A Solid Recipe for Short-Term Gains

Andy Snyder|October 17, 2022

On Friday, we alerted our paid subscribers to a big setup. It has to do with volatility.

Wall Street’s favorite gauge of the market’s knee-jerk swings – the VIX – is quite close to forming an ominous chart pattern.

Normally, a “golden cross” is good news. It’s a sign that momentum is shifting and the average daily movement is going higher.

It’s a proven and reliable indicator. It typically means a stock will surge higher.

But it’s far from good news when the market’s chief volatility indicator is swinging upward. It means big shifts in the market are becoming more and more common.

What we saw last Thursday proves the idea.

Washington wonks hit “send” on their latest inflation data, telling the world that our prices will continue to rise despite the Fed tightening a monetary noose around our neck.

Minutes after the data was released at 8:30 a.m., premarket futures plunged. The opening bell unleashed a sea of red across the board. Investors panicked at the thought of yet another 75-basis-point hike from the Fed.

But, as the VIX is so eager to point out, this is no ordinary investing environment.

What’s up is down, and what’s good is bad.

Big Swings

Trillions of dollars’ worth of investing cash is sitting on the sidelines. This is the investing flow that would normally patch over the potholes created by big-fisted movers.

What’s more, many of today’s investors are greatly hedged. Institutional traders recently bought over $10 billion worth of put options in a single week. That crushed records. They’re buying and shorting positions that will protect them from surprises.

When we get those surprises – like we did on Thursday – the market can race in both directions… nearly at once.

A day that started with S&P futures down nearly 3% finished with the benchmark index up by more than 2%…

A massive 5% move in a single trading day.

And the more that moves like these happen… the more likely they are to keep happening.

Virtually nobody trusts these big swings. They’re computer-driven. They’re the result of replacing one hedge with another. And history shows this sort of volatility feeds on itself.

Looking ahead, we can see many more catalysts for such moves – midterm elections, Fed meetings, earnings season, war, inflation data… and, who knows, maybe Kanye West and Elon Musk will team up to really shock the world.

A Solid Recipe

Our point is simple.

It’s something we’ve been saying for so long now…

This ain’t your grandaddy’s stock market. The old 60/40 portfolio is long dead, buying and holding just suffered a life-threatening stroke (it could take years of rehab to get it back to its old self), and fundamentals don’t matter to anybody but the bankruptcy judge.

It’s short-term traders who are making the money these days.

We’ve proven it to our readers with our “Sniper Trades.” We’re in… we’re out… and we’re on to the next one before the next headline can send things scattering again.

It’s a solid recipe for strong short-term gains.

And that idea brings us to a big announcement.

Because of the recent volatility in the market and their tremendous success playing it for reliable profits, our friends at The War Room are opening their doors to all Manward readers… for free.

We’ve known War Room co-founder Bryan Bottarelli for nearly 20 years. And we’ve known his partner Karim Rahemtulla for nearly as long (we just got back from a cruise together).

They’re opening their doors because they know they can help folks navigate this volatility-filled market.

Their team has set up a page that details everything you need to know.

You can visit it here.

All this market volatility isn’t going away. Our research shows it will get worse.

You need as many tools in your chest as possible.

The folks at The War Room offer a great one.