At this point, I am still holding onto a lot of cash and waiting for the right opportunity to put it to work. This week has been great so far but one thing has been conpicuously missing during the rally; Volume. The lack of volume on this week’s bounce tells us that the big players have yet to be convinced that we have seen a bottom.

Yesterday’s retail sales numbers were a pleasant, non-completely gloomy, surprise but they weren’t exactly rosy. The bounce that is occuring is setting up for a beautiful short opportunity should the DJIA actually make it to the FFF Short Zone of 13,200 – 13,400. That’s where I see the next play setting up in the short-term but again, I’m not looking for any huge plays at the moment, just shorter-term swing plays. Medium-Longer term, I’m actually looking for some long positions to add to my retirment account, but I am trying to scale (aka: average down) into those as the market continues to drop.

On the Forex side, the Yen has really been taking a beating accross the board this week. I just entered a Long position today on the USD/JPY as it is finally breaking out of a multi-week rectangle which should be good for at least a couple hundred pips. I’m using a relatively close stop under yesterday’s low for the moment for if this does go, I expect it to do so within the next couple days whereas if I am wrong, it will likely just drop right back down into its prior trading range and there is no need for me to take any larger of a loss than necessary.