ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Apple (AAPL) investors have had it relatively easy since the late 2008/early 2009 lows. As long as they were not stopped out (or panicked out) of positions in the May, 2010 “flash crash”, patience has paid off. Every stumble in the stock has marked a mere pause in the persistent stair-wise step upward to ever … Read more
The dollar has been one of the weaker currencies amongst the major industrial trading partners. Thanks to coordinated intervention, the Japanese yen has managed to take over the mantle from the dollar in the race to the bottom. The weekly chart below shows that the dollar’s rally against the yen stopped cold as it approached … Read more
On Wednesday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rendered punishment on Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) and other financial institutions “…for unsafe and unsound practices related to residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing.” (See OCC Takes Enforcement Action Against Eight Servicers for Unsafe and Unsound Foreclosure Practices). The OCC now requires mortgage … Read more
In late February, I lamented that TBT, the Pro Shares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ETF, was careening toward a retest of the 200-day moving average (DMA) that it would lose. After three more weeks, the anticipated retest finally occurred, and TBT survived. *Chart created using TeleChart: The retest of the 200DMA was a great reminder … Read more
The S&P 500 has rebounded sharply from its March lows with a 6% gain in a little over two weeks. The short-term uptrend has met very little resistance as buyers have interpreted the recent sell-off as an opportunity to accumulate shares. This move has also flipped T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day … Read more
As I watched the U.S. dollar swiftly reverse course after some early post-employment numbers strength, I concluded that this was the final confirmation I needed that the dollar is going much lower from here. I made a point to review my list of commodity charts and then did a quick check of EWZ, the iShares … Read more
A month ago, I took issue with a UBS downgrade of Amazon (AMZN) and tried to demonstrate how this analyst action and commentary could be twisted into a blueprint for a buying opportunity. At the time, I noted that a test of the November lows on a 13% drop could produce the 8% upside potential … Read more
The stock market is officially tired of worrying about the latest crises around the globe. On Friday, the S&P 500 essentially recovered all of its post-quake losses. The last three days of buying featured low volume (no news there), but the index was still able to hurtle over the presumed resistance at the 50-day moving … Read more
One of the many interesting features of the stock market since it broke down on March 10th is that the news has often been a distraction to underlying developments in the market. Following the charts has been relatively more effective than following the news in creating a (short-term) trading strategy. T2108, the percentage of stocks … Read more
A week ago I used F5 Networks (FFIV) as a model to suggest that Finisar (FNSR) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU) showed some promise to bounce from critical support levels. I drew out the specific price points at which buys made sense and included some stops. The promise quickly led to a letdown as both FNSR … Read more