Plunging Iron Ore Underlines Coming Monetary Policy from the Reserve Bank of Australia

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on June 2, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} …Iron prices have plunged almost as severely as they did last August as steel rebar prices have fallen. From Reuters on May 31st: {snip} These price declines would seem to … Read more

My Love Affair with the Australian Dollar Has Officially Ended

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 5, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip}…this is a good moment to describe finally why I recently sold my long-term holdings in the Rydex CurrencyShares Australian (FXA). {snip} Never once have I pondered the possibility of the … Read more

Chart Review: Australian Dollar Hitting Critical Junctures

I moderated my bullishness on the Australian dollar in early December because Australia’s terms of trade have likely peaked for now and the Reserve Bank of Australia had lowered rates twice. Last week, I recharged my bullishness on the Australian dollar after the Federal Reserve extended its dovish monetary policy. The Australian dollar experienced a … Read more

Australian Dollar Ends Year Flat, Maintaining Close Correlation With S&P 500

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 1, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) At the end of 2010, the Australian dollar closed at an all-time high against the U.S. dollar; the Aussie gained 14% and yielded 4.75% (for more details see “The Australian Dollar … Read more

A Review of the Commodities Crash Playbook As Another Phase of Selling Ends

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) Commodities across the board have suffered mightily during the stock market’s recent correction. In the first phase of the sell-off (from late July to early August), a few commodity-related stocks triggered buys by erasing all … Read more

Chart Review: AAPL, EWZ, EWA

The stock market is oversold, so I am hunting for bullish setups in the charts. Apple (AAPL), the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund ETF (EWZ), and the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund ETF (EWA) are a few of the charts that have caught my interest. Apple (AAPL) plunged through dual supports and bounced right back … Read more