From the Trading Desk

Stocks Fall on Extremely Light Trade Ahead of Ben Bernanke’s Speech

The end-of-day selloff left a very bad taste in the market’s mouth albeit on very light trade. The last fifteen minutes of trading was not kind as the NASDAQ was hit very hard. On the bright side of things volume was even lower than Wednesday’s pathetic level. Institutions are simply not around to push any volume ahead of Bernanke’s speech. Jackson Hole was where Quantitative Easing part two and there are many hoping to hear the Federal Reserve Chairman to deliver on another round. We care about price and what we saw out of the market was not encouraging.

Volume is so low it is very difficult to gather much from the market. Individual stocks are a different story. If you have a stock hitting a sell signal you must obey your rules. There is nothing more detrimental to your trading than not taking a sell signal. Losses are very tough to come back from it is best you keep them small. Drawdowns will happen it is a part of trading, but letting them get out of hand is reckless.

The final trading day of the summer comes on the same day Ben Bernanke will be delivering his speech. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to his speech. We’ll simply follow our rules and avoid the noise.

Make this weekend a good one and enjoy the long weekend. The big boys should be returning Tuesday bring back some real volume.

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