Friday, August 2, 2019

Hunger Games

These are the type of markets where you can't even go out for lunch, for fear of missing a huge move.  Literally having to stay hungry to trade the action.  And there is a lot of action now, you can always tell when the DOM thins out and the algos pull bids and offers at the hint of iceberg orders or size coming into the market.  That also goes for the ES overnight market as well. 

It was a classic overnight session, as Thursday night is the official Fright Night for SPX, as equity traders hate to go long over the weekend when markets are weak, and sell out early ahead of the weekend.  As much as the patterns are more random and less influenced by human traders, at the end of the day, the risk managers are all human, and the tendency is to avoid taking on risk exposure when volatility goes up and markets are weakening.  That means selling stocks. 

When the VIX jumps like it has over the past 2 days, usually the stock weakness lasts another 2-3 days at minimum, before the first significant rally attempt.  That means I don't expect much upside from current levels (2945) until next Wednesday.  The downside will probably somewhat limited for the next few days also, as I see support coming at 2920, near the tops from last October, and area of short term support in late June, and 2890, the top of the range during the volatile trade, post Trump tariff announcement in May. 

5 comments:

MM111 said...

Big moves these days. 3% down in one day. Probably another 1% to go today still.

Market Owl said...

Only on day 4 of the selloff and its down 180 SPX points from the top! This is weakness is not going to be shaken easily. 2800 is the next strong support level.

MM111 said...

So you don't think the bottom is in? Do you think we will bounce and is this the big 10% down move come early?

Market Owl said...

I don't think the bottom is in, and what I've learned from shorting SPX is that when there is a big move, it usually happens much faster than people think (Aug 2015, Feb 2018, Oct 2018, Dec 2018). 2018 was a big lesson for me on that.

jacksonzonetrader said...

i call it dodge ball trading will engage a little on 1 hr CMF on the indexes and exit until real confirmation comes into play.