Dance Hall Girls And Profits For Fifteen Minutes

Yesterday, we explored the myths and truths of the old Wild West and the current Wild Market.

Back in the day, rowdy frontier towns gave rise to saloons, which in turn gave rise to the “saloon girl.”

The “saloon girl,” had many dfferent names, most with connotations of ill-repute.

Nonetheless, saloon girls were hired to work. These jobs offered women a rare job outside of housework. (Besides the point, but interesting.)

Our girl in the photograph is a dance hall girl. Hired to dance with the male patrons, each “turn” lasted about fifteen minutes. Dance hall girls might have 50 dances a night.

The market seems to have hired its share of dance hall girls as well. So many instruments are having their “fifteen minute” turn rallying.

On any given day, at least 50 instruments get up, embrace a painted lady, and when their time is up, sit back down.

At the end of the allotted time, the instrument undoubtedly leaves the investor with less coin in his pocket then he started with.

Mixed signals, choppy intraday trading and lack of follow through define current market conditions.

How can traders avoid a “fifteen minute” dance that concludes with less cash in their hands?

You might be thinking-avoid the saloon altogether.

Sounds feasible on paper. However, many swing traders hold long positions that have not hit their stop points. That makes sense considering the market may be in a short-term correction, yet still maintains a long-term bullish bias.

IRAs and 401(k)s won’t sell. And if they do, it will be at much lower levels.

If more of an active or independent trader, raising stops can cost even more money. Often, selling ahead of a planned stop leads to selling the lows.

Since everything in rowdy frontier towns happens in the saloon, here’s some perspective.

The S&P 500 is down only about 3% from the highs. The Nasdaq 100 is barely down.

Indeed, the Modern Family has struggled. Today though, Regional Banks, Retail, Biotechnology, the Russell 2000, Transportation and Semiconductors all closed green.