After a "historic" turnaround yesterday, where the S&P 500 gained over 5% from its lows, the stock market gave back nearly all those gains today. From top to bottom, the S&P 500 fell 3.6% today. The market volatility has reached asinine levels. As I said in my update last month, "If you ain't scared, you ain't paying attention."
The average intraday move in the S&P 500 this month is 2.65%, This, while the month-to-date gain for the index stands at just 0.20%. Thus far in October, the stock market has shot higher and crashed lower, but in the end, it has gone virtually nowhere. It reminds me of times as a kid when it would ice over in North Texas and we'd all pile in the car and slam the accelerator and peg the speedometer at 85 but the car went nowhere. The stock market is spinning its wheels right now. The volatility is nauseating. The only question that remains is, "Will the FED and Wall Street gain some traction or will they put the stock market into the ditch?" The next couple of weeks could prove very interesting.