Flowing With the Current-Seas
My time over in Europe has finally come to an end, and as I fly over the Atlantic Ocean heading back towards the United States, I was just thinking of some economic word play behind the word currency. I’ve also been working on a new Mastermind class and trading pattern that I’m eager to show…
If You Thought Markets Sucked This Week… You’re Right!
If you love it when stocks don’t move and nothing makes sense, you probably had a blast this week… For everyone else, yours truly included, the markets were just… terrible. I mean, they sucked. Or worse. As a trader, you want to see two-sided trades, action. We did not get that. Instead we’re straight up,…
How Retail Could Get Ravaged
The money supply is on the move, that’s for sure… but not into consumers’ pockets. Industrials, as tracked by the SPDR XLI ETF are up more than 24% over the past six months. Aerospace and defense, as tracked by the iShares ITA ETF are up nearly 20% in the same six-month timeframe. That’s growth. Those…
The Expected Move Is Keeping Markets Here… But Volatility Lurks
A market like this, where stocks move a little higher and then gently drift lower, can be really deceptive. There’s not much you can read into a market that’s down… a point. Financials are down a little, tech is all over the place and news-driven, energy is massively unchanged… The advance/decline line is… slop-tastic. It’d…
Stocks Jumped Their First Hurdle - Here’s How They Can Clear the Next One
I was singing a decidedly cautious tune last week, especially compared to the week before… But then, on Friday, a very weak payroll report slammed a strong bid under stocks. Bad news is good news (again). Market players hope the sign of a softening economy will mean a more dovish Fed in the near future.…
The Surprising 'Fake Stock' That Missed the A.I. Boat...
Professor Bierman here, and I'm here to tell you that AAPL - Apple’s pretty much a “fake stock” at this point. Yep, they had a stock buyback… but BIG DEAL! It’s nothing more than a wet band-aid on a gaping wound. Apple missed the A.I. boat. Warren Buffett, their biggest shareholder, is unloading shares. There’s *crickets” in…
The Option Market Shows the Way Through This Low-Volume, Fed-Driven Melt-Up
The S&P 500 ended today’s session a little more than 1% higher than where it started. Not bad… but before you get too giddy, consider that gold equaled the market’s one-session gain and silver, the “junior metal,” blew them both clean out of the water. At the same time, trading volume in equities has…
Traders Are Delusional If They Think This Bad Jobs Report Is Any Good
No matter how you slice it, we’ve had an extraordinarily volatile week; stocks were reeling like so many drunks from data to the Fed to earnings to data. Apple, a juggernaut of the S&P 500, took off on an earnings miss yesterday because, “Hey - no worries, $110 billion in buybacks are coming.” (If all…
Meditating on Ancient Banking: Part II
There’s a Lot More the Ancient Romans Can Teach Us About Modern Banking My travels in Italy are still ongoing, and I decided to come out of the countryside and head to the capital for a few days. It’s been about 10 years since I last visited Rome, and, of course, my life has changed…
The Fed Is Telling Us: Move Into Non-Cyclical Stocks
The Federal Reserve and its chairman, its various and sundry governors, presidents, and number-crunchers are (in)famous for… not really saying much when it actually counts. Yesterday, for instance, Chairman Powell said… nothing new or unexpected or particularly useful: Rates aren’t getting cut anytime soon, they’re going to stay the same. We knew that. But…