This pattern is found at major weekly bottoms. SPs rallied to the 60 minute EMA shortly after the opening. The market found resistance before at this EMA on the previous swing up. The 20-period exponential moving average is always the intial objective for a divergence setup. Now, the market is drifting sideways in noman's land and there are no strong chart patterns short term here.
Volatility is a cyclical phenomena.
There are amny ways to measure a contraction in volatility, but average true range is one of the best ways. On this chart, the yellow bars represent days where the average range was the narrowest of the past 7 days. Another way to measure low points in volatility is a historic volatility oscilator. THe one that we use is the difference between a 5 and 25 period historic volatility. When it approaches .5, it signals that the market is ready for an explosive move.