Posted on 10/09/2014 1:32:26 PM PDT by Signalman
If the stock market were a transatlantic flight, the ride just went from uncomfortably bumpy to white-knuckle turbulence. The Dow plunged 335 points on Thursday, its worst day of the entire year on a point basis.
What's behind all of this volatility? Market moves aren't always logical, but it's clear that investors are growing increasingly nervous about the fate of the European and Chinese economies. And they don't know how that will change the Federal Reserve's plans to remove the easy-money punchbowl.
The violent swings in the market confused professionals and retail investors alike. "Everyone who thought they were in the clear yesterday walked in today and got punched in the face," said Michael Block, chief strategist at Rhino Trading Partners. "Just when you think have it figured out, you don't. This is a very tough market."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Thank you, your wealth transfer has been accepted. We hope you enjoyed your stay at Six Flags Wall Street.
Yeah, but this is what's been going on for over a month now and so far we're looking at pretty clear upside/downside limits. Funny how uptrends are so orderly compared to the down. Kind of shows the emotional component kicking in.
It's when the indexes finally kick their way though the limits (ether down thru collapsing support or up past resistance) that we got something new.
Woah, great graphs! Thanks for that
Next Friday is options expiration day. The market loves to get volatile the 2 weeks before options expire.
Look at the one year chart of the S&P 500 and look at the declines. Notice how often they occur two weeks before options expire.
Volatility = Opportunity.
Volatility gooses the options premiums, allowing those who trade in them some extra free juice for the two weeks before they expire.
This has been going on for many, many years.
It’s amazing how many “global troubles” conveniently occur at the same time of the month.
Geeez, didn’t they promise to pump more ‘easing’ into things?
“Followed by King Obama for life!”
I think Queen might be a more fitting title.
Perhaps it was the equivalent of the Titanic bouncing across the jagged edge of the iceberg.
The wizards of Wall Street won’t allow a market crash to happen with Obama at the helm, and that’s how I’ve been playing the market.
After every steep decline, the market roars back; so on those occasions I buy additional shares in a Dow or S&P index ETF. So far, so good.
Locked in a couple hundred shares of DDM late in the trading day today. If the pattern holds, tomorrow should be good as the central bankers don’t want to go into the week-end after a big market drop on Friday—People might stay at home instead of going out and spending money.
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