Stocks sold off hard this past Friday, with the S&P 500 down -2.5% in one day on the largest trading volume in over two months. Summer vacation is over. The major market players are back at their trading desks. Time to get back to work. As market participants ourselves, this recent volatility should not surprise us. We knew our environment before Friday’s sell-off. A week before, we shared the following market characteristic:

The following day, we released an article addressing this subject, highlighting important downside support levels on the S&P 500. In that article, we wrote:

If you are aware of your market environment, you know the week leading up to Labor Day is a notorious snoozefest in U.S. Equity Markets. With many large institutional money managers taking the week off, volume is extremely light and percentage moves slim. And if you study market seasonality, like we do, then we also know the next two months have an increased probability of volatility and downside risk.

And since we’re busy patting ourselves on the back, we also shared the following fun fact on September 6th:

Three days later, global equity markets and indices saw impressive one-day losses on heavy volume. Bonds were major losers in the global sell-off with 10+ year Treasuries and Corporates being hit hard. Correspondingly, yields jumped. In addition, the VIX (a CBOE index which shows the market’s expectation of 30-day volatility) shot up 39%. That, my friends, is increased volatility. The tightest price range in 20 years has been followed by an increase in volatility. Not surprising.

Also not surprising are the nauseating, click-bait headlines. You know what we’re talking about: “Stocks Routed Due To Janet Yellen’s Bad Hair Day.” You never see headlines like, “Stocks Drop Due To More Sellers Than Buyers.” You won’t see that because it doesn’t make financial media money to report the simple truth. They require sensationalism in order to make money. Talk about a conflict of interest!