Bank of Japan Further Diverges from the U.S. Fed – Risk Trades In Focus

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 31, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) It seems somehow appropriate in these extraordinary times for central banking that less than two days after the U.S. Federal Reserve officially ends quantitative easing (QE) through its bond purchasing program, … Read more

Oil Has Been A Poor Leading Indicator for (Recent) Recessions

Every time oil drops these days, I notice hand-wringing about whether the fall indicates a recession is somewhere close on the horizon. There is an intuitive appeal to this assumption. Oil is still an engine of economic activity, so declining prices must indicate falling demand. What seems to be “different” this time is a true … Read more

T2108 Update (October 28, 2014) – An S&P 500 Breakout to the Upside Target – Now What?

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

Finally Stepping In to Start Buying iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 27, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) The iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF (EWZ) has fallen rapidly from a 16-month high to a retest of 2014 lows in just seven weeks. The 27% loss over this timespan represents … Read more

T2108 Update (October 24, 2014) – A Critical Test for the Bears

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

T2108 Update (October 21, 2014) – Revenge of the Bulls As Oversold Conditions Quickly Fade Away

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

The Apple Pre-Earnings Trade: October, 2014 Edition

My favorite part of earnings season is typically the Apple (AAPL) earnings call. Apple’s earnings attracts out-sized amount of attention, and it is a time when I get to recalibrate my trading models. My apologies to regular readers who were expecting a more timely update of the pre-earnings trading model for AAPL. I simply ran … Read more

T2108 Update (October 17, 2014) – The Technical Case for A Bottom

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

T2108 Update (October 15, 2014) – Buyers FINALLY Draw A Line in the Sand

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more

An Unusual View of Timing Panic (Regarding Oil Prices)

This is a “quick hit” post – too long for a tweet, but not a complete blog post either. Maybe I will call these quickits. Anyway, I caught a snippet on CNBC this morning discussing the plunge in oil prices. The on-air personality recounted a conversation she had with an oil analyst. The oil analyst … Read more