Today is my birthday. I now have had a lot of practice with dealing with them and yet the melancholy of getting older and the pain of unfinished plans always seem to hang over the day despite wisdom otherwise, writes Bob Savage Sunday.

Regret and time are perpetuated by expectations that we are all fighting to progress. Even wine is expected to get better with aging. Actualizing potential was beat into my head from my parents at a young age and this seasonal marker sets the course for what hasn’t been done like writing the great American novel or the non-fiction trading history of forex markets. 

We all know there is light at the end of the tunnel and at the end of the birthday candle – so today that analogy to markets looks obvious with next week bringing the last full week for 2018 trading and with it regrets along with hopes as central banker decisions from the FOMC, BOE, Riksbank and others likely will dominate. 

Fear of failure meets the greed of success daily and in the last week, fear beat greed. There wasn’t much new to add to the fear list last week other than more Trump impeachment fodder, but less to add to greed for U.S. markets even with good retail sales and lower weekly jobless claims. 

Globally, the Europeans did best with risk as UK PM May blinked and postponed her Brexit deal vote and managed to win a Tory leadership challenge. 

ECB Draghi delivered a dovish enough message even as the central bank continues its plan to normalize policy by ending QE. 

The Italian government agreed to lower its budget deficit for 2019 to 2.04% down from 2.4% - perhaps enough to prevent the EU from the EDP (excessive deficit procedure). 

The weakness of growth in Japan and China led Asia and markets suffered accordingly even though U.S./China talks continued with some positive signals. The list of fears stands in the way of a Santa Claus risk rally. 

The candle charts are suggesting more blow off tops than hefty cake to enjoy with S&P 500 (SPX) 2535 the next target rather than a bounce back to 2700 for year end.  

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