Mike Lambrechts

The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 traded decisively in bear market territory and the SP500 briefly reached this level (20% down) last week before aggressively bouncing off its 200-week moving average (an important level that technicians use). For most of our clients this is something that we have been through before and can certainly expect to happen again in the future. Corrections and bear markets happen for a variety of reasons but always resolve to reach all-time highs at some point in the future, even with how uncomfortable they can feel at the time. Most of them we forget even happened.

The long-awaited tariff announcements were made. I had expected a binary outcome – either tariffs would be announced as expected and a path to negotiating better trade agreements would become apparent (buy the news event), or the contrary, where tariffs were far higher and trade policy much more aggressive than expected. A popular word has been ‘worst case’. I’m not excited to say that this could get much worse, but it certainly can. Is that case avoidable? Absolutely.

Well, here we are in 2025. A new administration, new policies, and a fresh never-ending news cycle for trading algorithms to digest and feast on within seconds of hitting the wires. In the world of more technology and program trading, bouts of volatility can be more frequent in periods of uncertainty.