Sometimes you just feel like breathing a huge sigh of relief after a choppy market like we've had recently.  Since March 29, I have leaned bullish against 2322 SPX -- and, particularly over the past couple weeks, the market has done its best to try to trick me out of that stance.  I certainly was not "pounding the desk" bullish, but I have beat the drum repeatedly that 2322 was the key level that would turn things.  So, while I was tempted at several points to shift to a neutral stance, or even to lean bearish, I've continued to repeat that as long as 2322 held, I would maintain my bullish lean (the number of "no change" blog posts over the past few weeks has been mind-numbing).

Today, all that is finally going to pay off.

Now, what I want readers to understand is that the more we rally, the more cautious I will become.  Human nature tends to work the opposite of the market, which is why so many participants lose money:  People tend to be bearish near lows, and bullish near highs.  As I mentioned on April 19:

Most people were bearish near the low, but will now grow bullish as we rally.  While I'm not going to grow bearish as we rally (until the market gives me a good sign to do so), I am going to grow increasingly cautious about longs.  There's an inflection point in the 2380-2400 zone that may or may not present a challenge to the rally.  We'll take that as it comes, but the good risk/reward for bulls was near the 2322 pivot.

Near-term it appears the market has likely formed a bull nest of first and second waves: No change to the intermediate picture, but keep in mind that the black "or c?" represents an inflection zone, where things could shift from bullish to bearish, or -- as I mentioned last update -- could shift into the sideways chop that I'd noted would become a possibility as we rallied toward the black c label. In conclusion, it appears the near-term bull count will be vindicated, and I hope that readers are/were able to profit from it -- or at the very least, that it gave bears pause and protected them from big losses.  In any case, the intermediate picture does call for good use of stops to lock-in profits as we rally into the inflection zone.  From there, we'll examine the picture in real-time as it unfolds.  Trade safe.
[null, null, {"document_url": "http://www.pretzelcharts.com/2017/04/spx-update-finally.html", "unformatted_src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sdfuWYhgHzU/WP3-XgvJVkI/AAAAAAAAQq4/dOhS6ByQE38y9-60gpEt6VKHFzvu88d-QCLcB/s640/spx%2Bst.png", "src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sdfuWYhgHzU/WP3-XgvJVkI/AAAAAAAAQq4/dOhS6ByQE38y9-60gpEt6VKHFzvu88d-QCLcB/s640/spx%2Bst.png", "formatted_filename": "spx Bst", "rendered_width": 640, "rendered_height": 478}, null, {"document_url": "http://www.pretzelcharts.com/2017/04/spx-update-finally.html", "unformatted_src": "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OSfqSNlgBe0/WP3-m05fBNI/AAAAAAAAQq8/n_Jf6TAcLiUnCWBiqARgVkioxmQ5YkGTACLcB/s640/spx%2Bit.png", "src": "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OSfqSNlgBe0/WP3-m05fBNI/AAAAAAAAQq8/n_Jf6TAcLiUnCWBiqARgVkioxmQ5YkGTACLcB/s640/spx%2Bit.png", "formatted_filename": "spx Bit", "rendered_width": 640, "rendered_height": 478}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null]