SPX S&P 500 2-Hour Chart; Sideways Channel; Chop Suey

Chop suey. The sideways choppy, whipsaw, slop is chewing-up bulls and bears alike. The black lines show the direction changes and do not even show in detail the day-to-day flips back and forth from bullish to bearish and back again.

The recovery occurs sharply off the March bottom as most of these moves do. Stocks have been in a sideways slog for 6 weeks as evidenced by the blue channel. Every time the bulls are 100% convinced that a breakout is occurring and stocks are going to pop strong, thwack, the bears smack the bulls and take things south. Then as the bears are feeling all good about themselves and stocks are falling, they become more excited and proclaim the end is here, exactly when the bulls punch them in the face, grab the ball and start running stocks higher again.

The chop will make most investors and traders lose money regardless of whether you lean bullish or bearish on the market. Usually, you want to do more watching than trading in these markets. The sideways choppy price action also wreaks havoc on algo's that want to see trends not chop. There is simply not enough of a trend in one direction or the other to make coin.

The blue channel is from 2760 to 2950. The S&P 500 begins the new week of trading at 2864 which is 104 points from that bottom support line and 86 points from the top resistance line. Very simply, if the SPX moves above 2950, the bulls will throw confetti and party like its 1999, as Prince would sing. If the SPX drops below 2760, it is lights-out for the stock market. In between is noise and more choppy slop. This information is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Do not invest based on anything you read or view here. Consult your financial advisor before making any investment decision.

Note Added 3:04 AM EST on Tuesday Morning, 5/19/20: The bulls rally the SPX 90 points higher, +3.2%, to 2954. HOD 2968. SPX price is teasing the top of that sideways channel threatening a breakout.