ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
I saw a flicker of hope for home builders in the May Housing Market Review. Traders decided to snuff that flicker out very quickly afterward. When I wrote June’s housing market review and described a “struggling flicker,” the iShares US Home Construction ETF (ITB) was once again bouncing off the bottom of 2018’s trading range. … Read more
The S&P 500 (SPY) printed its best quarter since the fourth quarter of 2013. While the index gained 7.2% for the third quarter of 2018, home builders went in the exact opposite direction. The iShares US Home Construction ETF (ITB) tumbled 7.4% for Q3 and is now down a whopping 20.9% year-to-date. The selling accelerated … Read more
“KB Home shares jump on third quarter earnings” – such is the kind of quick trigger post earnings headline that consistently fails for home builders. KB Home (KBH) opened higher by 5.7% but was all downhill from there. At the close, KBH lost 3.1% on the day in a major reversal. This close was a … Read more
I saw a flicker of hope for home builders in the last Housing Market Review. Traders decided to snuff that flicker out very quickly afterward. Breakouts transformed into new tops and now the struggling flicker comes from home builder stocks holding support. The short-term path ahead looks like chop at best, especially with the latest … Read more
AT40 = 48.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 50.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 16.1 Short-term Trading Call: bearish Commentary The market’s gains the last two days validated my expectation for a relief bounce. I used this bounce to make more bearish … Read more