As a father of three daughters, I cannot avoid “American Idol.”  Every Tuesday and Wednesday nights during the first five months of the year, our flat screen in our family room is tuned to Fox as we watch the birth of this country’s next big star.  During the five years of our devoted viewing, no contestant has commanded as much of our attention as Sanjaya Malakar, arguably the worst singer ever to grace the Idol stage as part of the competition’s Top 24.  The reason he grabbed such a focus from the show’s audience was his resiliency to survive no matter how negative the criticism he received from the judges, most notably the highly influential Simon Cowell.  In the end, an exasperated Mr. Cowell threw up his arms and bellowed sarcastically toward the tone deaf singer after another dreadful performance, “it really doesn’t matter what I say to you, so maybe this will get you sent home.  You were terrific!”

Sure enough, America voted Sanjaya off with the aforementioned caustic commentary dooming him to a career of cruise ship crooning.  I by no means claim that my analysis of the markets compares to the talent Mr. Cowell has in finding the next recording superstar.  However, after being dreadfully and embarrassingly wrong in predicting the path of equities for the past six trading days, I throw up my arms in bewilderment in wondering what it will take stocks deservedly to bottom and claw back some of the massive losses sustained in the past few weeks.

I easily could make mention how my most reliable bearish sentiment indicators Continue reading »