Here in CO we can count on sun much of the time but we still watch the weather forecast.
It would be a real pain to drag the skis out and drive up the mountain only to find the resorts bereft of snow. For one, it’s an hour and a half on I-70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel to Summit County and the Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge and Copper Mountain ski resorts (and double that to our fave, Steamboat).
“You could use social media, Tim. You can have the resorts text you about conditions. You can go to onthesnow.com, opensnow.com, coloradoski.com—”
Right, I know that. I’m making a point about dealing with things as they come without thinking about the future. What’s called living day-to-day. Some of us might want to do that. Get away from the schedule, the rat race. But it’s not a life strategy.
How come we do it with stocks?
Let me explain. Investor-relations folks, for the moment I’m talking to you. (Investors, listen and see how it applies.) This is typically what you’ll get if you ask an exchange what’s happening with your stock:
The stock opened just above the blah blah blah level then broke out to the upside before basing around noon as profit-takers took over. The bulk of the volume occurred in the morning hours. There was one block, the opening trade, and BAML led most actives (880k), along with Interactive Brokers (615k), GSCO (325k) and JPM (70k). IBKR often handles retail while the rest generally trade for institutions.
I’m not picking on exchanges. I’m asking what this tells you? It’s the same information I was getting fifteen years ago. No comparative forecast, no indication of what behavior set price, no trends, patterns. It’s a narrative suggesting the day is an end unto itself.
This is lugging skis to Breck on a shorts and flip-flops day.
Compare to the oft-maligned weatherperson. They’re not always right but they give reliable forecasts. It’s math. The weather keeps changing but we don’t stop reading forecasts. Right?
Like the weather, the stock market is continually changing. And like weather it’s got measurable patterns because it too is governed by mathematical principles.
Patterns abound. We give Wall Street general expectations of financial trends and patterns through guidance. The Peloton stationary web-connected exercise bike we love gives us troves of trend and pattern data on our performances (sometimes to our chagrin).
I know executives love trends and patterns because they tell me. They like to know what’s coming because they’re people responsible for outcomes and it’s how they think. They appreciate seeing patterns behind price-moves.
We have your trends, patterns and forecasts. If you’d like to see them, let me know.
The stock market isn’t a set of disconnected events one upon the next called trading days that begin at zero, crescendo, and conclude at a finish line. It’s impossible for everything material to investment behavior to wrap by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time each day. There’s a pattern at work you can be sure. The average stock trades 13,000 times per day in 200-share increments (and the last price of the day is the 13,000th then).
I’ll share some patterns and trends to finish. Broadly, the key behavior the past week driving big gains and yesterday’s intraday volatility is Risk Mgmt – the use of derivatives to protect and leverage portfolios. Second is Passive Investment. That combination means ETFs are responsible (passive money, plus a risk-transfer effort by market-makers).
Options expire tomorrow through Friday. The Sentiment trend in the market is white-hot growth behavior slamming into a ceiling, based on past trends and patterns. Shorting is rising, intraday volatility is rising.
While the market has persistent upside fervor, near-term volatility is baked in via behavior and options-expirations regardless of a government shutdown. Trends and patterns show it. It may change again next week. That’s how the market works.
If you’re an observer it’s nice to know what’s coming. If you’re an investor, it’s very material to know patterns and trends because your money is on the line. And if you’re in investor-relations, it’s your job. You don’t want to live it day-to-day. That’s not a strategy.
