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The market rebounded sharply this week to finish with impressive gains across all major indices. The best performing of the US stock indices was the Russell 2000. The small cap index’s gain of 6.42% for the week help narrow some of the large performance disparity between it and the Nasdaq 100, which has been expanding over the last 12 months.

It’s been said that in times of difficulty we should take it easy on ourselves. This week I did just that. I didn’t go over the top, like, say, indulging in a hot fudge sundae. But nevertheless it felt good to look after myself, and my mental well-being. What did I do? I didn’t watch the debate. I don’t think I missed anything.

For the week, the S&P 500 was down a little over 1%, which brings the month-to-date downturn to a touch over 6.5%. The stock market, which has been led higher over the last six months by technology stocks, has been dragged down by the higher flying tech names. Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google parent Alphabet are all down an average of 13.7% this month.

It was a mixed week for markets this week. The large cap S&P 500 was down slightly, while the small cap Russell 2000 index enjoyed a nice bounce. This marks a fairly dramatic turn of events as large cap tech companies have by and large been carrying the market over the last 6 months, while small caps have lagged. Below is a graph showing the performance of the Nasdaq 100 Index measured against the Russell 2000.

After a sharp sell-off Tuesday, following the three day Labor Day weekend, the stock market fell into a consolidation period the remainder of the week. The consolidation period witnessed fairly dramatic intraday swings, with little overall progress made one way for the other from Wednesday through the end of the week. For now the market still seems to be at the mercy of a few heavily followed momentum stocks.

A dramatic shift in the market occurred this week. The tremors started Wednesday, when Tech stalwarts Tesla and Apple saw their stocks decline while the market indices continued to march higher. The subtle tremor may have gone unnoticed by the many, who could have simply perceived the drop as a rally pause after both stocks witnessed meteoric rises on the backs of what was nothing more than a stock split announcement.

This week’s financial news of note was that the Federal Reserve announced a dramatic shift in its economic policy making. Rather than targeting a specific inflation rate (2%), the Fed is now adopting a policy called AIT (Average Inflationary Target).

I graduated from university in 1995—22 years old, armed with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English—uncertain what career path to explore, but certain that the future was expansive and full of opportunity. I had taken an opportunity to move to Chicago and begin a career working on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. It was anything but a guaranteed path to success, but I had a tremendous opportunity to make of it what I could.

Summer is made for the dreamer. Perhaps like no other season, summer has the cunning ability to entrance us—to distract our thoughts, momentarily, away from future worry. The other day I was playing golf. In front of me were two young boys. The day was warm. We were playing a course I played countless times, myself, as a boy. I am neither a strong golfer, nor do I play all the frequently anymore. Yet that course and I have shared many summer memories.

There was a bumper sticker in the mid-2000’s that read “If you’re not angry you’re not paying attention.” Well, today, I say to you “If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” Whether it is coronavirus, markets, Fed policy, social and civil unrest, tweets, posts, fake news, skewed news, social media, bio-medicine, technology…whatever it is, how do we know what to make of any of it?