Before the market opened on April 27th I posted Chris Kimble's Consumer to the Rescue, which illustrated the remarkable outperformance of the retail ETF (XRT) over the broader market. Retail started its recovery over three months before the market bottom in March 2009. Chris warned, however, in his accompanying chart that retail was up against resistance.

Has the consumer prevailed? Sadly, no.

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Chris comments: The Retail ETF hit its all-time high the day I created the previous chart and has since declined 17.8%. It's nice to find merchandise on sale, but seeing your holdings decline 17.8% isn't the type of sale most investors are looking for.

Now the retail ETF finds itself on a support line that needs to hold — big-time! Should this support give way, the phrase "shop 'til you drop" will also give way — to the prospect of a further drop in shopping!

XRT has been yet another example of the "Power of the Pattern" and why it pays to "Harvest at resistance."