Pencils down.

You wish this were a test. Actually, it is. Every day is a test of what you learned from the prior day and from all the cumulative days in this mass psychology lab.

The better students realize early that they are also the subjects. Their fear is the market”s fear. Their extremes are the market”s extremes. When they accept that they are part of the market, their vantage rise above the market, and have the best vantage point of all.

As a reminder, one thing attracting me to this sector as a trader is its volatility. Since markets don”t trend in straight lines, I expect there to be very compelling bounces. That would be normal.

Days like today, like last week, and days like some of those bearing down on us now, these days are exceptions. They”re exceptions because they give us weeks or months worth of observations in the span of a few hours. It is an awesome opportunity to fast-track the learning experience.

Of course, that learning can be painful, too. Sorry to have to remind you of this, but those are the lessons that stick. How can we get the best of both worlds — the education without too much pain? By managing risk. We”ll learn more about that. 

For now, chill. Look at some charts, put together a wish list of where you might want to buy back some stocks. I”ll add to this thread if anything seems interesting before the close, and we”ll look at charts together after the close.

     Enjoy!