ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Australia just celebrated setting a (modern era) world record for the longest string of quarters without a recession. Yet Australia’s economic backdrop appears to be wavering. This week’s labor force survey could provide a critical point of relief or pile on yet more concern. Iron Ore’s Latest Plunge I begin with iron ore – Australia’s … Read more
AT40 = 46.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 62.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 12.9 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish (notable caveats explained below) Commentary The timetable for a May end to this period of extremely low volatility looks like … Read more
Do not tell silver speculators that the Federal Reserve is tightening monetary policy. The latest CFTC Commitments of Traders (CoT) report showed that silver speculators ran net long contracts to a new high, levels not seen since at least 2008. The increase in open interest confirmed the bullishness of silver speculators. Source: Oanda’s CFTC’s Commitment … Read more
Nice Save Bears have taken numerous shots yet the bulls have consistently blocked them all. The S&P 500 (SPY) is barely off its all-time highs and has survived all number of setbacks. These setbacks seem to get more and more shallow. Monday, April 3rd, 2017 delivered another classic example. The morning began with very convincing … Read more
AT40 = 35.3% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 57.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 12.8 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: bearish Commentary The sellers did their best to create follow-through selling to the previous day’s bearish breakdown. As has been the case … Read more
AT40 = 35.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 58.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 12.5 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: bearish Commentary The S&P 500 (SPY) finally flipped the switch on the bearish threshold I have described since the last bullish breakout … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on February 27, 2017. Click here to read the entire piece.) In late August, 2016, I got ready to buy back into the iPath Bloomberg Cocoa SubTR ETN (NIB) as a part of my strategy to trade its price range at that … Read more
Last week I registered my surprise at silver speculators rushing to increase net long contracts to near multi-year highs. This move happened ahead of what was expected to be a parade of Fed-speak clearing the path for a March rate hike. The surge stood out even more given gold’s surge did not bring net long … Read more
AT40 = 52.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 65.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 11.2 (volatility index) Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary Here we go again. Divergence is rearing its head again and bringing a dose of reality to the setup for … Read more
The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) made a major peak last summer when it hit a 2-year high. The rally year-to-date seemed to come to an abrupt end when SLV plunged through support at its 200-day moving average (DMA) and its 20DMA uptrend. Source: FreeStockCharts.com However, don’t tell speculators any sad tales about silver. Speculators increased … Read more