This Is a Hit-and-Run Market Right Now

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I expected it to be a low-volume grind and it exceeded my expectations. The ES traded 1.22 million contracts yesterday, its lowest volume day since August 1st — barely — when it traded 1.21 million contracts.

Yes, there were some good rips and dips, but it felt like no one was trading. The bots just ping-ponged it back and forth between 4425 and 4445. While low volume tends to favor the upside, it makes it easy for the programs to run amok and that's exactly what they did. There were several times when the ES would rally 10 or 15 points and then drop 10 or 15 points out of nowhere.

Like I said in yesterday’s Our Lean section, I'm not sure if the ES is going back down or if it's trying to establish a trading range.

I'm going to keep today's OP short. We are going into the end of a bad month for the index markets and tomorrow I will add the Stock Trader Almanac's stats for September.