[Photo:  Bull and Bear at Frankfurt Stock Exchange]

Big bullish signals are everywhere in the stock market.  Hopes are flying high that whatever Trump is going to do will be all good for stocks.

Then why are insiders at banks and industrial companies selling their share as if there were no tomorrow?

Banks had a blistering run. Shares of Wells Fargo soared 28% over the past 30 days. Citigroup is up 25%, JPMorgan 26%, Goldman Sachs 37%.

However, not everything is necessarily going all that great. Wells Fargo already offered some titillating tidbits on Tuesday, when CEO Tim Sloan said at an investor conference that interest rates that have jumped recently and currency fluctuations have caused some of its securities – he was talking about hedges – to decline in value and hit profits. Other banks may see a similar reversal of erstwhile profitable hedges and trades.

And then we have high-ranking insiders dumping their shares faster than at any time in the data going back to 2003. These executives are considered the “smart money.” The Wall Street Journal reported:

Right on cue, insiders at US-listed banks, brokerages, and financial-services companies are poised to set records for the sheer number of people selling stock and the dollar value of shares sold in the fourth quarter, based on data since 2003.

But the Wall Street Journal was quick to pooh-pooh the bearish signal. In fact, there are no bearish signals. Everything is bullish, even bearish signals. If that’s the case, let’s chalk up the sales to locking in profits or exercising options that are close to expiration.

So be it. I've never professed to being a market timer.