point $SPX rally (the Dow was up over 400).

The chart of $SPX remains negative. Thursday's rally brought $SPX back to the 1330 level for the nth time. It has been consistently been turned away by resistance at that level. Not only that, but the 20-day moving average has declined to roughly 1330 as well, and the downtrend line encompassing the entire bear market is nearing that level, too. Consequently, a close above 1340 would be quite bullish. Otherwise, the bear market remains in force.



The equity-only put-call ratios remain on sell signals. They have moved to new highs. We won't have buy signals from this indicator until the ratios roll over and begin to trend downward.



Market breadth has been very poor throughout the decline over the past few weeks. Even the 400-point rallies that popped up on the last two Tuesdays were not enough to turn breadth positive. Even Thursday's second big rally this week didn't do the trick.



Finally, $VIX is the one indicator that DID generate a true intermediate-term buy signal, when it spiked up over 35 on Monday, and then plunged below 26 within a day and a half. That constitutes a buy signal -- the only one of the lot as far as our intermediate-term signals go.



In summary, we are still waiting confirmation of intermediate-term buy signals before turning outright bullish on this market.

Lawrence G. McMillan is the author of two best selling books on options, including Options as a Strategic Investment, recognized as essential resources for any serious option trader's library.