ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The S&P 500 (SPY) traded at an all-time high last week. This milestone means that the broad-based index never closed above that level, 2954.20, before that time. Specifically, “all-time” is an adjective with two meanings according to Dictionary.com: “never surpassed or greater” “regarded as such in its entire history” Despite the clarity of this definition, … Read more
It was one of those trades that works until it doesn’t. Ever since the U.S. dollar index (DXY) broke out above its 200-day moving average (DMA) back in April, 2018, the index provided a lot of bullish swing trade opportunities. In the early stages of the rally, DXY pivoted around its 20DMA and then its … Read more
AT40 = 53.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 50.3% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 15.4Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary The stock market is officially in bizarro world. The stock market is breathlessly rallying in anticipation of rate cuts that will come … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) broke out to a 13-month high this week, and Google Trends likely confirmed the move just like it confirmed the big April breakout. Google Trends provides an index showing the relative changes in the popularity of Google searches. On the same day that Bitcoin broke out, June 16th, Google searches on “Bitcoin” jumped … Read more
Analyst action can quickly flip a stock and change its prospects. Such a move happened to Deere & Company (DE) as Baird moved from neutral to outperform and upped its price target from $129/share to $175/share on the stock. I previously flagged DE as a bearish stock given its week-long inability to break through overhead … Read more
Two years ago, I wrote about the announcement from the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) indicating that cocoa-growing countries would coordinate production of cocoa to better support their economies. That news was soon followed by a recommendation from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cocoa producers to find ways to control the supply of cocoa. At … Read more
AT40 = 39.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 45.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 16.0Short-term Trading Call: neutral (downgrade from cautiously bullish) Stock Market Commentary The last 5 or 6 trading days have been good for bulls and buyers. It was fun while … Read more
AT40 = 38.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 44.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 18.9Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish Stock Market Commentary From opening at the edge of oversold trading conditions to closing on near panic buying, last week was a wild week! … Read more
Google Trends continues to serve as a relatively good guide for identifying buy and sell points in Bitcoin (BTC-USD). As the latest example, I used Google Trends to decide to take profits into what looked like over-extended price action on May 13th. The next day, Google search interest peaked. As a reminder, an extreme in … Read more
While the volatility index (VIX) is only reluctantly responding to the latest turmoil in financial markets, other safety trades are moving in full steam. The “safety trade” I left out of my last post covering the stock market was the Swiss franc (FXF). At the time of writing the Swiss franc fell to a near … Read more