Stock Market - Four Weeks Of Choppy Trading

These past four weeks in the stock market have been extremely choppy and I think the above chart tells the story. Above is a 60 minute chart of the S&P (SPY) and as you can see this has been a trendless choppy market. Whether you were bullish or bearish it didn't matter because the market found a way to take you out of your trade assuming you are a swing trader who is holding overnight.

I placed circles where large gaps have taken place from the close to the next day's open and as you can see we get one of these large gaps about once every 3 days. Today we saw stocks gap open substantially higher only to fall and go negative on the day. By the close stocks were back up slightly but only after whipsawing many traders.

When I see this type of trading I usually cut back on my trading size which I have already done but I am still short this market but not to the same extent as I was two weeks ago. I have lessened my share size considerably but have no problem stepping up to the plate and adding to my short position once a clear trend to the downside develops.