Search results

FRI. MAY 28- It's Almost Summertime Sometimes, a little common sense is needed to trade. Mind you, I emphasize the phrase ‘a little bit.” Not a “lot.” “A little bit.” Today is one of those days. We’re ahead of the kickoff of summertime, a much-needed holiday weekend, it is...

THURS. MAY 27- Korea A Focus? As the markets continue their global whirl of geopolitical hotspots, a new one has come up this week- the Korean Peninsula. I made reference to it a few times in this space, but have not gone into it in any sort of primer. So, here goes. Since the Korean War in...

WED. MAY 26- A Turnaround Tuesday The markets started out down dramatically yesterday on the heels of two major stories. First, in the fashion by which Washington Mutual was suddenly sucked into JP Morgan (JPM) ostensibly overnight on a seemingly random Thursday night, a number of regional...

TUES. MAY 25- Flashes Of Flashes Much has been rightly made of the ‘flash crash’ which occurred on May 6. It is still not known exactly what caused it nor is it known whether it was human error, computer error, or a combination of both. But what there is little doubt of in my mind anyway...

MON. MAY 24- Sigh Of Relief Whenever I am highly uncertain of something, my stomach is in a knot. It is just a very unpleasant feeling. When I get the news- good or bad, I at least am somewhat settled before tackling the issue- again, good or bad- because I now know what it is I need to deal...

FRI. MAY 21- Hubris With the volatility occurring right now and the markets very dangerous, I want to pause from the turmoil momentarily to further emphasize what I recently wrote regarding managing positions and being safe. In 2001, just after I got married, my father-in-law asked me when I...

THURS. MAY 20- Trading As Safe As Possible First, for those interested, below is the link to my interview yesterday on "Trader Talk." I want to thank Troy Peterson for the opportunity/honor as well as Rob Smith for the very kind recommendation...

WED. MAY 19- Nervousness In Germany First, for anyone interested, I have the honor of being the featured guest today just after the close on "Trader Talk." The focus will be on how I got to where I am now (wherever that is!) along with a discussion about my methodology. The link is here if...

TUES. MAY 18- Changing With The Markets I’ve made the topic of Europe kind of a topic du jour recently. The oil spill is not progressing. The 2nd quarter earnings season is ostensibly over. And happily, I am coming off of a weekend in which my focus was totally on my kids rather than doing...

MON. MAY. 17- Taking A Macro Step Back I started writing about the situation in Greece in this space several months ago. I've described the situation and tried to provide a guide for exactly why I noted a few months ago that the likelihood of riots in Athens by summertime was quite high. I...

FRI. MAY 14- Push It Real Good A dialogue I was having with someone the other day sparked the following thought: what should one do if faced with the pleasant situation of earning a day’s pay by 9:35AM ET. Most people do one of two things. The terrible thing they do is up their size on...

THURS. MAY 13- When 2+2=5 When you were a kid, did you ever take a piece of paper and rip it into 10 pieces because you were just that bored? And if you did, don’t you wish you had so much free time on your hands in the present that you were just that bored? In any case, what did you get...

On Monday, the following link was issued from the SEC: http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2010/34-61595-secg.htm In essence, the SEC adopted Rule 201 of Regulation SHO which is designed to prevent abusive short selling. Quoting directly from the SEC dictum: “Rule 201 of Regulation SHO...

I appreciate the kind words, nickdes and zdreg...good luck trading.

JTNet- Many people want a broad understanding (at the top of my list, myself) of what is occurring in the world. I've found (the hard way) that if one doesn't have a specific knowledge base of the forces affecting markets, one tends to lose. As far as the symbols, they are not random...

TUES. MAY 11- What Now, Euro? In a day of short covering on some very crowded short positions, the most crowded of all shorts failed to launch yesterday. Despite yesterday’s 405 point Dow rally good for 3.9%, a 49 point S&P 500 rally good for 4.4% and a 109 point NASDAQ rally good for 4.8%...

MON. MAY 10- Viva Europe On Friday, despite the market chaos, it was very notable that the euro was notably higher for the first time in quite awhile. Admittedly, the retracement was but a mere fraction of the ground it has lost against a basket of the world's currencies over the last several...

FRI. MAY 7 - The Takeaway From An Extraordinary Day As noted in our chatroom and over our audio feed, for once, despite my status as the Great Pontificator, I was at a loss for words (stop cheering/jeering, please) for quite some time. After thinking about it, I thought about writing a piece...

THURS. MAY 6- Australia Mining Issues Last weekend, the Australian government imposed a proposed 40% tax on resource companies in a move designed to raise the government's coffers. It was a somewhat surprising move with three potential dampening effects and/or one positive effect. The...

Wed. May 5- British Elections I’ve written in immense detail in this space about the problems facing Europe specifically in Greece, Spain, and Portugal, most recently warning of a pick-up of volatility in Monday’s piece. The European problems in turn led the euro to a breach of the...