Even though the S&P 500 index is over 6% beneath its lifetime high, you would never know it looking at Ranger Equity Bear (NYSE:HDGE), which is the ETF dedicated to selling stocks short. It is pretty much at its lifetime low, as if the market itself was at a lifetime high (which, the way things are going, shouldn’t be much longer now).
It seems to me this one simple chart illustrates swiftly and painfully just how the bearish world has fallen to pieces since Christmas and Mnuchin’s phone call from Cabo. HDGE has fallen virtually every single day, much as it had risen almost every single day from December 3rd (the G20 trade truce) until December 26th.
Indeed, this chart is basically a mirror image, with the imaginary vertical line going through the morning of December 26th. The only difference being that HDGE has fallen even low than the “trade truce’ and is only cat’s whisker away from lifetime lows.
No doubt about it. For 2019 so far, it is difficult to be bearish.