Chart Talk

Like any good metaphor, the classic trope one man's ceiling is another man's floor is loaded with meaning.  Depending on how you unpack it, it might be teaching us to always be aware of our surroundings, to be respectful of others, to avoid rushing to judgement, or to understand that we don't all excel at the same things and in the same ways, among many other pearls of wisdom. We can easily apply any interpretation of this saying to the stock market, especially if we consider the idea that one day's support is another day's resistance . Indeed, an area we would have bought on one particular day, might become an area we'd sell in the near future. Take the United States Oil Fund ETF USO , for example, which tracks the movements of the crude oil markets. USO went from a low of around $65, right before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 and ran all the way up to $87.84 on March 8th, stoked by rising gas and oil prices as a result of Russia's attack. ...

When it comes to the stock market, birds of a feather certainly flock together. Under most circumstances, stocks in the same sector will move in very similar ways. For example, energy stocks will trade according to the more volatile oil markets (which often will be in the opposite direction of the greater stock market), while mining stocks will move with silver and gold, and consumer stocks will be more in-step with the larger economic climate.  Take a look at charts for any two stocks from the same sector, whether it's two financial stocks, two retail stocks, or even two index tracking ETFs such as the SPY and the DIA, and you'll notice very similar, if not identical, patterns. Even when significant information, such as an earnings report, irrationally skews the trajectory of a particular stock in one direction or the other, other stocks from the same sector will tend to move in sympathy with that stock, at least until the market normalizes somewhat. However, what's good f...