Fools, Damn Fools

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One of the worst places for an investor to ever be is where everyone else is.  Why?  Because when someone yells "fire", or in the case of elephants yells "lion", the herd turns abruptly and you, being in the middle of the pack, get trampled.
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One of the ways we can see where the herd is standing is to look at stuff like the put to call volume ratio of a security, or its short interest - that is the degree to which its shares are sold short.  If you find yourself standing where an accumulation of that crowd is standing, run - before it is too late.

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So where are elephants standing with respect to the stock market right now?  This chart of the put to call volume ratio of Direxion 3X Small Cap Bull ETF (TNA) gives us an incredible insight.
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Click on the charts to ENLARGE
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OK, so where are the elephants hiding with respect to the miners, say, the Market Vector ETF (GDX)?  
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Well, it looks like I see them over there, shorting the GDX ETF like the miners are about to roll over and die.  Now that's about as likely as Ben announcing he has changed his mind about doing QE2.
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And there are more elephants there than ever before.  Tisk, tisk, tisk.

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OK, maybe the crowd had the good sense to stay away from a truly great company with what most will acknowledge has a bullet proof business model - Silver Wheaton (SLW). 
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A look at the chart tells that story.
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Nope, more elephants than you can shake a stick at and most within 2 inches of each other.  Tisk, tisk, tisk - again.
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When you the TV commentators talk about a "crowded traded", this is what it looks like.
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Oh well, I guess we need these folks to make a market for the rest of us, right?  :-)