ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
{edited June 17, 2016 to add more commentary and clarity} Warren Buffett, CEO of the legendary Berkshire Hathaway, rightfully sits among the most respected and highly regarded business leaders in American history. When Buffett talks, his words matter: his opinions can shape minds and drive business practices. Buffett’s influence and potential for tremendous good turn … Read more
In the last edition of “Forex Critical” I claimed that the Australian is not likely to maintain its current blistering pace of gains. Just three days later, the stubbornly persistent rally of the Australian dollar (FXA) may already be grinding to a halt. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its inflation data for March, … Read more
The Bank of Canada released its latest decision on monetary policy a week ago on April 13, 2016 and left its target rate at 1/2% again. According to the Bank of Canada (BoC), the government’s fiscal policy saved the day for the Canadian economy. Global growth is slowing. The strength in the Canadian dollar (FXC) … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 5, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) Canada’s GDP report for January, 2016 confirmed renewed strength in the Canadian economy. {snip} Source: Statistics Canada Now that the Canadian economy has apparently stabilized, the weakening in the Canadian dollar … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 28, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) Last December, I wrote about the shaky prospects for the seasonal trade on home builders. Sure enough, iShares US Home Construction (ITB) has not performed this badly on an absolute or … Read more
A recent article in Business Insider by Jesse Felder from TheFelderReport.com raised a loud alarm bell over rising margin debt levels in the U.S. stock market (see “A closely followed indicator says a 20% drop in stocks could be coming soon“). The article used the following chart as part of an analysis concluding that a … 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 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 are … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 13, 2016. Click here to read the entire piece.) When I last wrote about the British pound (FXB), the currency was reaching the bottom of its latest downdraft. I did not know the bottom was near, but I did claim … Read more
The last Housing Market Review covered data released in January, 2016. At the time, I warily looked at a nervous market and insisted that the steep decline in the iShares US Home Construction ETF (ITB) and individual home builder stocks presented a great buying opportunity. I was conservative in my expectations including looking out to … Read more
On Friday, February 26th, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported revised GDP results for Q4 2015. The number went from a first estimate of 0.7% to 1.0% annualized. The Bureau of Economic Analysis declared “with this second estimate for the fourth quarter, the general picture of economic growth remains the same; … Read more