All day triangle on SPY

Over the past couple of weeks the indexes have really struggled to create good trading opportunities. They have often opened with a large impulse up or down and then consolidated for most of the day with very little movement.

Today has given us another example of this. From the opening bell, daytraders have had little opportunity. The gap didn't fade at all. Then we got some indecision and then a solid move down.

But that soon fizzled out and we got a retracement back to the 20 period moving average. After that price just bounced up and down most of the day as the Bollinger Bands narrowed.

On days like these, I try to find other things to do while I have the market "in the background". I'll often take a laptop with me while I work on the car or clean part of the house. A solid breakout might peak my curiosity, but as the market "coils" I'd rather be doing something productive than watching it compressing all day long.