Archive - 2010 - Blog entry

Other than that how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

There is no harm - and tremendous benefit - to outlawing extremely dangerous acts, even if no one is sure that they will be committed ...

Every now and then, you come across a company and wonder, "How the hell are they still in business?" I announced what I believed to be a ponzi scheme, (see Flim, Flam, Scam: Would a PPD Ponzi and Pyramid scheme cause your wealth to Scram?, A Demonstration of How PPD Management is Destroying the Company and Reggie Middleton's Continued Public Service Announcement on the Flim Flam Scam). Since then, the company has announced that it is being investigated by the FTC and the SEC.

How does an NFL linebacker develop computer algorithms that give a crucial edge in the market? “Large pipes” are your trading edge, and “clouds” do the heavy lifting. Like the NFL, you can’t defend against speed. Jon’s system catches big hedge funds, pension funds, and mutual funds shifting large positions. If China is serious about throttling back its economy, it will have a dampening effect on global markets. Volatility is going to die. An exclusive Hedge Fund Radio interview with OptionMonster’s Jon Najarian.

"The situation has the makings of an Aeschylean tragedy. If help isn't forthcoming, little Greece--whose economy is just 3 percent of Europe's GDP--could, against its will, set off a chain reaction that pulls down Portugal, Ireland, Spain, perhaps even Italy, and thereby throws Europe's, and then America's and the rest of the world's, fragile recoveries into reverse."

If the contents of this post doesn't give you pause and cause you to doubt the future of the Eurozone's integrity, I don't know what will. Here's a quick quiz. What well known (in name only) Italian American has a significant chunk of the European Union Sovereign nations apparently modeled their financial engineering from?

Heck of a job, guys ...

The dollar’s status as the world's preferred reserve currency has come into question amid a ballooning budget deficit that keeps the U.S. dependent on foreign financing. It is now a matter of "when" rather than "if" the Chinese yuan will replace the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency.

The year 2009 was the year of reflation theories and bubble blowing. Theses of "Green Shoots", catching the bottom, and QE reigning supreme were the order of the day. Sure enough, asset prices (nearly all of them) went one direction, straight up. We all saw it coming, but guys like me who actually count the money and rely on the fundamentals didn't believe it was a sustainable gain. It wasn't a bull market, but a bear market rally. After nearly one year, the reflationists have had their hay day, or have they?

Daily snapshots of AUDCAD, EURJPY, EURUSD, USDJPY & USDCHF

The outlook for the economy is bleak, at best. The stimulus package should have been at least $1.2 trillion. Any major spending cuts will produce “Hoover” outcomes. An extreme form of “trickle down economics" quickly reached a dead end. The banks’ accounting loopholes were so imaginative that not only were shareholders and regulators deceived, senior management was clueless as well. The winner of the Nobel Prize in economics reveals how “information asymmetry,” led to the financial crisis. The repeal of Glass-Steagle was a disaster. No wonder Main Street feels cheated.

ESH10 55-minute, 144-minute, 28657-Tick, Daily & continuous contract Weekly

A leading champion for Canada's water supplies is chiding the investment managers and Ontario teachers for investing $1.1 billion in Chile's water systems...

Today's perfect doji on the daily chart of El Paso (EP) illustrates a specific type of trade setup that we at Fibozachi scan for. The tenor of 'this' price action is symptomatic of short-term exhaustion, typically resulting in an immediate correction over the next few sessions (1-3). On this expected setup the pre-defined (anticipated) risk/reward ratio is over 4:1 ... which means that one need be 'correct' c. 25% of the time to break-even (save commissions + slippage). Trading is nothing if not a probabilistic endeavor and we like those odds.

If we did these things, we wouldn't have to raise taxes OR cut core services to the American people ...