Archive - 2010 - Blog entry

The stock market’s performance over the next decade will be very similar to the one since 2000: the WSJ appropriately named it “the lost decade.” Stocks will go up and down (setting all-time highs and multiyear lows), stagnate, and trade in a tight range. At the end of this wild ride, when the excitement subsides and the dust settles, index investors and buy-and-hold stock collectors will find themselves not far from where they started in 2000.

Do SunSPARC workstations colocated at the NSYE have a preference as to what day they gap up the market? We attempt to answer this question, in addition to pointing out a very strong pattern on Employment Situation Fridays.

The price action around these key levels needs to be followed closely as we are in an area where new trends develop.

As investors of all stripes continue to go gaga for the Cult of Cupertino (snap, crackle, AAPL), what can we actually learn from Apple, Inc.?

An Insurrection to dump two thirds majority rule in California. Searching for fiscal restraint in the Land of Fruits and Nuts. Is Washington sucking the lifeblood out of the Golden State? Time to load the boat with the state’s bonds.

It's going to be pretty hard extracting your metatarsus from your anus this time around. I mean, everyone makes mistakes with taxes, but the multi-billion dollar back door bailout that you tried to hide via EMAIL???!!! Come on, guys. If you're not smarter than that then you definitely won't be able to solve this financial situation thingy... Unless he knew absolutely nothing about the biggest bailout in the history of his country - under his watch, that is.

Just the other day I stated "Why does everyone confuse a bubble with economic progress" in a post about a very probable bubble in China (see "It Doesn't Take a Genius to Figure Out How This Will End" then get your chuckles on with "Goldman Seems to Trust the Chinese Economic Reporting a Tad Bit More Than I Do!"). Well, as if on cue, Stocks, Metals Decline Around World After China Curbs Lending; Yen Weakens...

The motto for last year will probably end up being, "You really don't get what you paid for!". In reviewing the banks that were originally included in the Doo Doo 32 (a list of likely doomed banks created in the spring of 2008), I decided to take the devil's advocate perspective (an exercise that we normally pursue) and attempt to build a bullish case for the sectors that I viewed bearishly yet have outperformed the S&P and escaped profitable shorting during the last three quarters. The results are illuminating.

While more and more hedge funds are delving into the mutual fund space, sophisticated pension fund managers, like Barclays, are scrutinizing their alpha managers.

Watching the VIX hit a 16-month low, I am beginning to believe that Uncle Ben and the other members of the FOMC have created a 1980s style interest rate trap for banks and other leveraged fixed income investors via the Fed's asset purchase program. It's all about OAD, if you know why I mean. Unfortunately, nobody on the FOMC does.

Ontario Teachers' buys AIG's Canadian mortgage business and CPPIB makes some internal shifts in management.

2009 was an incredibly interesting year both politically and financially, as both arenas are inextricably intertwined, though on the surface, the leaders from these respective industries often bicker and admonish one another for public show, while smiling and shaking hands behind closed doors. Uncovering this complex and hidden connection almost always requires much deeper digging than is ever executed by mass media financial journalists, who often seem more intent on fawning to banking interests rather than revealing the smallest speck of truth to the public.

Not pretty ...

This article addresses a recent study done by a couple of hedge fund managers regarding the performance of various asset classes during the inflationary 1970s. What performed best on an inflation adjusted basis during the 1970s? Stocks? Gold? Oil? Bonds?

Chatting about the greatest security breach in US history. Food and oil are now national security issues. And for that matter, so is our foreign borrowing.