The Fear Is Real. The Breakdown Isn’t.

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The Fear Is Real. The Breakdown Isn’t.

Published on 03/03/2026

Source: Market Mosaic Daily, by CMT Association

The S&P500 has been correcting through time, not price.

Sections

Sentiment is weak, but not at panic extremes.
The market is correcting through time, not price.
We remain in the green zone — no major changes yet.

It’s day 2 of this week’s installment and the markets tried to stage a comeback in the middle of the crisis with Iran, in spite of the negative sentiment laced throughout the minds of investors everywhere.

Speaking of sentiment, here’s CNN’s Fear & Greed index as of the close of the market Monday. Notice where it is today vs. where it was a year ago (during the Tariff Crash).

We’re not quite “there” yet, but markets have bottomed on shallower sentiment than this - and many, many times before.

Bottom line, sentiment is weak (and getting weaker), but we’re not to a point where, as Baron Rothschild once said, “There’s blood in the streets.”

In fact, the streets are relatively dry, metaphorically speaking.

Below is a zig-zag chart of the S&P500 and I’ve locked the percentage swing in at 5% in either direction. You can see how there have been some pretty big, volatile times in the market this past two years.

There were two pullbacks in 2024, we all experienced the nasty correction in late-winter / early-spring of 2025 when the Tariffs started getting deployed, and then in November, the stock market gave us a -5% pullback…

…but at least for now, the S&P500 has been correcting through time, not price.

Lastly, I just published my Inverse Traffic Light chart of the S&P500 - something that we send to all our subscribers at Libertas Wealth each and every month.

If this chart doesn’t put things into perspective, I don’t know what does…

Sure, the market has been pretty choppy, trading sideways (again, that’s called “correcting through time”), but we’re still technically in the green zone, despite all the craziness in the world right now.

Naturally, if the health of the market changes, then so will our actions and how we react and adjust our portfolio models.

But for now, I’m not seeing big reasons to pull the rip cord just yet - at least, not on the major market indices.

Shared content and posted charts are intended to be used for informational and educational purposes only. CMT Association does not offer, and this information shall not be understood or construed as, financial advice or investment recommendations. The information provided is not a substitute for advice from an investment professional. CMT Association does not accept liability for any financial loss or damage our audience may incur.

About the Author | Adam Koós, CMT, CFP®, CEPA

Adam Koós, CMT, CFP®, CEPA, is the president, portfolio manager, and Senior Financial Adviser at Libertas Wealth Management Group, Inc., located in Columbus, Ohio. His professional journey began just 10 days before the tragic attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.

While taking growing his firm through four of the worst market crashes in U.S. history, Adam has been recognized in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Investopedia, FA Magazine, and Proactive Advisor Magazine, just to name a few. He’s been named to Investopedia’s list of “Top 100 Most Influential Financial Advisors,” he’s a 7-time winner of Columbus CEO Magazine’s Best of Business Awards for “Best Private Wealth Management Firm,” but he’s most proud of being honored by the Better Business Bureau as a winner of Torch Award for Ethics and Trust.

After helping a friend and wealth manager in the business go from stagnant growth to their first record year in more than a decade, Adam decided to start ADRENALINE Advisor Consulting as a “passion project.” Through this initiative, he opens up his business to share the proven systems and processes he’s implemented over the years to prospect for new business and grow a seven-figure practice.