ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
I was clearly far too early in restarting a pairs trade short Microsoft (MSFT) and long Intel (INTC). Over the past two months, the performance of MSFT has steadily improved, while Intel’s performance has steadily worsened. The MSFT/INTC ratio is now at 10 month highs. Source: stockcharts.com Typically, I would look at this divergence and … Read more
The cooling process for gold and silver has moved slowly and deliberately. The first step featured a fight through parabolic upswings, especially for silver. The next step finally seems underway with the first break of primary (short-term) uptrends. Gold closed below its 50-day moving average (DMA) for the first time since August. Silver closed below … Read more
Throughout the stock market’s meandering upward in December, I maintained that technical conditions were not yet overbought. I also noted that T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving averages (DMAs), would likely not reach the overbought threshold (at least 70%) until a rush of “panicked buyers” sent the market soaring higher. I … Read more
Research In Motion (RIMM) reported earnings December 16, 2010. The general reaction to the report has been muted with the stock trading down 1.7% since the market close before the report. I have followed RIMM’s stock repurchasing activity for a while now, but I neglected to note earlier that RIMM announced the (aggressive) completion of … Read more
I thought it would be fitting to close out another year of blog posts to celebrate the performance of one of my favorite investments: the Australian dollar. Despite beginning the week with another round of tightening by Chinese monetary authorities, the Australian dollar put on another stellar show. The “Aussie” closed the week up over … Read more
Last week, I claimed that the market is not yet overbought and that any corrections in the short-term will most likely be shallow. Without some specific and new catalyst, traders and investors, especially the ones who missed this latest rally, will treat pullbacks as golden buying opportunities. Moreover, I noted how, as expected, many analysts … Read more
I have seen and heard several headlines pronouncing that the market is overbought, extremely overbought even. Yet, my favorite oversold/overbought indicator, T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), has calmly churned around 60% for almost the entire month of December. The market is typically considered overbought after T2108 crosses … Read more
Lately, it seems I have been pointing out more and more stocks in breakout formations. It makes the skeptic in me a little wary and nervous, but I will keep rolling with what works. And steel stocks have finally started working over the past month. I have to assume that the market is seeking out … Read more
Last week, I mentioned that I had not yet decided on my re-entry strategy for gold and silver. I remain in neutral as gold, silver, and the dollar index churn in various holding patterns (using GLD and SLV as proxies for gold and silver respectively). GLD is right where it was two months ago. SLV … Read more
When Bill Gross declared a top in the bond market, MUB, the iShares S&P National Municipal Bond ETF, was still riding high between $105 and $106. Almost three weeks later, MUB cratered to 16-month lows, loudly declaring that the gravy train in munis had likely ended. Over the course of the past month, MUB experienced … Read more