The long view
This commentary is a bit longer than my usual, but please bear with me, as I think it might be a useful read for you as I try to answer the question that’s on every investors mind: How much longer will the current volatile sideways market last?

I’ve drawn a trend channel on the DJIA going back to 1900. A trend channel tries to contain the greater amount of movements within a trend to visualize the approximate top zone and bottom zone for that security. You can also use a trend channel to project where future extremes might come into play. For the Dow chart presented here, I’ve made a couple of observations that might be of interest. First, I’ve marked the sideways periods with  gray boxes where the market couldn’t penetrate an overhead “ceiling” for an extended period of time. Since 1900, there have been four such periods including the sideways market we’ve been stuck in since 1999. Each of these four sideways periods have been “lost decades” or more—the last sideways market was about 17 years long (1965 -1982).  All were characterized by high volatility and large price swings hinged on various worry-inducing events of the time.