Over multidecade periods, fortunes are built on Wall Street. But over shorter timelines (think months or the span of a few years), the stock market is highly unpredictable.

Since the start of this decade, the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), benchmark S 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and growth-fueled Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC), have bounced back and forth between bull and bear markets. With wild swings becoming somewhat the norm for three-plus years, investors are looking for clues as to what may come next for Wall Street.

Although there isn't an economic datapoint or predictive tool that can, with a 100% success rate, accurately forecast short-term directional movements in the Dow Jones, S 500, and Nasdaq Composite, there are a handful of metrics and indicators that have strong correlations to directional moves in stocks.

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Source Fool.com