ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
For many of us, investing over the last 10 years has been much more difficult and a lot less fun than it was in the 90s. In the 90s, it was easy to accept the religion of “buy and hold”, keep the faith that assets are pre-ordained to increase in value, and drown oneself in … Read more
The CNBC interview post below with Marilyn Cohen (from Envision Capital and author of “Bonds Now!: Making Money in the New Fixed Income Landscape“) is a good watch for anyone interested in fixed income. One key statistic that caught my attention was Cohen’s claim that more money went into bond funds last year than went … Read more
The news has rippled across the globe that the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) finally got around to charging Goldman Sachs with fraud: “The SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs structured and marketed a synthetic collateralized debt obligation (CDO) that hinged on the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Goldman Sachs failed to disclose to … Read more
I last wrote about the Brazil Index Fund ETF (EWZ) at the end of the sharp correction in October. At that time, the big headline was that EWZ had lost all its gains from the Olympics-driven rally, and I was anticipating buying EWZ at the end of a total correction of 20% from the closing … Read more
The Psy-Fi Blog examined how being smart can lead to investing mistakes: “Intelligence Can Seriously Damage Your Wealth.” The first half of the piece discusses the results of an academic study showing how people who rate highest in SAT scores tended to rely on historical price performance to decide how to invest amongst an array … Read more
The current correction has produced a LOT of intriguing charts. The Brazil Index Fund ETF, EWZ, is certainly one of them (shown below). EWZ suffered its largest one-day drop since March, and it has now completed a roundtrip for its Olympics-driven rally. EWZ is now already down 12% from its closing 14-month high just last … Read more
The last hour of trading on Wednesday was marred by swift, high-volume selling, an extremely rare sight in the current market. It seemed to come from “nowhere” but the signs of some kind of reversal have been building in some poor post-earnings trading in many big-cap names. I earlier pointed out that Intel (INTC) seems … Read more
Last week, I noticed media headlines screaming the horrible news that “Crude steel output in 2009 to hit lowest level in 40 years.” As I searched for the direct source of this quote from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), I stumbled upon its “Preliminary Report on Iron and Steel, Non-ferrous metal, and … Read more
While I feel bad for Chicagoans and America for losing out on the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, I am very excited for Brazil. It is about time South America got the chance to host these games. My one Olympics experience was in Atlanta in 1996. I had a lot of fun back then, … Read more
Toward the end of September, I argued that VXX, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures, was making a bottom. While some kind of bottom has been confirmed with the spike in volatility last week, the VXX has proved to be a dud in following this spike. While the VIX has popped about 29% from … Read more