Strong Reaction to the FMOC Rate Hike Announcement

This Week's Market Insights

Just about the time you see the Market get some traction up, here comes another economic
report. This week it was the FMOC announcement on Wednesday with another .75% interest rate hike and on Friday it was the Jobs Report with unemployment figures. With both announcements there was a strong reaction by the trading herd. We had a large reaction in spite of the fact that we all knew what the reports were ahead of time.

It really makes steering a steady trading course difficult. To me, CHAOS is an apt description of the Market. My trading has reflected that chaotic feeling.

I have always tried to think things through, calmly with patience, knowing the ship will always try to right itself.

But the normal calmness has been hard to maintain when all around me I see traders in a panic. I unusually like to see panic sell offs. It is one of my favorite trading situations to take advantage of as prices plummet.

Lately, however, the panic sell offs are lasting only hours and in some cases minutes.

This makes trades hard to watch and trade at the exact moment of maximum profitability. If you are struggling, step back, take a deep breath and perhaps trade less. This has been my course of action these past few weeks. I am also aware we might have another whammy coming at us with the upcoming elections.

Life is so much fun!

How am I Doing?
It wasn’t a bad week but it also wasn’t a great trading week. This is the fifth week of ten in this DATA class sessions. As of yesterday, at the bell’s close my account balance has increase by 25.8% in five weeks. That sounds good but it is not my usual return percentage. Again, don’t beat yourself up if you are struggling. Greater traders than me are also struggling. And some aren’t doing as well as I am.

This coming week in DATA I am considering changing a few my approaches on trading. This morning I spent an hour just thinking about what is working well and what is kicking my butt. I don’t like to be butt kicked so time to adjust.