What is a Sideways Market?
Sideways markets are simply investment and money markets that are going through a period where there is little to no change in stock prices occurring. Sometimes referred to as a flat market, the sideways market can present an interesting challenge to investors who wish to make some sort of ongoing profit from their investments. The sideways market is not a new phenomenon, but dates back to the earliest years of organized and structured investment markets. Because the movement of prices on stock is flat during a sideways market, investors have to employ strategies that are very different from approaches that work in a more volatile market situation. One way of dealing with an extended phase of horizontal price movement is to make use of leverage in buying and selling stocks. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with buying stocks on margin. This application does still carry some risk, if the signals of current market trends within the sideways market are misread. For example
Sideways markets are investment and money markets where stock prices change little over a specific period of time. It is when the prices are graphed and the main pattern on a price chart is sideways. In a sideways market, an investor might try to predict the future movement of the market and plan a strategy to put into effect once the sideways movement is complete. For some investors, a sideways market can provide a break from trading activity especially when their investment portfolio contains other securities that they wish to hold on to for the long term and remains content with maintaining the status quo.
I like this definition from YourDictionary.com , “A market with prices that are neither steadily climbing nor steadily falling. If the prices are plotted on a price chart, the main movement is sideways.” Sideways markets are rough because prices don’t move enough for traders to make money in the peaks or troughs or during the movement of peaks to troughs and vice-versa. In the case of copper, the push-pull of supply and demand is the likely cause of this largely sideways market. On the one hand, demand is down in the US due to the housing market which still does not appear to have hit the bottom yet. On the other, supply disruptions have lowered production in 2008 particularly due to operational issues, labor issues and weather according to the latest ICSG press release. And according to this Platt’s article, “an analyst told Platts previously that above $8,000/mt and the “Chinese are just not interested,” an astute remark as to where the price could/could not go. The result of this yi
MetalMiner has always held a strong free market philosophy. Our belief is in most cases the benefits of lower cost material to consumers outweighs the damage to domestic producers that global trade can bring. In our experience, calls for anti- dumping fines, import tariffs or quotas are nearly always brought by large industrial producers.
