Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Volatility Comes In

We've finally shaken up this sleepy market, and who else but Trump to start it up.  You would figure the guy would have lost his credibility by now but the market still takes him at his word.  "Fire and fury" at North Korea was all it took for the market to suddenly get worried about nuclear war.  If it wasn't such a complacent market, this news would only cause a blip and be over with in a few hours but the markets are still feeling the after effects.  The VIX was so low and the range so tight.  The VIX is still low, not even a teenager.

It seems like I threw in the towel on the short a few days too soon, although yesterday's fakeout to the upside looked like it could last a couple of days.  And it probably would have without Trump's words.  These type of events aren't something that you can predict, coming out of the blue.  And long term, it has no effect on the market.  It is more psychological.  If North Korea was actually a real military power, then you might have something to worry about.  A North Korea vs US war would end quite quickly and the uncertainty of North Korea would be eliminated and the market would rally.  It would probably be similar to a Brexit type market reaction, down sharply for a day or two and then a face ripper once investors realized that its a nothing burger.

The news stations on a slow August day had a field day talking about North Korea.  Talking about Trump and nuclear war is irresistible to the mainstream news media, and blasting the news was enough to get traders nervous and selloff the futures.  We are at ES 2465, which is still part of the trading range over the last 3 weeks.  All that happened was the fakeout breakout above 2480 and then a return to the range on the North Korea headlines.

I see no edge at these levels inside that tight trading range of SPX 2460 to 2480.   Leaning towards a breakdown below 2460 to 2440 but not much conviction.  I don't think market participants want to be long heading into the weekend so probably trading heavy till Friday.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

(TrendRambo on Twitter) We are at a turning point. After decades of planning, social liberal globalists were able to meaningfully weaken the USA and strengthen the far east through Obama's and Clinton's policies. How Ironic - instead of a USA vs. Russia/China war to destroy us the greatest obstacle to the NWO - we will have the opportunity to strike first and since
Asian nations always being formidable fighters - dragging wars out - we will have no choice but to deploy our nuclear arsenal to shift the balance back. How lucky we are the majority of our country still had the opportunity to elect a smart and courageous president to lead the war.There is a selfrighteous minority is present and portrayed as large in our country and will be significantly weakened at the upcoming elections. I would not short this market in the foreseeable future.

Anonymous said...

They have nukes and they can at the least blow up surrounding areas including guam and hawaii. You have to be a little bit worried. They can shoot ten missiles to anywhere in the us mainland. I think war will bring www3 and millions of lives will perish

Anonymous said...

( TrendRambo on Twitter) Where do you think they ( NOKO and China) were heading. With Trump at least it will be smaller and local if strike first. I worked with Chinese and Koreans in NYC for years at a trading firm. They all hate us westerners no matter where they are!

Market Owl said...

Seems like the mainstream media has persuaded quite a few people about imminent thermonuclear war. North Korea's military power is vastly overrated. Their artillery is older than disco. They don't have enough oil to last more than a few weeks, especially since US can cut off their supply lines with superior aerial forces. Their missiles don't have guidance technology so they will likely hit random farmland or woods in the middle of nowhere. Also it would take only a few days of carpet bombing their missile launchers to take out any remaining long range capacity.

Anonymous said...

Lol your comment is just funny to me and gives me much insight on your background and mindset. Heres a clue... not every site you read is written by an american white anglo. I will leave it at that

You should visit korea and see how close the nk border is to seoul which not only has 20 million people living there but also tens of thousands of US expats, US soldiers and their family. What im saying is a war with NK will not be some quick drop some bombs and its over scenario. By the way in the last 17 years after 9/11 how did any US campaign to wage war end up? Thats right... not that well . And NK is not Iraq or Libya. They have nukes and a 1 million plus organized army with old but still very numerous artillery pieces including planes tanks subs missiles gun. Some b2 bombers and a couple of destroyers with patriot missiles is not going to wipe out all that quickly without total bloodshed including possibly a north korean missile strike into US soil.

Anonymous said...

Lol people are delusional if they think a war with nk can be over quickly with no harm to surrounding areas. Trust me NK has nukes pointed at US soil right now and scuds pointed at seoul and long range conventionals pointed at japan. War should not be taken lightly. Trump is a fool and could possibly place a million lives at risk

Market Owl said...

Thermonuclear war was good for a 2 point drop on the S&P 500. The bots have spoken. They could care less about North Korea.

Anonymous said...

(TrendRambo on Twitter) Different time zone than middle east. Timing of exchanges will be different. NOKO will make statements and actions US prime time - after 8PM ET. Mr Kim is asleep during US market hours.