ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The U.S. dollar index (DXY0) has started 2017 on a notable losing streak. The index’s clean close today below 100 is the latest confirmation of that weakness. The U.S. dollar index continued its dribbling down the lower part of Bollinger Bands (BBs) that define the current downtrend. Source: StockCharts.com This extension of weakness has complicated … Read more
“Uncertainty about the global outlook is undiminished, particularly with respect to policies in the United States.” – Bank of Canada press release, “Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate target at 1/2 per cent”, January 18, 2017 I start with this quote from the Bank of Canada because it stands in stark contrast to global financial … Read more
President-elect Donald Trump made a strong promise to bring back jobs to the U.S. from overseas. Manufacturing employment was a particular showcase in this campaign pledge. There are a lot of reasons to believe that a to return jobs to the U.S. will be extremely hard to accomplish. I am particularly struck by the data … Read more
On August 20, 2015, I wrote “A Broad and Bearish Breakdown for the Stock Market” that described a converging set of indicators which flagged short-term bearish conditions in the stock market. The post happened to precede the August, 2015 flash crash by two trading days. It was one of those moments when the technicals worked … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on November 14, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} These quotes came from Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England (BoE), in response to questions during the Q&A period of the November Inflation Report. I believe Carney reminded … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 11, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) The panic in the British pound (FXB) became unmistakable last week as the currency experienced a flash crash. {snip} The presumed driver of the rush to sell soon after the close … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 7, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) The theme was consistent for the Markit economic indicators for August: the UK economy rebounded sharply and strongly from the initial post-Brexit blues. Almost across the board, measures of economic activity … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 25, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) The latest data on speculator forex positioning showed a sudden and abrupt change in sentiment on the Australian dollar (FXA). {snip} If this sharp drop in net longs turns into net … Read more
After watching Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren speak at the South Shore Chamber of Commerce in Quincy, MA, I concluded Rosengren did not intend to rock the stock market on September 9, 2016. Ironically, the market’s extremely low volatility and lofty levels make the market “vulnerable” to good news. Good news drove Rosengren’s upbeat … Read more
The reaction caught me completely off-guard. On September 6th, the USD ISM Non-Manufacturing/Services Composite for August came in at 51.3, well below “expectations” of 54.9 and the lowest reading since February, 2010. The reaction was swift in financial markets. The 30-day Fed Fund futures pushed out the next rate hike from December, 2016 (54.2%) to … Read more