ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Currency traders appeared very disappointed that the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged on Tuesday. The Canadian dollar (“loonie”) immediately bounced sharply from near three-year highs against the U.S. dollar, and the USD/CAD eventually popped over parity (1.0) for the first time in two weeks on Thursday. The accompanying statement suggested that the Bank … Read more
A month ago, I laid out the case for the S&P 500 sustaining its upward momentum. I pointed to 1300-1310 as the next point of strong resistance. As the S&P 500 nears that point (half of a percent away now), I marvel at how quickly this test has come. T2108, the percentage of stocks trading … 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
I have seen and heard several headlines pronouncing that the market is overbought, extremely overbought even. Yet, my favorite oversold/overbought indicator, T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), has calmly churned around 60% for almost the entire month of December. The market is typically considered overbought after T2108 crosses … Read more
Last week, I mentioned that I had not yet decided on my re-entry strategy for gold and silver. I remain in neutral as gold, silver, and the dollar index churn in various holding patterns (using GLD and SLV as proxies for gold and silver respectively). GLD is right where it was two months ago. SLV … 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
I have written several pieces discussing the likelihood of a dollar relief rally and now the increasing momentum of that rally. I recently concluded that the British pound’s break of technical support at the 50-day moving average (DMA) all but confirmed the dollar index’s imminent rendezvous with its 200DMA. However, in all these pieces, I … Read more
Nothing like some geo-political drama to throw in some extra uncertainty into carefully laid out trading plans. After North and South Korea exchanged pleasantries early Tuesday, the dollar’s relief rally continued in dramatic fashion with a 1.3% gain. I am now even more convinced that the dollar will, sooner than later, retest the resistance at … 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
Ahead of last week’s big events, I suggested that the market was setting up for a surprise reaction. So far, the biggest surprise has been the timing of the market’s big rally reaction after the election and the Federal Reserve’s announcement of quantitative easing and before the unemployment report. But that is not the surprise … Read more