Stock Market Ninth Decline in Eleven Sessions

By: PhilStockWorld

Courtesy of Doug Short: Today the S&P 500 marked the third day of government shutdown with its most volatile session since its all-time closing high on September 18th. My volatility metric is the percent change from intraday low to intraday high. That September 18 record close had an intraday range of 1.71%, largely reflecting the market’s reaction to the FOMC no-taper decision. The index then declined for nine of the following eleven sessions. Today’s intraday range of 1.32% ranks at the 88th percentile of the 191 market days of 2013. The 500 opened at its -0.09% intraday high and sold off to its -1.39% noon-hour low. During the afternoon the index cut its loss approximately in half and traded in a narrow range, save for brief dip around 2:20 PM when shots were fired at the capitol. A slight fade in the final minutes logged a 0.90% loss for the day.

Here is 5-minute chart of of today with a bit of yesterday afternoon for context. The 1680 level switched from mornings resistance to afternoon support, although it took a pause with the capitol gunshots and at the closing fade.

Here is an hourly chart since before the Fed-driven “no-taper” rally, which more clearly shows the recent trend and today’s increased volatility.

Volume today was unremarkable. On a daily chart we can also see that today the index closed the day fractionally below its 50-day price moving average.

The S&P 500 is now up 17.70% for 2013 and 2.72% below the all-time closing high of August 18.

For a better sense of how these declines figure into a larger historical context, here’s a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets in the S&P Composite since 1871.

- Phil

www.philstockworld.com

Philip R. Davis is a founder of Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com), a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders. Mr. Davis is a serial entrepreneur, having founded software company Accu-Title, a real estate title insurance software solution, and is also the President of the Delphi Consulting Corp., an M&A consulting firm that helps large and small companies obtain funding and close deals. He was also the founder of Accu-Search, a property data corporation that was sold to DataTrace in 2004 and Personality Plus, a precursor to eHarmony.com. Phil was a former editor of a UMass/Amherst humor magazine and it shows in his writing -- which is filled with colorful commentary along with very specific ideas on stock option purchases (Phil rarely holds actual stocks). Visit: Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com)

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