Downward Market Pressure...

S.T.A.Y. Plus™ current position for Active portion of portfolio:  "CASH" 

Last week, the market continued it's overall down trend. Other than a slight interruption during Christmas week, the market has been trending down for the last month (see weekly chart below). We switched our positions to cash on 12/20/2024 and will remain there until the trend shifts. 

Sometimes the bar charts can be confusing, so I thought that it might be useful to take this opportunity to review how to read them -

• Note that each bar and it's "wicks" represents all the market activity in the specified time period (weekly in this case, monthly in the lower chart).
  • The top of the upper "wick" represents the market high in that time period. 
  • The bottom of the lower "wick" represents the market low in that time period.
• The solid parts of each bar represent the market "open" and the market "close" for that time period. Essentially, where the market started and finished.
  • If the bar is green, the top of it represents the finish or market close. Green connotates that the market was moving up in that time period.
  • If the bar is red, the top of it represents where the market started or opened. Red connotates that the market was moving down in that time period.

It is interesting to note that there can be consecutive green bars in a down-trending market.... although this is counter-intuitive, it makes sense when you consider that market can open far below (or above) where it closed the previous period. For example, look at the green bar on the far right of the weekly chart below. Although last week the finish (close) was higher than the beginning (open), both the start and the finish were below the previous week. 

I hope that this is useful for you to better understand what the market is doing and how we are navigating it. 

Weekly S&P 500 Chart (with all-time hi shown)

Monthly S&P 500 Chart (with all-time hi shown)