ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) has been in the news a lot partially thanks to the leveraged stock trading of its wheeling and dealing CEO. The stock has steadily dropped for over a year from a post-recession high of $36. When the company reported earnings two weeks ago, the stock responded with a strong gap up and … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 30, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) On March 8th, 2012, Molycorp (MCP) announced a critically important acquisition of Rare Earth Processor Neo Material Technologies. The next day, the market responded by sending MCP shares up 19%. Almost … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 23, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Commodity stocks have generally underperformed the stock market in 2012. I still cannot decide whether this weakness represents a leading indicator of broader weakness to come or a fortuitous relief to … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 16, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) I have been writing more and more bearishly on the Australian dollar this year (for example, see “Reserve Bank Of Australia Seems Biased Toward More Monetary Easing“). After BHP Billiton (BHP) … Read more
The last time Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) failed a retest of all-time highs was in the middle of 2008. The stock broke down in June and it was mostly downhill from there for another year. On Tuesday, March 6th, Caterpillar confirmed another failed retest of an all-time high by breaking down below its 50DMA. Source of … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 4, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Right after I last updated the gold enthusiasm index last July, gold went near parabolic and peaked in about two months. In that post, I wrote that enthusiasm for gold continued … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 1, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) On Wednesday, February 29, gold plunged 5.0% and silver plunged 5.7% presumably because traders had incorrectly bet that Ben Bernanke would use the occasion of his semi-annual Congressional testimony to either … Read more
It took almost a month, but silver has finally joined gold in its post-Fed breakout. The chart below shows that silver has broken above stiff resistance at the 50-day moving average (DMA). This resistance has kept silver under a lid for five months. Source: StockCharts.com With the Federal Reserve promising to keep rates low through … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on February 7, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Many rare earth element stocks have taken on new life in 2012 as investors and traders have scrambled to speculate on some of 2011’s poor-performing stocks. The current run-up has been … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 26, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Last week, I wrote about the opportunities arising from the crash in natural gas prices. On the morning of January 24, CSX Corporation, a railroad company, provided timely commentary on natural … Read more