Monday, September 8, 2008

It's a Traders Market

The stock market futures have been in a such a tight trading range for so long now (2+ months) that it appears that we may continue in that pattern for the foreseeable future. The takeover by the U.S. government of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac over the weekend is being seen as a positive by some stock market bulls. The Dow futures rallied instantly by more than 200 points in Sunday evening trading! However, many traders are so accustomed to buying the dips and selling the rallies that the overnight trading rally may be nothing more than that. Who knows! The reasons are irrelevant!

From my experience, these dramatic moves by Federal authorities create huge supp0rtive rallies for stocks, but they don't tend to last too long - days, not weeks! Once more negative economic data comes forth, the mood gradually shifts, and negative sentiment returns. I buy these rallies, too, until the morose mood returns. Why miss out on the profits? I'm neither a bull nor a bear, but why swim upstream? I give the market what it wants!