ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The bearish to bullish reversal ended for home builder stocks with a return to bear market territory. Today, October 9, 2025, the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) dropped under the threshold that defines a bear market: 20% below the all-time high (see chart below). The 2.6% slide on the day is part of a … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The week closed with strong speculative energy, particularly in crypto, with the signing of a package of crypto legislation including a stablecoin bill. Surprisingly, the speculative frenzy did not translate into the overall stock market beyond a few select stocks like OpenDoor (OPEN). In fact, the major indices mainly had a steady … Read more
Stock Market Commentary There are not enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe what happened today. We have borne witness to a multi-day, multi-week saga of economic warfare, tariff chaos, a rolling stock market crash – and now, an historic oversold bounce. President Trump has gone from tariffs, to tariff flexibility, to tariff reciprocity to … Read more
A Flashback On September 29, 2008, a nervous and weak stock market anxiously awaited the outcome of a Congressional vote on a $700B Wall Street bailout package known as TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program) as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. According to briefing.com, the S&P 500 (SPY) was down about … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market suffered experienced a jarring selloff during the announcement of reciprocal tariffs from President Trump, a move that, despite ample telegraphing, shocked both investors and global trade partners. The Futures dropped sharply, with even oil down 2.4% and the S&P 500 plunging as much as 3% after-hours. This tariff crash … Read more