The Australian Dollar Firms As Another Fed Over-Reaction Helps to Pause Currency Trends

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 9, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Not even another poor jobs report – unemployment rate up from 6.0% to 6.1% and a loss of 29,700 employed persons – could keep the Australian dollar (FXA) down. During the … Read more

Profit Opportunities In The Federal Reserve’s Spread of Rate Scenarios

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 9, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} The most striking feature of the minutes for the mid-March meeting was the Federal Reserve’s very mixed feelings toward the timing for the first rate hike: {snip} There are multiple … Read more

Insurance Policies for Financial Stability: the UK Tightens Housing Policies and Further Tunes Its Warnings

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 21, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) “Historically low levels of interest rates globally and the current backdrop of low volatility across financial markets may encourage market participants to underestimate the likelihood and severity of tail risks. There … Read more

Gold Is Unloved But Still Not Cheap

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 8, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Friday’s U.S. employment report delivered strong results yet again. It helped increase expectations of a Fed rate hike by June as iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) and SPDR Gold Shares … Read more

T2108 Update (January 15, 2015) – Like So Much Paper Flailing in the Ill Winds

(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

Swiss National Bank Revises Forecasts Downward for Negative Inflation In 2015

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 11, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) According to the Swiss National Bank (SNB), inflation is returning to negative territory in 2015. In its December 11, 2014 assessment of monetary policy, the SNB once again adjusted its inflation … Read more

Swiss National Bank: “The Economic Outlook Has Deteriorated Considerably”

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 18, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) With the Swiss franc (FXF) trading closer and closer to its 1.20 floor versus the euro (FXE), I find myself more interested than usual in the monetary policy decisions of the … Read more

The Bank of Canada Confirms A Potentially Important Turning Point

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 4, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Bank of Canada once again left its overnight target interest rate at 1% in its latest monetary policy decision. An important change this time around came in the form of … Read more

No Positive Catalyst for the Canadian Dollar from the Bank of Canada

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 27, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Canada disrupted life in Ottawa on the same day the country’s central bank was scheduled to hold a press conference to discuss its latest monetary policy decision. … Read more

Bank of Japan Further Diverges from the U.S. Fed – Risk Trades In Focus

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 31, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) It seems somehow appropriate in these extraordinary times for central banking that less than two days after the U.S. Federal Reserve officially ends quantitative easing (QE) through its bond purchasing program, … Read more