I have much going on in my life right now and the market is not a help in sorting things out. In fact, it’s constant up and down behavior is begging me to ignore it, to turn it off in my mind. It has become so repetitive and boring that it offers no solace for the emotional issues swirling about my life. The market is a drag.
“These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Thomas Paine penned the above words at a time when liberal ideas about freedom and self-rule floated about the smoke-filled parlors of the rich and wafted through the busy kitchens of the working person. His words fueled the passion for a rebellion against monarchal rule and they primed the pump for war.
- He communicated the ideas of the Revolution to common farmers as easily as to intellectuals, creating prose that stirred the hearts of the fledgling United States.
Sometimes I feel this way about much of the writing in the financial world, specifically, writings related to the actions of the market. Truth be written, I think that much of the writing about the market is overly complex and indecipherable, unless you are a technical analyst or an economist.
Then again, the market writers I choose to follow have refined the art of communicating as Thomas Paine did. They take what others make complex and reduce it to its empirical base.
- For the eleventeenth time in less than two months, the major indices toyed with the idea of moving past a key support or resistance line and then reversed course.
Yup, that is what the market is doing – running up to and retreating from the high-water marks. As I wrote yesterday, this is nothing new. It has been exhibiting this behavior on and off for years now. What is new, at least it seems to me, is the consistency of it, the constant and quite wide swings up and down. It is annoying, frankly.
I know, I know, a basic rule of the market is one does not let emotions filter one’s decisions, and that is true, but, right now, I am not making any decisions. For me, the market is untradeable in this current state. Effectively, I am on a break from my job. Well, not really a total break, as I still need to research and watch, but from actual trading, I am on leave.
- As unwilling as the bulls have been to make a run for it, the bears haven’t been any more willing to try and pull the rug out from underneath stocks either.
You see, the above is clear and concise as to exactly what the market is doing these days. True, it does not help one figure out what it will do, but what writing could right now? In fact who could do that right now? The market is acting irrationally. It is confused, which means we are confused. Remember, the “market r us.”
Anyway, yesterday, the angel of optimism whispered sweet nothing in my ear because the early strength of the rally faded. Even as it finished in the green, the earlier optimism I felt failed to hold as my trades slipped somewhat when the market closed.
Yes, these are the times that try men’s souls. Actually, I disagree with this. These are times that try, but not only men. I’ll bet there are plenty of women out there shaking their heads about the market’s behavior these days. Am I right?
Trade in the day; invest in your life …
