According to this wonderful matrix from Carson Investment Research, October 28 is the best day of the year for the S&P 500, historically.

Now I don’t put much weight in daily averages because they’re highly influenced by unique events but Goldman Sachs also notes that “Today marks the first day of the open window period for corporate buybacks with ~50% in open window today” (h/t @zerohedge for that).

I’m not sure how much weight I would put on buybacks but what I would highlight on that chart is the period from now to November 5 is historically an extremely strong period.

I think it will take iron nerves to ride it out through that period because so much is going on but a very good bet is to be long any market the day after a local election. Japan proved that out once again today despite the surprising result as the Nikkei rose 1.8%.

As I often say, “there is always another trade” and that’s good advice right now because you don’t want to blow a good year at a time like this.

But if you do, one technique I find useful is visualizing future pain. In this case, that means visualizing the rollercoaster this week will be and all the ‘pain’ or uncertainty around upcoming events, and that no one can predict how they will go.