What had been a correction is nearing the point where it may become a sell off if the bulls cannot find some footing for themselves around here or not too far from this.
A retracement is 50% in the kind of vaporous rally which we have enjoyed for the late summer months. More than that may be something else altogether.
Where is all that 'cash on the sidelines' that was so sad for having missed the summer rally? Probably parked over the customers' yachts.
A certain (in)famous Wall Street firm was heavily recruiting quants (engineers, physicists, mathematicians) at my nephew's university. Apparently the machines and those who tend them will be increasingly replacing the highly paid, frosted nose hair clothes horses of the investment banking world with silently humming digital highwaymen prowling the capital flows of commerce among nations. Progress!
The Romney rally failed awfully quickly. I cannot tell if the financiers are short of hope or just short of cash. Mom and pop are no mystery; they are just getting by.
