ManyPeaks.com

Oh no. Not even close.
Stocks rallying on bad news is not remotely uncommon. It’s usually the result of portfolio managers using a “well that was bad but surely the worst is over” rationale.
The market’s real enemy is uncertainty. And that’s what it got in spades, with today’s news that the […]

After gapping up at the open, the market sold off mid-morning on rumors of US Navy contractors firing on Iranian gunboats (story was later refuted).  As of the lunch hour, we’re back to flatline.
I remain in a bullish mindset for two reasons.  First and foremost, there are lots of great looking individual stock charts available […]

John Carter, proprietor of TradeTheMarkets.com is one source.
In tonight’s (free) missive, he makes an interesting point regarding the Treasury Bond market, Fed, and yield curve. It’s in the 2nd half of the 4-minute video.
An interesting — and semi-conspiracy — theory that just might be correct. He’s basically saying that if long-term interest rates in […]

This bond insurer saga is quickly growing old. Now even the most vocal ABK/MBI short seller is proposing “solutions.” Of course like the others, it basically involves shifting around assets, liabilities, and cash flows in fun & creative ways.
The New York insurance regulator doesn’t like this plan because it’s “bad for the banks.” […]

Bear markets are tough to trade. You obviously want to participate on the short side, but until Bernanke cut rates 1.25% over 8 days last month, I was always concerned about the high risk of being heavily short overnight.. and walking into my office one morning to the disaster of seeing S&P futures up […]

The government’s Non-Farm Payrolls report showed a drop in employment for the first time since 2003. Another confirming indicator that the path of least resistance is down, both in the economy and — for now — the stock market.

As soon as I mention the shaky bond insurer group, they bounce big on news that New York’s insurance regulators are cooking up a deal that would keep Ambac & MBIA from simply dying off via their ill-fated move into insuring mortgage CDO’s (instead of sticking to plain old municipal project bonds).
Things like that — […]

Ambac Financial (ABK), one of only a dozen United States corporations with a coveted AAA-rating, is in severely dire straits. They need capital because the municipal, mortgage, and asset-backed bonds they get paid to insure are defaulting… meaning they contractually must make those bond investors whole, just like an insurance claim.
But few market participants […]

I’ve been put off by Jim Cramer’s drama for many years. He is flat out annoying.
Just came across a memorable segment from CNBC’s show Fast Money thanks to venture capitalist, shrewd stock trader (and extremely witty guy), Howard Lindzon.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVeBzkVgaik]
I remember the mid-2007 episode, watching Cramer pathetically challenge Eric Bolling (an outstanding, smart oil/energy trader) […]

Thanks to the Piptopia Blog for verbalizing a concept I totally believe in.

Improvements in one’s skills don’t progress in a linear fashion.
The equity curve for successful traders/investors also resembles a staircase pattern.  Our status has been quite Ho-Hum recently.  I’m staying patient, but certainly look forward to the next Woo-Hoo cycle.