Why Technicals Matter More Than Ever In A Narrative-Driven Market

Eyeglasses on Open Book

Image Source: Pexels

Look, I’m not here to sugarcoat. This market? It's absurd. A carnival of contradictions, a house of mirrors where fundamentals have taken a backseat — correction, they’ve been thrown out of the car, and the algorithm is behind the wheel.

Every day I fire up the screens, and it feels like I’m hosting a bizarre game show — call it “Wall Street Feud” — where instead of family members guessing the most popular responses, we’ve got billionaires, bureaucrats, and bots shouting over each other, trying to rig the narrative just enough to sway your next click or trade. 

It’s not investing. It’s a circus. This is what you need to know… 


The Death of Fundamentals and the Rise of Crossovers
 

Fundamentals? They're the Blockbuster Video of trading — nostalgic, respectable, but largely obsolete. Valuations, earnings, dividends — they used to matter. Now, they’re just part of the window dressing. What’s actually working today is technical crossovers. And if you don’t understand them, or worse, if you treat them like gospel, you’re already cooked.

Most traders see a moving average crossover and scream, “Buy signal!” as if the heavens just opened and handed them a winning lotto ticket. They don’t pause to ask — what’s the angle of the crossover? What's the trend of the broader pattern? What are the surrounding liquidity dynamics? Crossovers aren’t some holy relic. They're nuanced, conditional, and yes — often misleading.

Don’t be that trader who chases a bullish crossover at the top of a manipulated flag pattern, only to be left holding the bag when the algo rug-pulls you by lunchtime.


Wall Street’s Narrative Engine
 

Understand this: Wall Street doesn’t trade on reality. It trades on narratives. Or better yet, it manufactures them. They feed you just enough to keep you in the game, dangling optimism like bait, then smacking you with volatility the minute you get comfortable.

Every major move? It’s got a tagline — like a cheap promo line for an action movie. “Trade talks resume!” “Fed pivot incoming!” “Earnings beat expectations!” Yeah, and then what? They buried the bad guidance in paragraph three, and before you can say "risk-off," your gains are vaporized.

Look at the tape. Trump tweets? Musk memes? A single headline or whisper from Powell and the market can crater 300 points or shoot up 150. That’s not investing. That’s Russian roulette with your portfolio.


The Great Bubble of Complacency
 

Here’s the danger: complacency. I see it every day. Traders sitting on their hands, telling themselves the market “shrugged off bad news.” No. The market didn’t shrug — it ignored it, because algos had another directive.

Right now, we are floating in an air pocket of liquidity, and it’s inflating a bubble so massive that when it pops — and it will — it’s not going to be a correction. It’s going to be a detonation.

And let’s not pretend we haven’t seen this movie before. Every cycle has its moment when buy-the-dip stops working. And when it does, there’s no warning shot. You won’t get a tap on the shoulder from CNBC. You'll just wake up one morning to find your darlings down 30% with no bid in sight.


The Real Strategy: Lock Gains, Reduce Risk, Neutralize Damage
 

I’m not here to tell you to go 100% short or abandon the markets. I’m telling you to treat every pop like an opportunity — an opportunity to lock in profits, reduce exposure, and get nimble.

You scale out of longs and layer into shorts. You neutralize your risk and keep your emotional capital intact. Don’t be the genius who rode Broadcom from $138 to $265 and then held it like a toddler clinging to a balloon in a windstorm. If you didn’t take gains, that’s not confidence. That’s negligence.

Markets are made to sell into. That’s what Garrett says, and he’s dead right. Every time we lift, I sell something. Take the money, lock the gain, and don’t look back.


Avoiding the Earnings Landmine
 

Here’s another gospel truth: never — and I mean never — go into earnings unhedged. If you’re long and scared, buy a put. If you’re short and sweating, buy a call. But do not — under any circumstances — walk into earnings with your pants down and your book wide open.

I don’t care if it’s Lululemon, DocuSign, Samsara, or the reincarnation of Warren Buffett’s ghost — every earnings event is a coin flip. And when you get it wrong, you’re not just losing money. You’re blowing out your emotional capital, and that is way harder to get back.


Media Lies and the Optics Game
 

What’s even more toxic than bad earnings is how media spins it. They’ll tell you the stock is down 20% because “billings missed expectations.” No. It’s down because institutional money is hitting the sell button like it’s a game show buzzer.

And when the market miraculously recovers later in the day? They’ll feed you the line — “It’s shrugging off the bad news.” Shrugging? No. The algos just rotated their targets. You were never in control. You were just riding the back of the beast.

This is optics, people. It's all about how the portfolio looks at month’s end. It’s not real. It’s staged. And if you don’t learn to see through the show, you’ll become part of the punchline.


Final Thoughts: Don’t Be a Casualty of the Narrative
 

I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to wake you up.

This market is built on algorithms, optics, and spin. And the sooner you understand that — the sooner you start treating every headline like satire and every chart like a crime scene — the better off you’ll be.

So keep your stops tight. Keep your eyes open. And above all else, stop treating this game like it’s fair.

It’s not. And it never was.

Let’s play the feud.


More By This Author:

Stay Profitable On The Highway To The Danger Zone
This Week Is Critical For The Rally
Oil’s Up, Cuts Are Off: Why Defensive Rotation Is The Only Smart Play Right Now
How did you like this article? Let us know so we can better customize your reading experience.

Comments

Leave a comment to automatically be entered into our contest to win a free Echo Show.
Or Sign in with