Case study - Trading catalysts

  • Discover why the recent US Jobless Claims data sparked a market rally, showcasing the power of catalysts and the importance of understanding underlying reasons for market reactions. Don't miss out on trading opportunities like this in the future.
Trading Catalyst

The US Jobless Claims yesterday came out much better than expected. This is the most timely indicator we have on the labour market.

The market reacted strongly, with the S&P 500 (chart below) rallying by 2.4% in a single day, which was the best one day gain since November 2022.

trading catalysts
S&P 500 - 15 minutes timeframe

WHY THE MARKET REACTED LIKE THAT?

You need to know the underlying reasons to understand the market reaction.

Last Friday, the market got spooked by a surprisingly weak US jobs report where the unemployment rate jumped to 4.3% from 4.1%. We saw a wave of risk-off flows that eventually got exacerbated on Monday.

Now, there's been a debate about the legitness of the data as there were good arguments for a negative short-term impact from Hurricane Beryl.

The US Jobless Claims quelled those fears and increased the confidence that the NFP report might have been indeed just a blip.

Therefore, the market priced out the fears and went back into a more positive risk sentiment, lifting risk assets like the S&P500.

That was a nice tradable catalyst. No matter if you are a scalper, day trader or a long term trader. That was a trading opportunity.

Retail traders generally avoid such events. The majority don't trade them because "trading the news is gambling". That's unfortunately is a retail myth made popular by (you guessed it) influencers/marketers/scammers.

Many got wired to wait for a perfect setup or to wait for the price to come into a certain technical level and so on before taking a position.

The market doesn't know you exist, it's not going into your level if there are reasons to go immediately into a certain direction.

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