Postcards: Crab Cakes and Volatility

If you find yourself in Baltimore, have a crab cake at the Indigo Hotel. Yellow mustard and crackers. It'll help you overcome market fears as we head into the most volatile of months.

Dear Fellow Expat:

Greetings from Baltimore. (39° 17' 57.2496'' N and 76° 36' 33.7788'' W.)

If there’s ever a reason to depart from the Florida Republic, it’s for a crab cake, yellow mustard, and crackers.

Provisions are well stocked in the Charm City.

We enter a pivotal week for the markets.

The Chinese central bank didn’t pump another 1 trillion Yuan into its economy, so the “trend” – or expected performance for the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 – is likely set for lower highs and lower lows. The Federal Reserve’s meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, delivered no major updates – except our existing commitment to higher interest rates for longer.

Without a major move by central banks – and the meeting among the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa etc.) largely being a bust – we can turn our attention to the more behavioral elements in the stock market.

September is coming.

Will We See a Crash in September?

With a week left before Labor Day, we must look at the chart to the left.