Trading During the Jobs Report

Trading During The Jobs Report

The Week
At the beginning of the week the Market showed some hope that the down trend was over.
There was decent volume all week and some money started to flow back into the Market
causing prices to rise sharply. Then along came the jobs report on Friday and we were back
where we started the week.

The jobs report was actually good with the U.S. economy adding 263,000 jobs in September,
unemployment rate falling to 3.5%. Notably wage rates did not go up like they had in past
months where competition for employees was fierce. That factor will help slow the inflation rate.

Like I said a decent report overall. But the trading herd reacted in fear. The moment the
announcement started there was a huge price drop. Prices continue down all day Friday. Here
is Friday’s one day by the minute chart. You can see exactly to the minute when the report
announcement started

Looking Ahead
I do think we will see a little more chaos this coming week. The heard is very nervous. They
have touched the stove, gotten burn and are fearful of touching it again. It is also the first week
of the earnings announcement season. A lot of the Market Price/Action will depend on how the
herd perceives those announcements. If we see a stock pop up, we will probably see profit
grabbing and fear trading. Getting through the earnings season and general election in early
November will be tricky.

How do I Do This Week?
Not so great. It was not an auspicious beginning to the DATA class with my account down 4%.
But rather than dwelling on my woes, I focused on what I learned. I use my trade journals to
analyze and contemplate my trades. What I realized is that I did talk about one sector on the
rise in my daily webinar. Gas and Oil stocks shot up ignoring for the most part what was
happening in the rest of the Market. I did not take advantage of the rise and that is my bad.
So, what I learned from my self-observations is I was acting like the nervous trading herd. I was
afraid to trade what I was seeing. Now that I am aware of what I did, it will not happen again. I
am a better trader than that.