ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Exactly 10 years ago, the Housing Market Index (HMI) hit 68. The HMI fell relatively quickly from there as the bursting of the housing bubble began in earnest. This month, the HMI hit 64, essentially a fresh 10-year high. This indicator of homebuilder sentiment has marched steadily higher since the trough in the Spring of … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 28, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) While the S&P 500 (SPY) continues to languish in the aftermath of the flash crash and accompanying sell-off, the iShares US Home Construction (ITB) is still up 5.7% for the year … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 27, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) When I wrote “A Time To Sell Some Housing Stocks,” I could not have come close to imagining its timeliness. The current market sell-off since then has been so deep and … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 19, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) I have spent a lot of time over the past four years touting the attractiveness of stocks in homebuilders. The ride has offered a lot of bumps along the way but … Read more
My case for managing risk by peeling back some of my holdings in homebuilders turned out to be quite timely. In what has become a near regular pattern for the iShares US Home Construction (ITB), sharp selling has quickly followed a strong run-up and rush of excitement in homebuilders. The sellers and bears are almost … Read more
(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 3, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) The rate of homeownership in the U.S. fell a fraction of a percent in the second quarter – from 63.8% in the first quarter to 63.4%. Many headlines rang with alarm. … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 14, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) There are plenty of reasons to worry about the U.S. housing market. I am not adding China’s recent market turmoil to the list. In a piece called “Will China flee or … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 20, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released on Friday the numbers for April housing starts. The continued increase in housing starts confirms the … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on February 12, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) KB Home (KBH) has made good on its promise to focus more on short-term monetization. Since reporting disappointing earnings on January 13, 2015, KBH has already announced six openings, grand openings, … Read more