ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
August through October are the most dangerous months of the year for the S&P 500 (SPY). The historical drawdowns create a well-known pattern of trading that Jim Cramer of CNBC has referenced several times for at least a month. While this year’s August failed to fulfill its destiny, September delivered on its promises with heavy … Read more
{revised August, 2024} The Most Dangerous Months The stock market’s most dangerous months are August, September, and October. Since 1951, the S&P 500 (SPY) has suffered its three highest average maximum drawdowns in these months. A drawdown occurs when sellers put downward pressure on prices. The maximum drawdown is the largest (most negative) such loss … Read more
The Stock Market’s Value The U.S. Federal Reserve’s dual mandate is stable prices and maximum employment. Yet, when the Fed sets monetary policy, the most direct and immediate impact plays out in financial markets. When the Fed eases monetary policy, the dominant theme the last 20 years, asset prices invariably increase. Indeed, over the years … Read more
Deteriorating market breadth flashed warning signs for the stock market once again. A signal from the currency market is adding weight to the warning: the Australian dollar versus the Japanese yen (AUD/JPY). AUD/JPY represents the divergence dragging on the stock market. AUD/JPY topped out from March to June, a period over which many individual stocks … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Summer trading in the U.S. traditionally starts after the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The period typically features lower levels of liquidity and, accordingly, periods of listless trading interrupted by bursts of wild volatility. While the “sell in May and go away” adage is a poor trading strategy, August is the year’s most … Read more
The Federal Reserve released its report on Financial Stability with an interesting emphasis on potential vulnerabilities from “elevated risk appetites”. The Fed included an evaluation of valuation measures. The report even called out “meme stocks” as part of its evidence. However, the report stopped short of calling the market outright over-valued. Instead, the Fed took … Read more
Why Sell In May? “Sell in May” is an old stock market adage that advises investors to sell in May and leave the stock market alone until November. According to Investopedia, the adage identifies May through October as a period of under-performance. The adage survives despite its persistently poor performance as a stand-alone strategy. For … Read more
The stock market has enjoyed overbought trading conditions for the last 13 trading days and 14 of the last 15. I consider the stock market overbought when AT40 (T2108), the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), trades above 70%. Overbought periods are times of mixed feelings. The stock market tends … Read more
This blog takes a particular interest in studying and learning from stock market extremes. This year, 2020, is full of stock market extremes with the summer and the first day of post-summer trading delivering their own extremes. Summer vs Post-Summer Performances and Stock Market Extremes Measuring summer as the first trading day of June to … Read more
Sam Ro is a managing editor at Yahoo Finance. Ro’s tweet with data from FactSet and Goldman Sachs (GS) shows how just 5 stocks – Facebook (FB), Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOG) – dominate the S&P 500 (SPY). The top 1 percent seem to be the only story worth telling given … Read more