ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Stock Market Commentary If you followed December’s deterioration in market breadth and/or paid attention to the inflation numbers and the smoke signals from the Federal Reserve, today’s market sell-off does not surprise you. What surprises me at the time of writing is the complete collapse in market breadth. The stock market essentially plunged from euphoria … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Financial markets are supposed to act like discounting mechanisms which use the wisdom of the crowd to anticipate important events. The stock market stalled and then broke down ahead of the election. Excluding a last minute rush to buy on election day, I assumed the stock market might have a muted reaction … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Fades were on display, especially on Thursday, as the stock market showed signs of exhaustion. Bad news in and for the semiconductor industry seemed to motivate sellers. For example, earnings for Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META) seemed to release some steam on hyped expectations for the AI chips both companies will … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Yet another bearish engulfing day. Will THIS one matter to the stock market? In the following video, I review the converging bearish signals just days after all-time highs from the S&P 500 defied October’s warnings. (A summarized transcript follows the video – cleaning and editing help from ChatGPT) Summarized Transcript Introduction Hello … Read more
The simple answer is yes! The data show that a worse than average August for the S&P 500 (SPY) increases the likelihood of a worse than average September. I use average to mean the average maximum drawdown as calculated and analyzed in “How to Trade During the Stock Market’s Most Dangerous Months“. In this case, … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Last week started with a calamity and ended with a restless calm. Critical trendlines held as support as buyers and bulls ground their way to a near full reversal of Monday’s loss. Ironically, the market even found relief in a “better than expected” weekly unemployment claims report. Claims fell 17,000 from the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Be ready so that you don’t have to get ready. A perfect storm of fears converged upon the market at today’s open. Recession fears, deleveraging from the end of the carry trade, and perhaps even fresh geopolitical fears from the Middle East, spun the market even further off the road. Retail brokerage … Read more
Stock Market Commentary After just acknowledging politics could deliver on-going surprises for traders and investors, both up and down, I certainly did not expect the first day of trading after that post to confirm my assessment. On Sunday, President Biden bowed out the 2024 Presidential campaign and endorsed VP Kamala Harris. The stock market greeted … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A plunge in market breadth on Wednesday made me expect a more bearish take on the markets for my next blog post. A sharp rebound led by strong earnings from various retail companies, quickly changed the narrative from a continued NVDA hangover to a bullish divergence and then a bullish setup. Friday’s … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The simple and quiet breakout for the stock market found follow-through last week. Both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit fresh all-time highs during the week. The April CPI (consumer price index) report paved the way on Wednesday’s all-time highs. A softer than “expected” number revived hopes for a rate cut … Read more