ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Since the year 2000, delivering a different narrative for students and fans of financial markets: stocks, options, currencies, Bitcoin, and more…
Back in 2012 and 2013, I wrote pieces describing some interesting daily trading patterns in the S&P 500 (SPY). The effects looked big enough to matter. In particular, Mondays and Tuesdays showed outsized performance differences from other days in the week. The performance divergences were very large in the first 5 months of 2013 as … Read more
AT40 = 9.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) (oversold day #4)AT200 = 14.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs (new 34-month low)VIX = 25.6 (no change!)Short-term Trading Call: bullish (caveats below!) Commentary On Tuesday night, basketball great LeBron James, now of the Los Angeles Lakers, experienced an … Read more
It seems like the odds favor a strong bounce to close the year if only to bring the December drawdown a little closer to historic norms. At least the timing would be right given deep oversold trading conditions. Of course, a “reversion to the mean” is not reason enough to expect a strong year-end rally. … Read more
The S&P 500’s maximum drawdown for October was 9.4% on a closing price basis. That was the third worst October for the S&P 500 (SPY) on a drawdown basis since since 1951. Only the 30.1% maximum drawdown from October, 1987 and the 27.2% maximum drawdown from October, 2008 were worse. THAT is some awful company … Read more
AT40 = 9.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) – (as low as 7.6%) 8th day of oversold period following 4-day oversold period AT200 = 25.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs (as low as 22.5%) VIX = 24.2 (as high as 27.5) Short-term Trading Call: bullish Commentary … Read more
I often use the Australian dollar (FXA) versus the Japanese yen (JPY) as a proxy for the market’s risk tolerance. If AUD/JPY is rising, the market is bullish. If AUD/JPY is falling, the market is bearish. The correlation is not as consistent as I would like, so I use it with caution, caveats, and context. … Read more
October is the stock market’s second most dangerous month based on average drawdown on the S&P 500 (SPY). This year’s October is living up to the reputation after an October, 2017 that never delivered a close below September’s month-ending price. So far this month the S&P 500 has lost 5.0% with a maximum drawdown of … Read more
AT40 = 31.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) (was as low 28.1%) AT200 = 46.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 14.0 (was as high as 15.8) Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary So much for a small bounce before continuing a decline toward oversold conditions! … Read more
Last year, 2017, featured an incredibly low number of days with big price moves for the S&P 500 (SPY). In particular, there were only eight (8), days when the S&P 500 gained at least 1% or lost 1% or more (for ease of explanation I will call this concept “days with at least 1% changes”). … Read more
A recent Business Insider (BI) heading warned boldly: “Why Warren Buffett’s record-breaking cash stockpile should have investors very worried.” The BI’s evidence comes in the form of a record stash of over $130B of idling cash combined with major indices, like the S&P 500 (SPY), at or near all-time highs. Putting the two observations together, … Read more