Nobody's in charge right now, but I think the bulls are setting up to take control. So far, Nov. has been choppy with very little headway for most markets. Nevertheless, I consider this bullish because it has the feel of a fairly constructive consolidation period after a very strong run in Oct. – especially considering the incredible news flow from Europe. The Greek & Italian craziness can't seem to break this market – very little follow through after a bad day. If the bears were in charge, bad news would generate 3 or 4 consecutive down days. That's just not happening. In some aspects, the news seems to be almost as bad as in the dark days of 2008, but the market's not acting anything like it did back then.

Not everything is perfect. There are several bearish short-term patterns in the mix, but I think it fits into the general consolidation theme. The larger pattern is starting to look like a bullish cup & handle, but it might require more consolidation for that to play out. At the very least, we seem to have moved to a higher trading range from Aug-Sept. Other bearish issues: volume since the Oct. 4 low has been unimpressive & AAII sentiment is a little too bullish for my liking. Still, I think seasonal forces and liquidity trumps these concerns. So, I'm bullish at least until Jan. - then I'll reassess.

Tax loss selling season is upon us. Some of the beat up names are still being sold. This could continue until Christmas. Personally, I don't do tax loss selling – I do tax loss buying. Between mid-Dec and Christmas I plan to buy everything making new lows, with the idea of selling whatever pops up after Christmas. In Canada, Christmas eve is the last day to take advantage of tax loss selling because the CRA uses the settlement date not the sell date (unlike the US). A lot of the severely beat up juniors typically make nice moves soon after Christmas.