Check Out The Chart: Ain't No Sunshine

Remember all that talk of alternative energy and that solar power was the wave of the future? It sure was fun for a while as investors piled into solar stocks as if those stocks were the next Apple

. American, Chinese, whatever, solar stocks once burned bright. For myriad fundamental reasons, that is no longer. The argument of fundamentals versus technicals is a chicken/egg debate. It really doesn't matter what comes first. It only matters that both exist and both merit attention. Such is life with Guggenheim Solar ETF

, an ETF that is ground zero for the woes of solar stocks, fundamental or technical. Factoring in Tuesday's trade, TAN is down a whopping 66% in the past six months. It's hard to remember, but this was a $9 ETF in March. Today, the Guggenheim Solar ETF closed at $3.22 and any move below $2.50 would be an epic fail. So severe is the downward spiral, we meant to say channel that TAN is stuck in that the ETF would need to pop 24% just to get back to its 50-day moving average. The 200-day line? Right. That's almost 53% away. Translation: If you're a believe in the theory that securities that reside below their 200-day moving averages being in downtrends then barring a miracle, TAN is going to be a downtrend for quite a while. For the adventurous among us, a move above $4 would be bullish or you could just throw some chips into the put right now betting solar stocks will rebound at some point. TAN is now like a call option with no expiration date and that might be the best thing that can be said of the ETF. In the essence of fairness, we'll give you the bullish case for TAN. From Barron's on Oct. 3: “MKM Partners is suggesting that for those who want to play energy, going long TAN and shorting XLE makes sense as a pair trade to play off each fund's relative technical strengths and weaknesses in the face of continued heightened volatility.” In this case, XLE is the Energy Select Sector SPDR

. And to keep things fair, TAN was up 10% since Oct. 3, but XLE was up almost 22%. Check out the chart.