It’s as though the markets are frozen waiting for Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement on interest rates. The conventional wisdom is that they’ll raise the federal funds rate to a level fluctuating between 0.5% to 0.75%.

Meanwhile, no earnings announcements are on my list for Wednesday, and also no high implied volatility trades. I’ll check again after the announcement, scheduled for 2 p.m. New York time.

By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, Dec. 13, 2016