ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
For four days, the Swiss franc held all-time highs against the euro (all-time lows of 1.40 for EUR/CHF). As the euro continued to decline against the U.S. dollar, I positioned (twice) in anticipation of a violent break of this support level. As the apparent support continued to hold, it increasingly appeared that the Swiss National … Read more
The percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages, T2108, closed at 19%, below the 20% threshold that indicates an oversold stock market. The stock market has reached these levels only one other time since the March, 2009 lows – this was in February when the market last cared about the sovereign debt … Read more
It has been such a long time since I have seen the Fast Money crew on CNBC so uniformly fearful and wary about the stock market that I had to scribble a quick post on it as a bookmark for future review. The show’s sentiment is very consistent with the confluence and convergence of technical … Read more
“Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America” by Charles R. Geisst is a detailed and captivating examination of the history and growth of consumer debt in America. The book scrutinizes the political, cultural, social, and financial forces that converged to inflate America’s tremendous bubble in consumer credit. Geisst reaches all the way back … Read more
Last week, I claimed that the deeply oversold conditions presented a short-term buying opportunity, but that the downward trend in the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) and 200DMAs (T2108 and T2107) pointed to a steadily weakening market in the near future. I expected sellers to step up at the … Read more
Gold hits all-time high as investors seek haven – FT.com / Commodities Traders and coin dealers said buying was exceptionally strong from German and Swiss investors. In Frankfurt, gold sellers said that demand late last week was three to four times normal levels. The spike appears to reflect concerns in Germany about the potential inflationary … Read more
In December, Bernanke observed that gold prices reflected general commodity prices and did not indicate rising inflation expectations (in the U.S.). As gold makes new all-time highs, it is now outpacing many other commodities. Many commodities have declined sharply in recent weeks due to fears about the sustainability of global growth. Gold has diverged due … Read more
Investors Hurt by Stock Freefall May Have to Live With Losses – CNBC Investors caught on the wrong side of trades in last week's market freefall may have to live with their losses. (tags: stock_market trading)
Bull Market Signaled by Oil Stocks at 19 Times Profit (Update1) – Bloomberg.com The 39 energy producers and equipment makers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index have traded at an average 19.1 times earnings in 2010, compared with 17.8 for the index. The last times they had higher valuations in 1994, 1999 and 2002, … Read more
Bias in SEC's fraud case against Goldman Sachs? – Contrarian Chronicles The players on both sides of the trade that the SEC has targeted knew the risks and knew one side was bound to lose. It's far from the worst sin of this mess. (tags: fraud GoldmanSachs SEC)