ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on June 2, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} …Iron prices have plunged almost as severely as they did last August as steel rebar prices have fallen. From Reuters on May 31st: {snip} These price declines would seem to … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 21, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} In Monday’s minutes (Tuesday Australia time) of the May 7th policy meeting, the RBA provided no direct smoking gun to explain what I called at the time a mystifying rate … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 21, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) On April 14th, I wrote my reasons for believing that a bottom for gold would prove elusive. At the time, I was thinking gold (GLD) could experience a new extended phase … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 14, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) During the height of the banking crisis in Cyprus, I figured gold (GLD) would be a good trade. That lasted for all of a few days. {snip} I have seen some … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 25, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Swiss franc (FXF) has started another weakening phase, putting an exclamation point on the currency market’s refusal to go along with the shrill, recent headlines claiming another deflation cycle has … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 12, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) Last week, we learned that the Australian trade balance for February was much better than expected, -178M AUD versus expectations for -1B AUD and -1.2B AUD for January. Additionally, retail sales … Read more
(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are highly likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 17, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} While it is still far from clear that the risky bailout plan for Cyprus will pass the country’s legislative body – a vote that was scheduled for Sunday has been … Read more
The market continues to throw up a lot of interesting charts, particularly on the bullish side. This chart review takes a quick look at Shutterfly (SFLY), BlackBerry (BBRY), Weight Watchers (WTW), Peabody Energy (BTU), and the Australian dollar (AUD/USD or FXA). SFLY just reported earnings, and the market clearly loved it. The stock printed a … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 7, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) Back in September, one of the big stories was the plunge in iron ore prices to three-year lows around $87/ton. With prices down over 50% from the record high of $191/ton … Read more