https://www.soaringpelican.com2025-09-24 08:31:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-august-2025With volatility remaining subdued, our overall performance has been restrained this year. The multi-day component of our strategy continues to deliver strong results, while intraday trading has largely been a pattern of “one step forward, one step back” over the past few months.2025-09-22 06:41:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-july-2025Our intraday trading component has continued to weigh on overall performance, primarily due to a sharp decline in volatility as markets trend higher. In contrast, the multi-day portion of our portfolio remains a strong performer and is positive for the year2025-07-09 00:50:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-june-2025Trading activity remains subdued, with limited success, as intraday market volatility continues to be low. The S&P and Nasdaq have reversed their previous downtrends and are now trending higher. While this shift signals strength in the broader market, it presents challenges for intraday trading, as sustained upward moves often come with reduced tradeable volatility. This period has been particularly difficult for systems traders2025-06-10 11:11:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-may-2025Market volatility in the S&P 500 suddenly dropped, leading to a pullback in our systematic performance. Intraday price movements lacked follow-through, with most of the action occurring overnight. Despite this, our overnight systems remained profitable—successfully capturing one strong move while getting stopped out on another.2025-05-14 10:51:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-april-2025All programs have rebounded and are now at, or near, new highs. As expected in this more volatile environment, both intraday and overnight trades performed well. That said, the month was marked by chaotic trading as the S&P attempted a significant pivot.2025-04-14 11:51:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-march-2025The Soaring Pelican Blended Advantage program gained 1.41% in March, while the S&P 500 dropped by around 6% during the same period. We’ve talked before about how volatility can benefit our trading strategy, and now we want to explain how that actually works.2025-03-12 00:10:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-february-2025As the market begin the sell-off we have been anticipating, our systems are in re-calibration mode and are experiencing chop. Unfortunately no one can tell when these situations will arise, and it's not as easy as saying "why not just turn it off and wait" since that next trade could be the winner that erases the drawdown.2025-02-04 11:14:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-january-2025Soaring Pelican wrapped up a strong 2024, posting a 1.24% return for December, bringing the year's total to a solid 11.74%. While performance slowed in January, it remained positive with a 0.91% return. Since the significant sell-off in December, new volatility has entered the market...2024-12-17 10:29:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-november-2024November continued a trend of diminishing volatility which time and again has hindered intraday trading. The overnight component of our work was not able to offset as the month offered only one trend pullback. We made two entries, one was profitable and the other was exited for risk management reasons.2024-11-20 11:14:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-october-2024A Trump win was likely priced into the markets in the few weeks before election, we find it somewhat surprising to not see a "sell on the news" reaction. Of course there are numerous...2024-10-23 12:29:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-septemberUS markets are remarkably complacent ahead of the elections. Looking at polling and betting data on the election winner2024-08-29 10:29:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-july-2024While the markets have recently been tumultuous, Soaring Pelican programs continue to thrive due to the elevated volatility in the global markets. Volatility is a force that drives market participants to make emotional decisions, but it also impacts larger players who may have no choice but to alter their positions. When this occurs, opportunities arise for nimble traders.2024-07-10 10:29:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-june-2024Activity was relatively low in our programs during the month of June as volatility slowed on both the intraday and daily timeframes. A small pullback was enough to get the Overnight Advantage program involved, but for the most part it seemed that the stock market corrected sideways and absorbed selling pressure. Lately we have discussed with clients the opportunity to time their investment...2024-06-11 11:29:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-may-2024As the market reaches highs, we are watching the cycle of action/reaction closely. May was an excellent month for trading as volatility rose and new highs were tested. Currently that price movement has come to a pause, and this is a potential point of rejection. Investors are bullish and...2024-05-14 11:18:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-april-2024The S&P continues to show strength and resilience, even after a healthy pullback during the month of April. The US dollar, Gold, and Bitcoin have all performed well over the past few months, which is notable since these markets tend to have lower correlation. Essentially, making money in the stock market has been...2024-04-18 12:20:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-march-2024The S&P continued higher in March, and since the end of the month has begun a more meaningful pullback. We note that small cap stocks as represented by the Russell 2000 index have significantly underperformed throughout the recent rally. Energy stocks have been remarkably resilient while Real Estate stocks have been hit hard...2024-03-20 11:07:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-february-2024The S&P continues in bullish territory despite some structural and fundamental weakness. We note that in the short term, the Nasdaq has dropped its leadership role and is beginning to underperform the S&P. It is too early to call a top, as momentum is clearly to the upside. Nonetheless we believe...2024-02-08 11:51:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-january-2024The Rally that would not die! We'll admit it, we didn't think it would last this long, and it has exceeded our price targets. Technology had led the way until only recently, and small cap. stocks are lagging. The markets continue to be led by a relatively small number of issues, which means that breadth is weak in this move.2023-12-13 10:00:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-november-2023A massive rally hit the equity indices shortly after reaching new multi-month lows. We have mentioned repeatedly our opinion that the indices, particularly the S&P, are in the middle of an extended sideways trading range.2023-11-21 09:53:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-october-2023Soaring Pelican is coming up on 13 years since inception. One fact that we live with every day is that our performance is dictated by the levels of volatility in the S&P. Since 2011 we have been swimming upstream...2023-11-10 09:11:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/diversification-without-sacrificeIt is said that the only free lunch in investing is diversification. Yet, an intriguing question persists: why do so many investors hesitate to diversify their portfolios with alternative investments?2023-10-20 06:42:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-september-2023We noted in our last communication that a number of technical factors would likely pressure the market lower. September prices did fall further, and now we see the market in a place of technical support.2023-09-14 12:20:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-august-2023We noted the potential of a sell off in August based on resistance levels from the strong negative trend which began in 2022. The resistance we marked on our charts did turn the market lower until support levels were hit. At this point participants are likely confused as to whether to buy the dip or sell the rally. Adding to the uncertainty is the US dollar staging a strong rally,2023-09-01 10:16:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/new-market-regimeSince the early 80's rates have been in a long-term down trend that took yields from high teens to near zero levels by 2021. And holding bonds over this period of time then made sense and was a good idea. Fast-forward to 2023 and...2023-08-17 13:35:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-july-2023The S&P progressed higher during much of the month of July, but ended the month with a gap higher that failed and betrayed an area of strong resistance. We discussed this zone in previous letters as being the location of the initial sell-off which began in early 2022.2023-07-25 16:24:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-june-2023The S&P moved higher throughout the month of June creating some excellent swing trading opportunities for long positions. Volatility returned to the market and created surging waves into the price levels where the sell-off began in early 2022.2023-07-01 11:30:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/2023-mid-year-market-outlookIs the party over? Many investors may be wondering if the stock market's advance in 2023 is for real and a good time to stay invested or even add to an existing positing. In other words does the market have more to go or has it run out of gas?2023-06-27 11:30:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/monthly-update-may-2023After spending the month of April moving sideways and consolidating, the S&P broke higher in May and is attempting to initiate a new uptrend.2023-03-15 13:29:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/surviving-market-volatilityReacting to market volatility could hurt your chances of reaching your long-term investing goals. The trouble is that many people don’t understand stock market volatility and how it impacts their portfolio strategy.2023-02-15 14:31:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/win-more-by-losing-lessInvestors holding stocks and bonds as part of their portfolio of investments have experienced and will experience challenging market environments as is the case right now.2023-01-18 15:31:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/how-can-managed-futures-help-my-investment-portfolioA key benefit of managed futures programs is their low correlation to traditional equity and bond investments.2022-12-14 15:30:00https://www.soaringpelican.com/insights/investor-ptsd-trying-to-forget-market-turbulanceVolatility has changed—and has changed us. During the previous decade, we had far more frequent occurrences of extreme (or “fat-tail”) moves in the equity markets, which deeply scarred most investors.