Penalty Flag

I took it all for granted
But how was I to know
That you'd be letting go
--Bryan Adams

Last week's question about which way the pennant pattern in major market indexes would break has been answered. The pattern has resolved to the downside.

The reason being assigned to the rhyme this morning is the budget supercommittee's (gotta like that term) failure to come to an agreement over $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. No deal inked by Wed means across-the-board cuts of like amount commencing in 2013.

This sets up the 2012 elections as a referendum on Big Govt.

Of course, other issues are weighing markets as well. Europe is still on fire, and fallout from the meltdown of MF global is wreaking havoc in commodity markets.

Personally, am leaning slightly net long--about 5-7% of liquid assets. In other words, the value of long positions (primarily commodities) outweights the value of short positions (SPX index short) by a small amount.

Should stock slippage continue another 30 SPX handles or so, I'll start looking to cover some of my short position (support resides in SPX 1120-1140 range). With precious metals getting slapped around today (gold and silver both off 3-4%), am itching to add to those positions as well.

positions in SPX, gold, silver