The Daily Dose of Trading Comments

Futures are up strong pre-opening. Durable goods just hit and that didn't have an effect. Next up is confidence numbers about 30 minutes into trading. The remainder of the week holds a lot of data and likely causes as spiky market as a result. A spike up and down here makes sense if we are building an intermediate term top or even just working off the push that has already been seen. Working on a level above all of this is the end of month window dressing. So, in summary, we have a confluence of factors that should make for a choppy environment. If you plan to play in this environment, recognize that the play is between the extremes. The up only bias is taking a break now so you can play the pushes in either direction with the fades as the edges.

The other option is to simply wait this out. Rather than play ... wait. You don't have to play if you don't want to. That's the great thing about the market. You can choose to play or not. You can choose to buy or sell or do nothing. Now mind you, eventually you have to do something to make money, but you don't have to jump into every opportunity and every opportunity sometimes has a way of draining your account. Instead, read the charts, develop your thesis and then wait for the reward to risk that works in your favor based on your trading style and time frame.

I'll drop a short post after we open to see if we can get a sense of whether this market wants to fade that opening or not. With the confidence numbers 30 minutes in, my guess is they will hold it steady out of the gate.