As the short-term bounce played out, I noticed sentiment quickly climbing back toward the 60 (greed) zone. That reinforced a view I’ve had for a while: this doesn’t look like a market everyone has truly left it looks more like a phase where people feel stuck and unable to act. If everyone had really left, this kind of mood wouldn’t be forming at all. There’s clearly still some optimism in the market, and a visible hope that things will turn around. The key difference, though, is this: in a bull market, these kinds of conditions often marked a local bottom. Right now, they don’t. In the past, there were leading whales who actually stepped in and used moments like this. At the moment, that kind of leadership is missing. That’s the clear distinction. During a down cycle, short-term bounces like this always happen,and I see this as just one of them. Until clear, dominant demand shows up, the market is likely to keep putting retail investors through cycles of disappointment and frustration.(mignolet)