ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Since the year 2000, delivering a different narrative for students and fans of financial markets: stocks, options, currencies, Bitcoin, and more…
The massive and historic floods in Australia have driven coal prices up. This is particularly important for steel since Australia exports 2/3 of the world’s coal used for making steel (coking coal). Steelmakers have already been struggling with increasing input costs, so the Australian floods are sure to pinch profits further. At the close of … Read more
I thought it would be fitting to close out another year of blog posts to celebrate the performance of one of my favorite investments: the Australian dollar. Despite beginning the week with another round of tightening by Chinese monetary authorities, the Australian dollar put on another stellar show. The “Aussie” closed the week up over … Read more
The Australian dollar has been one of my favorite ways to bet against the U.S. dollar. Earlier this month, the Aussie broke through parity and reached all-time highs versus the U.S. dollar. Since then, the currency has moved steadily lower, taking a brief pause to form the right shoulder in an ominous-looking head and shoulders … Read more
A surprise increase in margin requirements after the close of business November 10th apparently contributed to the climactic end to silver’s parabolic move on Tuesday. This also explains why gold’s fade was not nearly as bad a silver’s. Details are available in the following references in order of publication: CNBC (Tues): “CME Taps the Brakes … Read more
While most of the Western industrial world struggles with deflationary fears, Australia continues to worry about inflation. In tonight’s latest release on monetary policy, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens states: “If economic conditions evolve as the Board currently expects, it is likely that higher interest rates will be required, at some point, … Read more
In “The Dollar Is Headed Lower“, Randall W. Forsyth wrote in Barron’s that “The dollar’s trend now is unequivocally lower. And that’s apparent whether you look at fundamental factors or the technical picture on the charts.” He does a good job of summarizing the current condition of de facto competitive devaluation that is increasing the … Read more
The Swiss franc is back to all-time highs against the euro, and the extrapolations have begun. This morning, Bloomberg reports that UBS expects the franc to remain strong for the entire decade: “The Swiss franc will stay strong and investors should hold it as a proxy for the old German deutsche mark as the currency … Read more
“Commodity prices are off their peaks but those most important for Australia remain at very high levels, and the terms of trade are approaching their peak of two years ago.” – Royal Bank of Australia, “Statement by Glenn Stevens, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision” (July 6, 2010) From Australia’s perspective, the global economy continues to bring … Read more