One-day Stock Market Performance Can Be an Indicator

According to Efficient Markets approach, news and other publicly available information are incorporated into the price of a stock. One of the available news factors is a state of the stock market itself - bullish, bearish, or neutral. The state can be the same or it can evolve. A state change results the re-evaluation of price with a certain time delay. So any stock market movement causes a certain reaction of investors. If the market suddenly plunges, investors may start panicking, selling, and dragging the market even faster. If stock market prices are increasing without fluctuations for long, investors become confident to invest. As a result, if more money inflows, demand pushes prices up.

In the same way, one-day stock market performance can impact the emotions of investors. Therefore, it can be considered as a kind of indicator. The chart below shows how a big one-day positive performance can push the market up (callout 1..5):




The chart represents the curve of S&P-500 index values for period from October 2008 to April 2009 (blue line) and the curve of one-day performance (red line). The performance calculated using formula:

P₁ = 100% * (C₂ - C₁) / C₁

where C₂ - current day closing price, C₁ - previous day closing price.

© Alex Shmatov. Published with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction strictly prohibited without permission.

Return on Investment Built on Expectations: Time Factor Is Critical in Stock Investing

Since all stock market buy-sell rush built on expectations, today's prices strongly depend on prices that even expected to be in several months. For example, if you are the first who know that today's $20 share would cost $30 in six months, you would rather to buy immediately. What can happen if others have the same prediction? They can do the same - buy immediately and that buying power can push prices higher very fast. Therefore, the price can jump in a few days due to a perspective of several months.

The chart below shows how short-term price behavior can depend on future expectation. Long-term forecast-1 was positive that pushed price up in short-term. Then when new negative information became available, the long term forecast-2 dragged the price down in short-term.




According to Efficient Markets approach, news and other public information are incorporated into the price of a stock with a certain time delay (price is supposed to reach and keep a stable equilibrium that change only each time a relevant new information is known). Since big money cannot flow very fast, individual investors have some advantage to react quickly. To do this efficiently it is important to watch informational resources, monitor companies' news and macroeconomic trends.

© Alex Shmatov. Published with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction strictly prohibited without permission.