Mid-day Update… Try (fail), try (fail) again.

Sellers take another shot, and miss again.

This morning’s opportunity to trend down was not exploited, as I described in the post-open review. Being a Friday, with participation thinning out sooner than during other sessions, there’s usually only one chance for sponsorship.

A trending attempt isn’t required at all, and patient, strong-handed sponsorship wouldn’t start a fight it couldn’t win. So, a failed attempt reflects impatient, weak-handed sponsorship. Other sessions might see strong-handed sponsorship try later, but rarely on a Friday.

So, this morning’s sellers ultimately failed to trigger the 2916.25 bias-down signal. An offsetting test of its 2924.50 bias-up signal was fulfilled by 1 point at the morning’s high.

Now another opportunity for sellers to gain traction has presented itself. And sellers have again failed to exploit it. Already testing a sell signal at 2921.25, the FB headline triggered a 7-point plunge to 2915.50. The pattern’s bounce limit was violated, and this afternoon’s 2919.00 bias-down signal wasn’t triggered.

Opportunity missed. Knee-jerk reactions to news are the product of weak hands, anyway. And the headline’s origin is now retraced up to 2923.50. The no-bias environment could extend up to its 2926.00 bias-up signal, or dip to its 2913.50 bias-down signal. Either could break after the bias environment lapses — and trend up if the lapsing probes above the morning’s 2925.50 high, or down under 2919.00.

Meanwhile, closing under 2919.00 and 2914.00 would start to contradict the bottoming pattern we’ve been tracking. So, further downside today is less likely, or likely to be recovered.