What Does Fear Look Like in 2016 Financial Markets?

Panic in world markets: a photo gallery pic.twitter.com/vcRYfIijTh

— Andrew Palmer (@palmerandrew) August 24, 2015

We give machines way too much credit when it comes to investing and trading.

Machines did not create this ‘peak oil’ misinformation and fear a few years back…it was humans (thanks @northmantrader):

Here is what fear looked like (with my human eyes) last week:

CNN Fear and Greed Index 11

NO IPO’s in January – the first NO IPO month in 51 months. That’s not machine’s panicking.

Stocks were being sold like never before (this chart was prepared by a machine, served to me by a human):

% OF stocks above their 20day monthly chart..never has it closed this low on a monthly level 2002-now $SPY

— Frank Zorrilla (@ZorTrades) Jan. 15 at 02:26 PM

I chose to buy a few stocks and it worked out. By Friday, we got some relief and you can panic at higher prices Monday morning. I urged anyone that ask and also blogged here that investors and traders close their eyes and buy a favorite brand. It is not a perfect strategy, but it is the right strategy if you have cash on the sidelines (which you should have based on the current market environment).

When the market is in panic mode, a lot of humans are still pushing the buttons and while machines do battle it out on the line of scrimmage with us, I will always trust my experience, eyes, ears and network over a machine.