Equatorial Countercurrent

Bear market rallies are built solidly on fear across the spectrum of market participants. Fear on the part of the bulls that they will miss the next cyclical move up, and fear on the part of the bears that their position will be left permanently behind.

Both fears are wrong, of course, but that is what makes it a bear market rally rather than a structural turn.

And since fear is the most primal and powerful of the evolutionary human emotions, these moves are particularly intense.

Up until a few months ago, this bear market was immature, lacking the defining feature of all such markets: the seemingly unrelenting, prolonged countertrend move. She has now matured, but there are some mid-life crises left in this life cycle.