ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) After listening to Research In Motion’s conference call explaining the company’s downward guidance Thursday night, I thought I would write a piece just as bullish as management’s insistence that longer-term upside prospects remain unchanged. However, writing … Read more
Every now and then, I check in on the chart of Goldman Sachs (GS) as a potential indicator of the underlying health of the stock market. This year, I have been consistently surprised at Goldman’s persistent relative weakness compared to the general market. After recently refreshing my chart of the S&P 500 price in gold, … Read more
With the S&P 500 hitting fresh 3-year highs this week, the index is poised to recapture the previous uptrend that was interrupted by March’s double calamities of the Japan earthquake and hostilities in Libya. The stock market is overbought with T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), at a … Read more
Excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece: Three months ago, LDK Solar (LDK) wowed the market with a tremendous hike in guidance for both the fourth quarter of FY10 and the entire FY2011. The stock closed up 18% on the day. LDK went on to retest … Read more
Excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece: Google (GOOG) is down 9.2% since reporting earnings April 14 and now sports a forward earnings multiple of 13. At $525, GOOG is at 7-month lows and is again close to the psychologically significant $500 price level. This combination … Read more
This is a quick follow-up to my piece three days ago summarizing the pre-earnings technical outlook on Apple (“Apple Teeters On Critical Support Ahead of Earnings…and the Next Sprint Higher?“). I thought I would be writing this commentary AFTER earnings, but it seems Apple (AAPL) may have already started its next sprint to higher prices. … Read more
Apple (AAPL) investors have had it relatively easy since the late 2008/early 2009 lows. As long as they were not stopped out (or panicked out) of positions in the May, 2010 “flash crash”, patience has paid off. Every stumble in the stock has marked a mere pause in the persistent stair-wise step upward to ever … Read more
The dollar has been one of the weaker currencies amongst the major industrial trading partners. Thanks to coordinated intervention, the Japanese yen has managed to take over the mantle from the dollar in the race to the bottom. The weekly chart below shows that the dollar’s rally against the yen stopped cold as it approached … Read more
On Wednesday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rendered punishment on Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) and other financial institutions “…for unsafe and unsound practices related to residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing.” (See OCC Takes Enforcement Action Against Eight Servicers for Unsafe and Unsound Foreclosure Practices). The OCC now requires mortgage … Read more
In late February, I lamented that TBT, the Pro Shares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ETF, was careening toward a retest of the 200-day moving average (DMA) that it would lose. After three more weeks, the anticipated retest finally occurred, and TBT survived. *Chart created using TeleChart: The retest of the 200DMA was a great reminder … Read more