After All-Time Highs, Then What?

As the market chugs along towards new all-time highs (which QQQ, NQ, and ES have all already broken into new highs, we are now just waiting on SPY to do the thing), the question we all have is what's next? Since November the markets have essentially gone straight up with only a brief pause to catch their breath. If you've read these blogs before, you know I'm not a fan of long-term predictions. But let's evaluate some options and see what might happen.

Option 1: That's a narrow peak! We fall off of a cliff just like January 2022. We get a hefty pullback before the market digests these highs and other economic data and decides what the next move will be.

Option 2: The slow bleed out of the perma-bears. To bring the mountain analogy along further, we've scaled the mountain and thought we reached the peak only to find... another, even higher peak. Worst case scenario for the doom and gloom perma-bears who have beating the bad economy drum for a year.

Option 3: Everyone gives up until 2024. We're at the top, it's the holiday, and there's no major market-moving news for a couple of weeks. Market moves sideways waiting for something to push it one way or the other.

As always, I'm an advocate for being prepared for all scenarios. And like I've mentioned this week, if you don't feel comfortable trading right now or if you're healthy green for the year, there's nothing wrong with taking some time off or sizing way down. We survive the rest of 2023 and thrive in 2024.

Here are my NQ levels for today:

Current Price: 16980

Upside Targets: 17000, 17046, 17100

Downside Targets: 16962, 16916, 16884, 16829, 16767