ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Playing With Pins in Today's Market The non-nefarious reason stocks pin is that options owners on a strike price bracket the stock with ever-tightening orders on both sides so as to offset the options going to intrinsic value (or zero). The greater the open interest relative to typical volume, the more likely a stock will … Read more
U.S. solar firms' 3Q accounting may get hard look | Reuters Solar companies are likely to report their brightest earnings in a year as the industry emerges from a brutal downturn, but analysts warn aggressive accounting may cast a shadow on the sector's outlook. (tags: solar companies are likely to report their brightest earnings in … Read more
Small comments can spark big moves in the currency market. Yesterday afternoon, Chris Giles of the Financial Times posted a summary of his interview with the Bank of England’s head of markets and quantitative easing Paul Fisher. Fisher rejected the notion that the Bank of England has made a conscious effort to direct future exchange … Read more
I have not reviewed T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving average (DMA), or its close cousin T2107, the percentage of stocks trading above their 200-day moving average, since late April (click here for the review). For most of the intervening weeks and months, the message has remained the same: over-bought and … Read more
Solar Stocks Slide On Worries Over German Subsidies – Tech Trader Daily – Barrons.com (tags: solar energy,Germany,subsidies) Triffin’s Dilemma, Reserve Currencies, and Gold (tags: U.S dollar,Triffin's Dilemma,gold) US Dollar Doom Video from CNBC Jim Rickards, director of market intelligence for scientific consulting firm Omnis, shares his outlook for the dollar. USD to lose up to … Read more
Intel (INTC) delivered a stellar earnings report Tuesday evening with revenues and margins that beat expectations. However, do not expect an encore in the near-term because INTC’s historical performance suggests this may be as good as it gets for a while. Q3 revenues were $9.4B with consensus expectations for $9.04B. The 17% sequential growth in … Read more
Fastenal (FAST) is a $5.8B market cap industrial company that supplies components and parts for construction and manufacturing. FAST reported earnings yesterday that again confirmed a recurring theme of weakness in non-residential construction. This area has often been called “the next shoe to drop” that will presage further weakness in the economy. This drop has … Read more
It appears that this month’s WYNN strangle options play will fail. Relative calm has returned to WYNN (Wynn Resorts Ltd.) shares as the stock has remained flat since I launch the trade. There have been moments of action. WYNN dropped over 10% from recent highs to begin the month, but I chose not to close … Read more
The World Steel Association (worldsteel) forecasts for 2010 confirm my earlier view that steel demand (and production) most likely bottomed this year and some kind of recovery is underway. Worldsteel’s forecasts indicate that demand for steel in 2010 will return to 2008 levels after contracting in 2009 by 8.6%: “The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is … Read more
Just thinking about writing this piece makes me cringe. After celebrating gold’s fresh 18-month highs yesterday, it occurred to me that I need to review my biggest whiff of this year: Goldman Sachs (GS), affectionately called “Government Sachs.” I could just as easily call this one “how I missed out on at least 900% returns.” … Read more