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THURS. JUL. 22- Tracking Fed Language Traditionally for the last few years, I rake the rest of the autumn leaves in my yard in the weekend or two before Thanksgiving. Year-in, year-out, I have happy thoughts before I set out to do it. I think of all the times I raked leaves with my family. I...

WED. JUL. 21- The True Open And Close Particularly as earnings season is underway, it’s time to focus on a question I am frequently asked: at what time do you start looking at charts during the trading day? The trading day technically starts at 4AM ET when the ARCA ECN opens for business...

Just saw this on my Blackberry...will not respond in detail right now as I need to focus. But one glaring example is the Great Depression. Things were so bad in the mid-1930's that the government taxed cash that banks were hoarding 9which caused the crash of 1937).

TUES. JUL. 20- Deflation In The Air? If you were looking to pay a technological device with the thought its cost may come down (such as an iPad 4 or a big screen TV), would you wait to buy it or do it today if you really wanted it? If you were looking to buy a car and you’ve properly done...

MON. JUL. 19- The Value Of An Education For those of us who went to college, we may have well worried about the amount of money being spent to go there, but few of us questioned the money’s (educational) purpose- not only to learn about the world but obviously about whatever academic...

FRI. JUL. 16- "Wait? Goldman's Up?!" Several people noted orally and in writing yesterday (at least within earshot and eyeshot of me) that they didn’t understand why Goldman Sachs (GS) was rallying if a financial reform bill was on the verge of passing much less a settlement of several...

THURS. JUL. 15- Bonds vs Stocks Over the years, at varying times, there are different correlations between bonds and equities. Most of the time, lower interest rates mean good things for stocks. There is no desire for runaway inflation (ala the 1970’s). However, there are other times such...

WED. JUL. 14- Party in Santiago On February 27, the nation of Chile suffered one of the worst disasters in modern history with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake slamming the nation. The only good news to take from this is that the earthquake’s epicenter was about 200 miles southwest of Chile’s...

TUES. JUL. 13- Dealing With Frustration On a day like yesterday when the markets hovered around the unchanged level for most of the session on low volume, one emotion comes to the mind of most 9not all, but certainly most) traders: “frustration.” Either people were sitting on their hands...

MON. JUL. 12- Kickoff Of 3rd Qtr Earnings Season With the release of Alcoa (AA) this afternoon comes the unofficial start of the 3rd quarter earnings season. Every season has certain unique features and characteristics within the backdrop of the overall stock market much less economic...

FRI. JUL. 9- Lebron James And Day Trading I admit it. I enjoy sports. I unfortunately don’t get to play the games the way I used to do so much less actually watch much sports on TV, but I do keep up with the scores and stats. What always interests me is when sports and trading intersect...

THURS. JUL. 8- Owning Up To A Mistake Even the best baseball players on the planet can get a base hit about 3 out of every 10 times at the plate. The best Broadway performers can have an off night. The best day traders tend to be right about 59 out of every 100 times. I am right about 55 of...

WED. JUL. 7- The VIX Tell In the ever-changing increasingly complicated world of day trading, the puzzle is always evolving-albeit with different shapes in different combinations. One needs to follow every potential signal from bond prices to currency movements to commodity prices to try to...

TUES. JUL. 6- Hot Temps And Low Volumes One recent Friday, I posted a piece about potential illiquidity as well as various sharp moves which could take place that day. Apparently, I underestimated the response to it as well as a few questions I’ve gotten over the last few weeks so I want...

FRI. JUL. 2- Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Many times, people use euphemisms or exclamations needlessly. “Today is the hottest day ever” or “That was the absolute worst show I’ve ever seen” or “My kids are the most awesome kids on the face of the planet” (well, that one is true...

THURS. JUL. 1- When Rumors Become News Many times, we’ve heard the phrase “buy the rumor, sell the news” or vice versa. But how many of us truly know what it means for day trading purposes? For those somehow not aware, there is inevitably a move in a stock leading up to a major event as...

Here is balance/update for today- Markets fell in Asia with Tokyo down 2% and Hong Kong off 0.6%. The trend, however, shifted in Europe as the news from the ECB was good with banks formally requesting much less money than was forecasted by the general consensus. Thus, the immediate-term...

WED. JUN. 30- An Important ECB Auction I'm going to post this a little early as it is very important with the follow-up tomorrow morning: The stock market got absolutely hammered today. Overnight on Monday night, there was a revision of a leading economic indicators number in China as...

TUES. JUN. 29- Strong Bonds Occasionally, a market number occurs which makes even the most non-observant market watcher say “hmmm.” It does not happen often, but such a number appeared yesterday afternoon. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note almost got to 3%. For those not familiar...

MON. JUN. 28- Financial Reform Worry Alleviation On Thursday night, a deal struck by members of a House and Senate conference reached a tentative agreement on legislation to overhaul financial regulation. After reading through the details (fascinating reading on a Friday morning before the...