Mostly a Spectator This Week

This was one of those weeks in the market where I am content to have been mostly in cash as a spectator. I just took off the two positions I did have on coming into today well before they came close to my preset stop-losses as I simply do not like this price action on the back of yesterday's big move. To my eye, we are still in the muck dealing with the middle stages of a full-blown bear market.

Hope spring eternal. But, as they say, bear markets eventually slide down that slope of hope. 

Headed into next week we could easily see more of the same type of violently indecisive price action given the slew of major tech earnings about to hit. The midterms are still several weeks away, as is the next FOMC, which means my base case for a sloppy, tedious range remains very much in play. 

As you can see, cash is a powerful position during a bear market, even one where inflation is front and center. 

While the energy stocks still may very well be in play for more upside I was not pleased to see them immediately give back most of yesterday's gains. Going forward, they still need to prove themselves a bit more for me to stick with them for swing trades. 

Overall, this sort of week in the markets is one which should reinforce the lesson of living to fight another day. It seems like an eye-rolling platitude but when you see this type of price action it ought to hit home with a bit more gravitas.