ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) reported earnings last week with excellent headline results and strong guidance, but the stock market rewarded the company with a 7% loss on extremely high selling volume. Wedbush even reiterated its outperform rating and $43 price target based on TSL’s performance (according to briefing.com). Most of those initial losses were erased … Read more
The week ended with the S&P 500, SLV (a silver ETF), and GLD (a gold ETF) all approaching former 52-week highs. The U.S. dollar dropped 1.3% on Friday, decisively failing at resistance at its 200-day moving average (DMA) and putting an exclamation point on the week’s action. The S&P 500 broke through its last battle … Read more
Short interest in Jinko Solar (JKS) increased at its fastest pace ever, almost doubling in the two weeks from October 29 to November 15, 2010 from 1.1M to 1.9M shares. When I last pointed out the soaring short interest in JKS, I was hoping this increase was a contrary indicator based on what I thought … Read more
The Australian dollar has been one of my favorite ways to bet against the U.S. dollar. Earlier this month, the Aussie broke through parity and reached all-time highs versus the U.S. dollar. Since then, the currency has moved steadily lower, taking a brief pause to form the right shoulder in an ominous-looking head and shoulders … Read more
In the wake of the SEC’s charges of fraud against Goldman Sachs (GS), I recommended trying a pairs trade going short GS and long Deutsche Bank (DB). I was betting that either the SEC charges would blow over and DB would rebound sharply, or the gravity of the charges would intensify and GS would sell-off … Read more
Toyota (TM) may be a beneficiary of the yen’s recent losses against the U.S. dollar as well as some encouraging economic news. As the U.S. dollar bottomed at fresh 15-year lows against the yen on November 1st, Toyota’s stock ended its last swoon. On November 4th, TM gapped up and closed 3% higher on a … Read more
I did not think the bulls could pull off an Act 2 defending the 50-day moving average (DMA) support on the S&P 500, but defend they did. Presumably, the stock market left behind fears of a Korean conflagration and an implosion of European sovereign debt in favor of encouraging economic news, like unemployment claims dropping … Read more
Nothing like some geo-political drama to throw in some extra uncertainty into carefully laid out trading plans. After North and South Korea exchanged pleasantries early Tuesday, the dollar’s relief rally continued in dramatic fashion with a 1.3% gain. I am now even more convinced that the dollar will, sooner than later, retest the resistance at … Read more
After the stock market’s sharp rally off the March, 2009 lows, most solar stocks stopped appreciating by that summer. For the remainder of the year, they experienced wild swings up and down in price in quick succession. In the summer of 2010, it appeared prospects had finally turned around for the better for solar stocks … Read more
Rallies in solar stocks would be more exciting if they were not so fleeting. In early September, I noted a “stealth rally” was underway in solar stocks. In early October, I wrote breathlessly about a “soaring September” for solar stocks. Just three weeks later I had to warn that selling volume was picking up in … Read more