Don't fall for the magician's trick. I've been thinking about that the last few days as it relates to the equities markets. With all the focus on Gamestop, big hedge fund liquidations, short sellers, etc. is the market right now providing a momentary distraction while accomplishing something else? As investors, we need to stay focused on what is truly important. And it's not Gamestop. Coming into 2021, things looked pretty good. But now I see some cracks developing under the surface. A few distribution days (large point losses on high volume), some negative divergences, and continued high speculative activity. So far, it's nothing terrible and last week's decline simply shows up as a pullback within an uptrend. But, like the proverbial prize fighting boxer, we've taken some punches and are stumbling a bit. For now, my belief is that we'll right ourselves. But I'll be watching closely the next few weeks to see if that changes and more negative data points mount.