A Chicken-Fueled Pairs Trade: Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Versus Restaurant Brands

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. (PLKI) is one expensive stock, especially for a (fried chicken) restaurant: trailing P/E of 36.2, forward P/E of 28.9, price/sales of 5.5, and price/book of 187.4. PLKI most recently reported 4.7% year-over-year revenue growth and -1.9% earnings growth. (Data from Yahoo Finance). According to briefing.com, year-over-year revenue growth has stagnated in … Read more

The Surprising Implications of Periods of Extremely Low Volatility

The volatility index, the VIX, has closed below 11 for 2 straight days, 3 of the last 6, and 6 of the last 13 days. Source: FreeStockCharts.com These low levels of the VIX seem dangerously low, and I have labelled them as such in my recent “Above the 40” posts. Yet, I have discovered the … Read more

Housing Market Review – The Confidence of A Coiled Spring (January, 2017)

The last Housing Market Review covered data reported in December for November, 2016. At that time, the iShares US Home Construction (ITB) had cracked through support at its 200-day moving average (DMA) as part of a post Fed rate hike pullback. That close turned out to be the last bottom for ITB, and it set … Read more

Above the 40 (February 9, 2017) – The S&P 500 Celebrates “Phenomenal” Tax News

AT40 Status: 58.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 Status: 68.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX Status: 10.9 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary “We’re way ahead of schedule, I believe. And we’ll be announcing something, I believe, in the next two or three … Read more

Above the 40 (February 8, 2017) – The S&P 500 Slumbers Between Bullish Fund Flows and Bearish Divergence

AT40 Status: 53.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 Status: 66.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX Status: 11.5 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary As is so typical of this go-stop-stop stock market, this week started without immediate follow-through to a fresh all-time high … Read more