SPECIAL AUTOMOTIVE ISSUE Featured Trades: (WHAT FORD IS TELLING US ABOUT PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM), (F), (TTM), (PPLT), (PALL)   1) What Ford is Telling Us About Platinum and Palladium. Well done to Ford (F), which announced great earnings for Q2, leaving its close call with the junkyard a few years ago well in the rear [...]

Featured Trades: (WELCOME TO THE FUNNY FARM), (SPX) 1) Welcome to the Funny Farm. I promised you a roller coaster for the financial markets this week, and that is exactly what we are getting. The on again/off again talks and the finger pointing that follows seems to be generating round lot moves of 30 points [...]

Featured Trades: (HOME PRICES STILL DEAD IN THE WATER) 2) Home Prices Still Dead in the Water. Case Shiller released their national home price index for May yesterday, allowing beleaguered real estate agents to let out some feeble, halfhearted cheers. The data showed that prices did not go down last month and are even rising [...]

'Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,' said Andrew W. Mellon, President Herbert Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury. The Republicans did not win a presidential election for 20 years after that comment.

Featured Trades: (LAS VEGAS STRATEGY LUNCHEON) 1) The September 23 Las Vegas Strategy Luncheon. Come join me for lunch for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader’s Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in Las Vegas at 12:00 noon on Friday, September 23, 2011. A three course lunch will be followed by a 30 minute [...]

Featured Trades: (REPORT FROM EUROPE, PART IV)   3) Report From Europe, Part IV. Milan, Italy appears to be a city entirely populated by fashion models riding bicycles on the city's frenetic streets. That is one's first impression coming out of the monolithic Milano Centrale train station, built by Mussolini to reaffirm faith in his [...]

Featured Trades: (TIME TO SCOOP UP SOME (CAT)), (CAT)   2) Time to Scoop Up Some (CAT). I love it when a world beating, best of breed company temporarily stumbles and gives me a great entry point for a new long position. That was certainly the case on Friday, when Caterpillar, the icon for manufacturing [...]

Featured Trades: (BRING BACK THE SMOKE FILLED ROOMS), (SPX), (TBT) 2) Bring Back the Smoke Filled Rooms. I write this from poolside at the historic Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California. The weather couldn't be more perfect, and the local beauties, many coeds on summer break from the university, are strutting their wares, or the lack [...]

'We're all just one trade away from humility, Bud,' said a stockbroker in the classic film, Wall Street.

Featured Trades: (LOS ANGELES STRATEGY LUNCH REVIEW) 1) Los Angeles Strategy Luncheon Review. I am writing this letter at a table at Zeppy’s Pizza Shack in Hermosa Beach, just across the street from Yer Cheat’n Heart Tattoo. The flotsam and jetsam of humanity are gliding past me on bicycles, roller blades, and skateboards, clad in [...]

Featured Trades: (TIME TO FLIP TO THE SHORT SIDE ON THE TREASURY BOND MARKET), (TBT) 2) Time to Flip to the Short Side in the Treasury Bond Market. The first thing that I noticed this morning is that the long end of the bond market was getting absolutely creamed. 'RISK ON' has returned with a [...]

Featured Trades: (SO WHAT IS YOUR INFLUENCER SCORE?)   3) So What is Your ‘Influencer’ Score? First there was your grade point average, then your SAT score, followed by GMAT and LSAT scores, and finally your FICO. Now there is a new metric with which you will be judged, your ‘Influencer’ score. A new breed [...]

Featured Trades: (APPLE SURPRISES AGAIN) 1) Apple Surprises Again. Wow, and double wow! That’s all I can say about Apple’s (AAPL) ballistic earnings. Talk about firing on all cylinders and the turbocharger and the supercharger at the same time! Apple is now the world’s second largest company and is boasting a positively mind boggling $76 [...]

Featured Trades: (NEXT STOP FOR APPLE: $1,000) 2) Apple's Next Stop: $1,000. When I took a young, cocky, long haired, Levis wearing Steve Jobs around to meet Morgan Stanley's institutional investors to pitch an Apple share offering 28 years ago, I vowed never to buy anything from the man. He was such a great salesman, [...]

Featured Trades: (TIME TO GET ON THE (SPX) ROLLER COASTER), (SPY), (SPX) 3) Time to Get on the (SPX) Roller Coaster. I think yesterday's reaction to a rumored settlement on the debt ceiling was a great 'tell' on the short term direction of the financial markets. The S&P 500 popped 20 points, bonds roared by [...]