Above the 40 (April 6, 2018) – Barbarians Posturing At the S&P 500’s Support

AT40 = 37.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 40.2% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 21.5 Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary via GIPHY The week ended badly with a 2.2% drop in the S&P 500 (SPY). The week began with the exact same … Read more

Maximum Bearishness For Silver?

For the first time since at least 2008, speculators flipped bearish on silver. Source: Oanda’s CFTC’s Commitments of Traders Speculative net contracts have trended downward for about a year and approached zero in December around the time the Federal Reserve last hiked rates. Yet, I did not think it was “possible” for positioning to go … Read more

Trading An Iron Ore Top: Prices Stall Amid Record Chinese Imports and Inventories

Iron ore may have reached a new inflection point with a price rally coming to a halt in January and some related stocks consolidating near multi-year highs. When I last made an iron ore trade in September, 2017, I was responding to a surprise projection from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) that suggested a … Read more

GDP Helps Confirm Australian Dollar Breakdown After Brief Post-RBA Optimism

The currency market painted a bullish interpretation of the latest monetary policy decision from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). By the time of the September quarter GDP report, that incremental bullishness disappeared and setup a bearish interpretation of the Australian economy. Source: FreeStockCharts.com The net result, which includes a U.S. jobs report, is an … Read more

Above the 40 (October 13, 2017) – Stock Market Lift-Off Turns Into Drift

AT40 = 72.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) – overbought day #12 AT200 = 60.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 9.6 Short-term Trading Call: bullish Commentary A week ago I described “lift-off” for an extended overbought period for the stock market. However, the market … Read more

Cocoa Breaks Out On European Strength

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 12, 2017. Click here to read the entire piece.) Looks like my rotational trade on iPath Bloomberg Cocoa SubTR ETN (NIB) is coming to an end. {snip} Source: FreeStockCharts.com {snip} The headline driver for this strong move was the European … Read more

Above the 40 (October 6, 2017) – Stock Market Lift-Off

AT40 = 73.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) – overbought day #7 AT200 = 59.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 9.7 Short-term Trading Call: bullish Commentary This is what a lift-off for an extended overbought rally looks like. The S&P 500 (SPY) followed its … Read more

Above the 40 (September 11, 2017) – The S&P 500 Hits Fresh All-Time High On Tension Relief

AT40 = 53.0% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 51.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 10.7 (down 11.5%) Short-term Trading Call: neutral (see below for caveats) Commentary I had no idea that the previous tensions in the stock market fully priced in the … Read more

U.S. Concrete: A Missed Opportunity

When I described U.S. Concrete (USCR) as a strong play on the U.S. economy, I noted I would wait for a dip in the stock before picking a spot to buy. That opportunity came a lot faster than I expected as USCR dipped down on rising volume to the top of its previous trading range. … Read more

A Small Reason To Stick With Range-Bound CORN

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 14, 2017. Click here to read the entire piece.) On June 12, 2016, I effectively threw in the towel on the Teucrium Corn ETF (CORN) and switched to a shorter-term trading strategy. Less than a month later, I concluded that … Read more