Keep the Party Going

Like running on a treadmill, the market is getting nowhere, and it's getting very tedious. That's different than boring, which might be the state of mind of investors. One thing is for sure, although this market in the short term is running sideways, on a long term chart it is obvious that it rarely spends time running in place. It's typically plunging or climbing without fanfare. Now the rally has attracted an audience, and the crowd has gone silent.

It's that silence that becomes deafening for those that only recently came back kicking and screaming.

You see for many it's the same plot, not unlike the story of Michigan J. Frog. You remember Michigan, the frog named after the Michigan Rag (as in ragtime) and notorious for driving people mad throughout time. In the most common clip he's discovered by a construction worker in 1955 while working on the demolition of a building erected in 1892.

Hello! ma baby, Hello! Ma honey, Hello! ma ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire, baby, my heart's on fire!
If you refuse me, Honey, you'll lose me, then you'll be left alone
Oh baby, telephone and tell me I'm your own
Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello there

The frog pops out and begins to sing and dance, and immediately the construction worker is thinking he's struck it rich (I read where the piece was a cautionary tale about greed, which doesn't surprise me as I'm sure its creators weren't looking for fame or fortune). The (former) construction worker now goes to cabarets and ballrooms looking to book this magnificent singing frog. Of course audition after audition is the same. The frog sings up to the point when the booking agent or club owner shows up, and from there the most that could be coaxed from him is a "ribbit."

Sigh!

After this happens over and over and over the (returning) construction worker decides to ditch the frog, puts it back in the box and slides it into the high rise under construction. The next scene fast forwards to 2056 where the next member of the demolition team has the unfortunate luck of discovering the singing frog.

There are a few people feeling like those construction workers. The market was singing and dancing and putting on a show before they got back in. There wasn't a spotlight or fanfare, but there was no doubt the market was a regular Fred Astaire. Now, it's kind of standing around. More eyes are watching and waiting for something spectacular.

I say it will happen, but that doesn't mean it will be as fast as you may want it to happen. Just keep watching and waiting and don't turn away.