Commentary It’s always risky to one’s reputation to call a market top, but given recent developments, I will step up to take the seat of Dionysius and be under Damocles’ sword. In my view, if we are not at a market top, we are at least most certainly in a “risk off” environment. Since its close Nov. 8 at 15,982, the tech-heavy NASDAQ has mostly run flat or down. Likewise, since its Nov. 8 close at 36,432, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index has exceeded that close only twice, and then only by less than 500 points. Finally, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (S&P 500) has largely followed that pattern, closing at 4,701 top, which was exceeded in the last week of December, but which has now settled back at or below the Nov. 8 top. At the same time, margin debt, while still at a record high, …