The compressed daily S&P 500 Index (SPX) chart below depicts what trades look like based on a variety of market and political news reports (rumors), depending on their scale of perceived importance.
Nov. 26, 2021 began a series of large, wild whipsaw daily and weekly swings in both directions...depicted by the Average True Range indicator shown in histogram format and based on an input value of one period.
That day, the WHO identified Omicron as a new and highly infectious and transmissible COVID-19 variant of concern.
There have been many rumors flying about on that subject, ever since...sending markets gyrating into chaotic swings.
On Jan. 24, 2022, the White House Press Secretary proclaimed that US citizens residing in Ukraine should leave immediately due to invasion threats from Russia.
And, there have been many rumors flying about on that subject, ever since...sending markets gyrating into chaotic swings.
It seems to me that until these issues, and other international and national security concerns are settled, one way or another, the SPX will continue to thrash about wildly and will remain stuck in this large trading range (between 4200 and 4800).
My post of Feb. 21 and update of Feb. 23 contain further details describing various scenarios that are possible for the S&P 500 Futures Index (ES)...keep an eye on those for clues regarding direction/trend and beware of rumors as long as the SPX stays in this range.
N.B. The following proposal regarding the Russia/Ukraine conflict sounds like sane advice given in 2015, don't you think?
Too bad it wasn't taken seriously by "the powers that be."
Also, it seems as though what the West was promising Ukraine years ago were the same rosy promises used for 20 years in Afghanistan, and look how that ended, courtesy of President Biden.
BEWARE: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.