We are coming up on the FOMC decision this afternoon, and the market has not been giving us much today. Rather than getting caught up with the intraday slog, though, I continue to observe the major indices tightening up their chart patterns on a daily timeframe. Keep watching that S&P 500 daily chart to see if the bull flag keeps developing. Mild consolidation would indeed be a welcome change of pace from the whipsaws this summer, but the bulls are looking at a big test now with the looming reaction to the FOMC. Historically, the price action will become turbulent in the moments and even hours following the announcement. The key for bulls is withstanding the initial onslaught of volatility without allowing much damage to be done on the daily timeframe.

Bears, of course, are looking for a roll over, pointing to things like gold as not indicating more quantitative easing is on the horizon. That begs the question of whether the market even wants more QE at this point. Many pundits and economists will duke it out over that topic, but in the end all I care about as a stock trader is how the market interprets the data and policy decisions.

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