Incremental Improvement Continues for U.S. Mortgages

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 28, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) just released its report on mortgage performance for the fourth quarter of 2012. It is a story of mortgages that continue to … Read more

Poor Canadian Employment Numbers Bring Real Estate Back In Focus

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 5, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} This decline in USD/CAD abruptly ended today with a very poor Canadian employment report that was well below expectations. The unemployment rate ticked up from 7.0 to 7.2% as the … Read more

T2108 Update (April 5, 2013) – Churn Continues. Positive Bias Remains.

(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 highly 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 … Read more

T2108 Update (April 4, 2013) – First Lessons from the First Application of the New T2108 Model

(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 highly 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 … Read more

T2108 Update (April 3, 2013) – A New Beginnnig for T2108

(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 highly 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 … Read more

A Weakening Canadian Economy Needs A Weaker Currency

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on Feb 24, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} Source: FreeStockCharts.com {snip} In 2012, the yield curve for Canadian government bonds flashed a major warning signal. In particular, the gap between 2-year and 5-year bond yields fell dramatically from … Read more

Nikkei Finally Slides As Yen’s Recent Strength Gains More Momentum

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 2, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} The Japan-based ETF took an even bigger hit, falling 3.9% and almost wiping out all of March’s hard fought gains in one day: The highlights I read in one of … Read more

T2108 Update (March 28, 2013) – Finally A New All-Time High (But Where’s the Champagne?)

(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 highly 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 … Read more

Australian Dollar, British Pound and Siemens Emerge Stronger Post-Cyprus

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 24, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} The reaction to the Cyprus news was swift in financial markets starting with currency markets on that Sunday. By the end of the week, the S&P 500 (SPY) remained down … Read more

Ranger Equity Bear ETF Still Behaving As A Leveraged Bet Against the S&P 500

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on February 28, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) In June, 2012, I compared the short-term and long-term performance of the Ranger Equity Bear ETF (HDGE) against ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (SDS). I concluded that SDS was OK for short-term bearish … Read more