ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Stock Market Commentary I fully anticipated follow-through to the breakout of market breadth that started trading last week. Instead, trading on the major indices wavered going into a mini pullback on Thursday. As a result, Friday’s rally following the May jobs report failed to generate a confirmation of the market breadth breakout. With job creation … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A meme rush pushed the stock market toward summer trading. A breakout for market breadth launched summer trading. Small cap stocks appeared to lead the way even as the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ wilted for the close of trading. The divergence still leaves the stock market poised for an eventual rendezvous … Read more
For this update, I have to reach all the way back to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when the stock market was rebounding from its ultimate March lows. Given the oversold trading conditions, I was in the habit of sifting through the rubble looking for bargain buys. AGNC Investment Corp (AGNC), a company … Read more
I gave up on Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) a long time ago. I grew weary of holding against a consistent downtrend waiting for bullish catalysts to materialize. Suddenly, for the first time in 14 months, CORN generated a breakout above its 200-day moving average (DMA). As a result, it is time to buy CORN. In … Read more
Bitcoin Price Failure In late May, a “price failure” in Bitcoin (BTC/USD) sent me to the sidelines. I decided to retreat to wait for a breakout and accumulate a new position on the way up. Two months later the moment arrived. The U.S. dollar (DXY) broke down and Bitcoin broke out. As a result, I … Read more
Two weeks ago, I examined the sharp pullback in Bitcoin (BTC/USD) and concluded that the cryptocurrency was taking a refreshing pause ahead of the next breakout. The breakout is here. This breakout is a double bonus as it represents a bullish (upside) resolution to a Bollinger Band (BB) squeeze. Such breakouts are tradeable with well-defined … Read more
Trees do not grow to the sky – even cryptocurrency trees with Bitcoin leaves. The old adage describes a core rule of the physics of price momentum. Whether buying or selling, traders and investors eventually exhaust themselves – whether existing resources are too low to maintain buying pressure or motivated sellers finally run out of … Read more
Stock Market Statistics AT40 = 56.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 32.5% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 25.7Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary Last week started with a growl and ended quietly. The stock market quickly transitioned from confirming a bearish … Read more
On June 25th, call options in sportings goods retailer Hibbett Sports (HIBB) sprang to life. At the time, around 1500 October $22.50 calls traded versus 0 open interest. On June 29th, open interest climbed above 2500. For context, HIBB options are sparsely traded. The second highest open interest sits with the Jan 15 ’21 calls … Read more
The Bitcoin Price Breakout Bitcoin (BTC/USD) wiped away my wariness about the price action with one clean breakout that finished a reversal of March’s steep losses. For about five days, Bitcoin was teasing its way toward a challenge of overhead resistance at its downtrending 200-day moving average (DMA). During the previous day, Bitcoin gained about … Read more