The S&P 500 was a bit limp during the trading session on Friday, but volume would’ve been almost nonexistent as traders were more worried about Christmas than anything else.
The S&P 500 went sideways during Friday, and then drifted a bit lower to reach down towards the 2680 handle. This is a market that had almost no volume as traders were interested in Christmas, not trading. Longer-term, this is a market that has been very bullish, and I think that we will eventually see the buyers get into this market. Ultimately, I think that the next couple of sessions could be rather soft, as we have a serious lack of volume between now and New Year’s Day. However, I think once we get through the holidays there will be plenty of reasons to get involved, as the tax reform has given us a bit of a turbo boost for corporate proffers. The 2650 level underneath is the “floor” in the market, and I don’t think that we break down below there. I do believe that there will be plenty of value hunters underneath, and ultimately this market should reach towards the 2700 level again.
I suspect that we could get exaggerated short-term volatility, but once we get to January 5 or so, the buyers should overtake the market. In the meantime, keep your position size small, perhaps adding once the markets moving your direction. I believe that dollar cost averaging might be the way a lot of traders make money in this market going forward. The noisy conditions will scare a lot of traders, but in the end, I think the longer-term trend will prevail and therefore give us an opportunity to benefit going into the month of January. The stochastic oscillator isn’t in the oversold condition, but it’s very close.
Chris is a proprietary trader with more than 20 years of experience across various markets, including currencies, indices and commodities. As a senior analyst at FXEmpire since the website’s early days, he offers readers advanced market perspectives to navigate today’s financial landscape with confidence.