Featured Trades: (THE VIX SPIKE), (VXX), (Q4 GDP)   1) Learning About VIX the Hard Way. We certainly received a highly instructive lesson on how the volatility index (VIX) works on Friday. All it took was a ten point drop in the S&P 500 to trigger a stampede to buy insurance against further declines, taking [...]

Featured Trades: (GOLD), (GLD), (DGZ), (GLL) 2) So Close, Yet So Far on Gold. Close, but no cigar on getting out of my gold puts on Friday. We opened low enough on Friday morning to get within striking distance of my downside target for the barbarous relic at $1,280. But once the rout in equities [...]

Featured Trades: (TBT) 3) Taking Some Cover on the (TBT). The global equity markets are ‘cruisin for a bruisin.’ They are so overextended on the charts it is frightening, and the time to pay the piper is coming. I’m not looking for a collapse, just a missionary style 5%, 60 point correction, to at least [...]

Featured Trades: (ORLANDO STRATEGY LUNCHEON)   1) Now There’s Really Only Two Weeks Left Until The Mad Hedge Fund Trader February 11 Orlando Strategy Luncheon. Come join me for lunch for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader’s Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in Orlando, Florida on Friday, February 11, 2011. A three course [...]

Featured Trades: (JAPAN’S BILL IS NOW DUE), (YCS), (FXY) 2) Japan’s Bill Is Now Due. Do the hard work and the accidents happen in your favor. This is what I have been hammering away with at my junior traders and analysts for decades. You won’t find a more clear illustration of this time worn maxim [...]

Featured Trades: (THE GOLD MELTDOWN), (GLD), (GLL), (DGZ) 3) The Gold Sell Off Accelerates. Two weeks ago, I urged readers to take advantage of the coming collapse in gold. This development is now well in progress, and is accelerating faster than I anticipated. Perhaps I gave it a push? Things are happening so fast in [...]

4) Testimonial. 'For the past three years, I have followed the advice of another 'trading' subscription. During the two months that I have participated in your 'Mad Hedge Fund Trader' recommended trades, I have banked and surpassed my gains of those three years. Plus your recommended trades that I am currently holding have a similar [...]

‘It is almost dishonest to build up an accumulated debt for the Congress of the United States to meet in 1980. We can’t do that. We can’t sell the United States short in 1980, any more than in 1935,’ said Franklin Delano Roosevelt about his efforts to fund social security entirely from its own revenues.

Featured Trades: (ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN FOR GLOBAL MARKETS), (SPX), (SPY), (TNX) 1) Another Nail in the Market's Coffin. I think it was very interesting not to see what happened today, but what didn't. The Federal Reserve announced that it would continue its purchase of $600 billion in debt securities and keep interest rates [...]

Featured Trades: (DAVOS WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM) 2) The Price of Stardom at Davos. When I was a director of one of the largest banks in Switzerland, I found myself a frequent visitor to the Alpine village of Davos. In years gone by, we provided the loans to the Canton of Graubunden needed to build the [...]

'Better to have stop and go, than no go at all,' said hedge fund legend, George Soros, about the choppy prospects for the US economy.

Featured Trades: (WHAT OUT FOR THE BLACK SWANS)   1) Watch out for the Black Swans. It is not my intention to ruin your day. But I may well do that if you read this piece. While traders pile on their longs with reckless abandon, and retail flows into equity mutual funds turn positive for [...]

Featured Trades: (BEWARE THE COMING COLLAPSE OF GOLD), (GLD), (SLV), (PPLT), (PALL), (GLL), (DGZ) 2) Beware the Coming Collapse of Gold. Last year’s sure thing is rapidly turning into this year’s sure loser. After bringing in a torrid 29% return in 2010, the barbarous relic has only managed a flaccid 7% loss so far this [...]

'You ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? It's because they're sheep,' said Gordon Gecko in the classic film, Wall Street.

Featured Trades: (TOUCHING BASE WITH KARL DENNINGER)   1) Touching Base With Karl Denninger. I managed to catch up with my friend Karl Denninger, the peripatetic founder of the Florida based Market Ticker, a highly entertaining and prescient, if not irreverent daily blog. Karl is convinced that the current move up in equity markets is [...]