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Market Trends | Stocks
Small Caps vs Emerging Markets
David Russell
October 2, 2025

Downloads are available here. TradeStation’s ideas on TradingView are available here.

Next presentation: State of the Market on Monday, 10/6. (See Events page for more.)

Sizing Up the Market

  • S&P 500 rallies off 6,550, 8-day EMA
  • Wilder’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) stays above 50
  • 9-day rate of change (ROC) stays positive
  • Pharma rally provides surprise boost

S&P 500, daily chart, with select patterns and indicators.

Small Caps vs. Emerging Markets

  • U.S. Dollar Index on pace for worst year since 2007 (-10%)
  • OECD: World GDP (+3.2%) seen outpacing U.S. (+1.8%) next year
  • See “20251002 EEM vs IWM.tsw” in new zip file above.
  • See table below for key metrics
IWM EEM
P/E ratio 11x 11x
Dividend Yield 1.3% 2.2%
Largest Holding CRDO ($25B) TSM ($1.1T)
YTD % +9.7% +29%
Source: ETFDB.com

Upcoming Events

  • Fri 10/3: Payrolls
  • Wed 10/8: 10-year Treasury auction, FOMC minutes
  • Thu 10/9: Jobless claims
    • Earnings: DAL | PEP
Standardized Performances for ETFs mentioned above
ETF 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
iShares MSCI Emerging Market ETF (EEM) +16.44% +21.12% +62.90%
iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) +9.54% +61.53% +121.58%
As of September 30, 2025. Based on TradeStation data

Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) are subject to management fees and other expenses. Before making investment decisions, investors should carefully read information found in the prospectus or summary prospectus, if available, including investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Click here to find the prospectus.

Performance data shown reflects past performance and is no guarantee of future performance. The information provided is not meant to predict or project the performance of a specific investment or investment strategy and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data shown. Accordingly, this information should not be relied upon when making an investment decision.

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About the author

David Russell
David Russell is Global Head of Market Strategy at TradeStation. Drawing on more than two decades of experience as a financial journalist and analyst, his background includes equities, emerging markets, fixed-income and derivatives. He previously worked at Bloomberg News, CNBC and E*TRADE Financial. Russell systematically reviews countless global financial headlines and indicators in search of broad tradable trends that present opportunities repeatedly over time. Customers can expect him to keep them apprised of sector leadership, relative strength and the big stories – especially those overlooked by other commentators. He’s also a big fan of generating leverage with options to limit capital at risk.

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