The Standard and Poors 500 index (SPX) closed today at 5,729, up 23 points or +0.4%. However, SPX opened the week at 5,834, losing 1.8% for the week. Trading volume spiked up with the severe downturn on Thursday. SPX appears to have found support at its 50 dma (50 day moving average).

VIX, the volatility index for the S&P 500 options, opened the week at 19.1%, but spiked to 23.4% on Thursday and recovered a bit today at 21.9%. Today’s poor jobs report, coupled with the election, appears to have traders on edge.

I track the Russell 2000 index with the IWM ETF, which closed today at 219, up 1.2 points or +0.6% on the day. IWM opened the week at 221 for a weekly loss of 0.9%. IWM appears to have found support at its 50 dma.

The NASDAQ Composite index closed today at 18,239, up 145 points or 
+0.8%. But that overlooks the strong decline yesterday, gapping open at 18,427 and closing at 18095, a decline of 2.8%. NASDAQ opened the week at 18,648, setting up a smaller weekly loss of 2.2%. NASDAQ’s trading volume was above average all week.

Last week wasn’t pretty, but Thursday was downright ugly. One of the few reassuring signs was SPX finding support at its 50 dma. IBD’s recommended stock exposure declined from 80-100% to 60-80% on Thursday’s market collapse.

This morning’s jobs report was extremely poor, but the market rallied anyway. But that may have been more of a sign that institutions viewed Thursday’s severe decline as an overreaction. But the markets could not hold this morning’s rally and gave most of it back before the close.

Large institutional traders appear to be spooked on three fronts. Number one has to center on this morning’s jobs report with only 12 thousand new jobs. Certainly, the hurricane damage and the strikes are caveats, but the report also shows signs of a weakening economy.

Number two is the elephant in the room, Tuesday’s election. Making it even worse this time, voters on both sides have legitimate fears about the repercussions of this election’s outcome.

If that wasn’t enough, we can’t ignore the FOMC meeting that begins Wednesday and their report on Thursday.

Any one of these upcoming events would cause a rise in uncertainty for traders, but this is quite a coincidence of negative possibilities. Stay calm. I started doing the equivalent in my portfolio of boarding up the windows as the hurricane approaches. Do a little reading on two topics, married puts and trailing stop losses. Both are relatively simple. It is like buying insurance for the first time. You may spend a bit more than you should, or you may feel you didn’t buy enough, but you will be protected more than you would have been.