"50 DAY AVERAGES ARE EXCEEDED ... The ability of major U.S. stock indexes to rally back above their 50-day moving averages has improved the market's short-term trend picture." That's the latest message from John Murphy at The StockCharts.com.

 The  one year -chart below of the S&P 500 is an overall pretty picture, and shows confirmation of a rally from the MACD which has stayed above its Signal line. Volume has still been tame, which tells me that the "herd" hasn't caught on to this rally yet. Other indicators are telling us that this rally has some short-term staying power.

A "short-squeeze" is most interesting to define and a remarkable factor to consider in the world of investing

 What Does Short Squeeze Mean?
A situation in which a lack of supply and an excess demand for a traded stock forces the price upward.

It can have the same effect on a market like a giant hand powerfully squeezing a tube of toothpaste.

Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com explains Short Squeeze:"Short squeezes occur more often in smaller cap stocks with small floats."

Three weeks ago on February 5th, we saw an extremely high level of fear in the market with selling vs. buying volume at a 9:1 ratio. We note that in 2009 this extreme level of fear occurred at the bottom of each significant pullback.

Since this panic selling low in February 2010 we have seen stocks and commodities work their way higher, which we expected. Overall the broad market looks as though it’s trying to make a move higher.

We thank Rocky White, Senior Quantitative Analyst at, http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/ 

for sharing this info with us. It came to our attention back around Feb.16th, but it helps illustrate the value of technical indicators like the MACD. It is very instructive, and when you factor in how the last 9 trading days of Feb. 2010 turned out, you see even more why it must be factored in.

It is not a perfect indicator or an infallible "timing" signal. Yet as we learn about it and educate ourselves as to how it works, we can see how it can help us with our "exit" and "entrance" strategies as investors.

Foreword: The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is a popular technical analysis tool which shows the relationship between two moving averages. The most popular MACD, which I use in the analysis below, subtracts the 26-day exponential moving average from the 12-day moving average. Then, we plot the nine-day moving average alongside the MACD. A bullish signal occurs when the MACD crosses above the nine-day moving average. Similarly, a bearish signal occurs when the MACD crosses below the nine-day moving average.

500 MACD Buy Signals: Many market technicians think the MACD is a good indicator for calling turning points on individual securities. If that's true, then a MACD signal on a whole slew of securities may be able to show a turning point for the general market. [This is why I, Marc, value the MACD for both the S&P 500 and the DJIA as well as the Nasdaq 100]

How many IMF officials does it take to change a light bulb?

As you probably read, the International Monetary Fund announced they would proceed with selling the remaining 191.3 tonnes of gold from the 403.3 tonnes planned. The money is to be used for lending to poor countries. Lending implies the money will be repaid, which, in the case of the IMF, is a joke that isn’t funny. But that’s a topic for another day.

The IMF stated that sales will be conducted in the open market, which is interesting because until now, gold has only been made available to central banks. While the IMF remains open to central banks buying some of the gold, sales will be conducted “in a phased manner over time” to avoid disruptions to the open market.