ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
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
When everyone is a contrarian, no one is a contrarian. I consider this a corollary to the famous quote from Humphrey Neill: “When everyone thinks alike, everyone is likely to be wrong” (from a book I really enjoy but inconsistently apply “