This afternoon, leading aluminum producer Alcoa Corp (NYSE:AA) will report earnings after the closing bell. While Alcoa may not move the major stocks indexes much, it is an indication that the start of corporate earnings season is upon us. The trading volume over the past couple of weeks has been extremely light.

This stock market will continue to dip and flip on a regular basis. The days of buy and hold seem to be long gone. Sometimes during the intra-day action the stock markets can have swings of 2 – 3 percent. This is a stock market for chart readers and not for the person that buys on economic data or price to earnings ratios.

Scalp trading or day trading is when a trader looks to catch small moves in the stock market within a single trading day. Day traders will usually hold a stock for a few seconds to a few hours within a trading session. This type of trading style is not for everyone, however, it does have its benefits as most scalp traders will not have the risk of holding a stock overnight.

When is the last time that the Federal Reserve said that they will keep rates low until 2013? This is certainly the most bizarre statement that we have ever heard from the central bank. Sure, the stock market likes low rates, however, when the Federal Reserve makes comments like this it starts to sound and look like Japan. The Japanese economy has gone nowhere in twenty years.