By Barrie Einarson

If you felt like today’s market was unusually difficult to trade, you weren’t imagining it.

This wasn’t about one standout stock or a clean setup—it was about market conditions, and more specifically, the chaos in the SPY. To Subscribe: https://go.trade-ideas.com/SHQ
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Pre-market, we saw weakness. Then suddenly around 7:05 AM, the SPY made a massive reversal, at one point pushing up roughly 13 points before settling closer to an 8-point gain. That kind of move might sound promising—but in reality, it created a choppy, unpredictable environment.

And that’s the key issue.

When the broader market is whipping around like this:

• Stocks that typically follow the market lose reliability
• Momentum setups struggle to hold
• Follow-through becomes inconsistent

Even small caps—which traders often rely on for cleaner moves—just didn’t deliver that “great follow-through” we look for.

Instead, what we got was a market reacting in real time to headlines—particularly geopolitical news out of Iran—causing sharp, sudden shifts in direction.

One level many of us were watching closely was VWAP (that purple line). The question was simple:

Would SPY hold VWAP and bounce like it had earlier?

So far, that hasn’t looked convincing.

And when VWAP isn’t respected in a volatile environment like this, it’s a warning sign:
👉 Conditions favor caution over aggression.

The Bottom Line

Some days aren’t about finding the perfect trade—they’re about recognizing when:

• The market lacks structure
• Price action is reactive, not directional
• Risk is elevated across the board

Today was one of those days.

Sometimes the best trade is trading smaller—or not trading at all.