The Market Took It All Back - Now Another Push?

 Before the last couple trading days, everyone was talking about how Trump's tariffs made the market give up everything it gained between the election and his inauguration.  Of course, he lightened up and the market responds back in a pretty big way.  Though, not all the way.  This market is way overdue for a major correction, at least.  It is feeling very sensitive to negative as well as positive news, which spells volatility, which could be a warning for something to go haywire.  It still seems fairly resistant to any long term down turn...I still don't see the attitude that the market can't go down.  When that kind of thinking happens, then it's time to buckle the seat belts and get ready for a ride.  We aren't there yet, though.

I've been a little more cautious about the cash-producing methods I've been trying in the last couple years.  One part of my thinking is, "Don't just go right back out and sell an option the first thing after the last one expired."  I know I need to give it a little time between those trades.  I may give up some income, but that's better than getting stuck with something careening out of control.  I've been staying with the lower priced options anyway, so there's not as much risk.  Less reward too, should this market decide to have another session of climbing that wall of worry.  Putting time between trades just lowers the risk further without giving up all the profits.

This latest downturn seems like has created a new sense of unsuredness -  now it appears there are as many thinking disastrous thoughts as there are still thinking with a positive outlook.  The bottom line is, though, that it's really just in a funk right now.  No particular direction (especially as far as any major movement goes) either way.  This is evident from my accounts.  Usually, there is at least one that is either have a buy or a sell signal, but they are all in between.  That's actually more of a rarity than the alternative.  It's unusual for there to be more than two of them with activity, but even more unusual for there to be none.

I know this will not stay this way forever, as there is always something new on the horizon.  It's just hard to see if that something is a good something or a bad something.  We'll just wait and see, and in the meantime, we'll just keep playing by the rules...