- January 25, 2022
- Posted by: Tradingshot Articles
- Category: Stock Indices
This is the S&P500 index on the 1W time-frame (on the log scale). The recent sell-off (-12% so far) is leaving many wondering what is happening and rightly so as it broke below the very strong bullish pattern (Higher Highs/ Higher Lows) since the November 2020 U.S. elections. As I looked more closely into it though by running past regression models, I found that this could in fact be a behavioral pattern linked to post election periods.
More specifically, we witnessed the same sell-off on S&P500 in January 2018 which was exactly 65 weeks (455 days) after the November 08 2016 U.S. elections! Right now we are exactly 65 weeks after the November 03 2020 elections with the index having broken below the 1W MA50 (blue trend-line). It is important to see if SPX can close the current week above the 1W MA50 as in 2018, the 1W MA50 supported the (also -12%) sell-off and gradually led to a new Higher High. However that Higher High was short-lived as in the same year (2018), the index saw an even stronger sell-off that hit the 1W MA200 (orange trend-line). Practically that Lower Low which came after the Higher High formed a multi-year Megaphone pattern. That extensive period of high-volatility started with the U.S. – China trade war and ended even more violently with the global asset melt-down of the panic over the COVID pandemic on March 2020, where the sell-off almost hit the 1M MA100 (red trend-line).
As mentioned above, S&P500 broke below its 1W MA50 yesterday but today shows signs of recovery and is already above it again. A 1W candle close above the MA50 could be the start of a new long-term Megaphone pattern with high volatility due to mostly geopolitical uncertainty. As of now, it is the tensions between the West and Russia over the Ukrainian borders that seems to be starting this geopolitical uncertainty.
Note that a similar period of geopolitical uncertainty took place from late 2014 to the start of 2016, when events such as a potential exit of Greece from the Eurozone, China’s economic slowdown, VW scandal, ECB outlook and Oil sell-off rattle global markets and created a Megaphone that also tested the 1W MA50 and 1W MA200 in successive Lower Lows.
Do you think history will repeat itself and the markets will enter uncertainty following a very strong post elections rally? Feel free to share your work and let me know in the comments section!
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