The markets took an unexpected turn yesterday heading south from the open. I picked yesterday unfortunately for a gap fill trade. What timing:)
This morning the markets are calm and unchanged for the most part with nothing indicating any major moves insight today.
That, however, can change on a dime.
I have on several swing trades along with a position in GLD that I have had on now for almost a month. It’s sporting a nice gain of about 6% with no exit yet in sight.
A little more weakness today and I will be considering some mean reversion trading in SPY.
Things are heating up on the political and geopolitical fronts. I cannot remember a time in the past where a transition of power has been this rocky. The current administration has waited until the last 2 weeks to start major changes that are going to cause substantial problems for the incoming administration.
That is not the way things are supposed to work. And it’s something that Congress needs to address as we are seeing actions that are being taken that could affect not only the U.S. but the world to their detriment. No one benefits from disrupting the transition of power. After all are we not all Americans?
The two items that have a potential to disrupt the markets are 1. The troop buildup in Western Europe along Russia’s border by the U.S.and Nato. and 2. The meeting on the 15th of countries that think they are going to solve all their radical extremist problems by a resolution that gives the Pallestians a state with pre 67 borders.
The White House has indicated that it will veto any further resolutions against Israel. My guess is not a chance that they veto it. The outcome has already been decided. And it will create mayhem in the Mideast in one area that is stable.
The fallout from this has the potential to rock the markets around the world.
All this is coming to a head before the transition of power. You have a U.S. lame duck president along with a French Lame Duck president leading the charge.
Amazing times we are in. Whatever your views on these issues do not expose your portfolio to severe financial losses. As if either of these blows up the market will not like it one bit.
I plan on only putting on swing trades of a shorter duration until we get past this last week of the transition period in the U.S. I still have some nagging feeling that the U.S. and the World are in for a few more surprises from the outgoing U.S. administration.
If you want to follow some of my trades along with my thoughts typically given after the open you can go to @rickjswings. Typically I talk about the overall day expected with the markets and also give some levels on the ES and NQ for failed breakout scalping.
It’s my private twitter feed for the stock market and its free. Sports Handicapping is the subscription-based part of this site. But considering the cost of joining it’s almost free:)
Good Luck Today
RickJ
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