Retailers Continue Positioning for a Strong Recovery in 2018

The reports on U.S. holiday shopping are coming fast and furious. The early tally looks quite bullish, and retail stocks responded. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) jumped 1.1% today to a new high for the year. Surprisingly, trading volume of 3.7M shares remained well below the 90-day moving average of 5.0M. Source: FreeStockCharts.com Reuters … Read more

Forex Critical: Australian Dollar – Speculators Quickly Flip Bearish

Speculators have remained overwhelming bullish on the Australian dollar (FXA) for almost two years. Last week, they made a quick switch to net bearish positioning. Net contracts went from 40,720 net long to 12,660 net short. Open interest fell from 157,029 to 105,270, so it appears that bullish speculators made a hasty retreat rather than … Read more

Bitcoin Frenzy: A Panicked Bottom Interrupts An Orderly Decline from All-Time Highs

Buy the crash. Sell the all-time high. Rinse. Repeat. This has been a time-honored trading strategy for Bitcoin that, in hindsight, has offered a very low-risk way of profiting form the manic rise of Bitcoin. Today, the famed cryptocurrency was down as much as 30% before bouncing back with a furious rally. The trading strategy … Read more

A Housing Industry Sharply Split On the Impact of Tax Reform

Perhaps it is the pressure of having member companies whose stock trade on public markets. Perhaps it is a coincidental divide in politics. Whatever the explanation, the split in opinion on the impact of Republican tax reform on the housing market became even more stark this week as The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) … Read more

Cryptocurrency/Blockchain Mania Takes A Surprising Turn With LongFin Corp.

The trading in recent IPO LongFin Corp. (LFIN) may go down as iconic in this era of frenetic trading in almost anything related to cryptocurrencies and blockchains. After debuting last Wednesday, December 13th at $5 and little to no fanfare, LFIN took off like a rocket two days later on the heels of news of … Read more