Markets Move Lower on Data and Fears

On November 19th, our risk countermeasures triggered for the 2nd time this year, so we are back to a "risk-off" stance for portfolios using our Defined Risk Strategy. We thought this might be a good time to share a bit of information on what is affecting the stock market over the past 5 weeks, as volatility has spiked.

Before getting too deep into the drivers of the current market volatility, it is important to start first with a basic understanding of what moves the market higher or lower on a day to day basis.

Daily market movement is not an indicator of the current strength of our economy. The market actually moves on expectations of increasing or decreasing earnings in the fut