Global Market Comments January 13, 2010 Featured Trades: (HYUNDAI), (KOREA), (WON), (EWY), (CYB), (REI) 1) I watched with both amazement and foreboding Japan's share of the US car market grow from 1% in the seventies to 40% in recent years. General Motors made excuses all the way up, as the Japanese ate an inexorably larger [...]

Global Market Comments January 12, 2010 SPECIAL ETF ISSUE Featured Trades: (ETF’s), (EEM), (EEG), (VWO), (GLD), (SLV), (QQQQ), (XLK), (PPLT), (PALL)   1) Exchange traded funds (ETF’s) could soon replace traditional mutual funds as the primary investment vehicle for individuals because of the huge cost, tax, and liquidity advantages they offer. That’s the opinion of [...]

Global Market Comments January 11, 2010 Featured Trades: (NONFARM PAYROLL), (THE OPTIONS WHISPERER), (CHINA'S ONE CHILD POLICY) 1) President Obama could not have looked more morose in reacting to the news that the December nonfarm payroll showed a further loss of 85,000 jobs, taking the unemployment rate to 10%. It's really tough to put lipstick [...]

Global Market Comments January 8, 2010 Featured Trades: (GLOBAL GDP GROWTH), (FXI), (IDX), (EWZ), (EWH), (EWY), (SPAIN), (BILL FLECKENSTEIN), (TBT), (GOLD), (WHEAT), (DIN), (JWN), (RIMM), (HEDGE FUND RADIO)   1) If you want to know who is going to win the international investment sweepstakes, take a look at the table of 2010 consensus GDP Growth [...]

Global Market Comments January 7, 2010 Featured Trades: (SPX), (DOW), (OBAMA), (DBA), (GLD), (MOO), (PHO), (USO) 1) With all of the handwringing about the zero return on US equities for the last decade, I thought I'd better take a look at the long term charts. It's very clear that we have been trading in a [...]

Global Market Comments January 6, 2010 Featured Trades: (HEDGE FUND REGULATION), (CCJ), (NLR), (EWY), (BLONDES), (FXI), (EEM)   1) You’d think with the spectacular performance I was fortunate to bring in last year, I would have new investors pouring in over the transom, bombarding me with requests for offering documents, and asking for presentations to [...]

Global Market Comments January 5, 2010 Featured Trades: (TOP TEN SURPRISES OF 2010), (ZERO HEDGE), (HEDGE FUND RADIO), (MANAGED FUTRES ACCOUNTS), (CTA’S)   1) My Top Ten Surprises of 2010 My friend and former Morgan Stanley colleague, Byron Wien, now at Blackstone Group (BX), initiated this concept  a few decades ago, which I always find [...]

2010 Asset Allocation Review January 4, 2010 The Thumbnail Portfolio Equities-up, then down Bonds-Corporates up, then down. Treasuries down, down, down Currencies-dollar up, then down Commodities-up, up, and way Precious Metals-sideways, then up Real estate-down to sideways 1) The Economy I am not of the 'V' or 'W' persuasion, but see a 'square root' shaped [...]

Global Market Comments December 24, 2009 Featured Trades: (HEDGE FUND RADIO) 1) My guest on Hedge Fund Radio this week is David Gurwitz, the engaging and highly entertaining managing director of Charles Nenner Research, and a long time hedge fund industry veteran. Charles graduated from the famous Bronx High School of Science, and promptly tried [...]

Global Market Comments December 23, 2009 Featured Trades: (INTERVIEW WITH SANTA CLAUS)   1) OK guys. I get the message. Yesterday’s letter elicited no less than 100 out-of-office replies. So I’m going to take the hint and disappear for a few days. It’s two days until Christmas, and I haven’t even put my outside lights [...]

Global Market Comments December 22, 2009 Featured Trades: (JOHN BRADY’S 2010 STRATEGY), (SPX), (TBT), (GOLD, (EWZ), (EZA), (XOM), (XTO), (CAP & TRADE), (A CHRISTMAS STORY)   1) MF Global’s strategist for interest rate products, John Brady, sees the S&P 500 rocketing 18% to 1,300 during the first half of 2010, driven by enormous productivity gains [...]

Global Market Comments December 21, 2009 Featured Trades: (BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS), (CHINESE NUCLEAR PROGRAM), (CHINESE SECURITIES REGULATION) 1) Those of you counting on getting your old job back on the assembly line in Detroit better look at the eight year jobs forecast published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The table shows that [...]

Global Market Comments December 18, 2009 Featured Trades: (DBA), (MOO), (PHO), (FIW), (INTERNET BANKS), (BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS) 1) I spent an evening with Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute and a winner of the coveted MacArthur Prize, for some long term thinking about the environment and its investment implications.  Global warming is [...]

Global Market Comments December 17, 2009 Featured Trades: (FXI), (EWH), (COPPER), (GOLD), (F), (BA), (GE)   1) I confess that I am a total agnostic when it comes to specific investment philosophies, and a complete whore when it comes to trying out any new analysis that walks by. Maybe it’s because of my science and [...]

Global Market Comments December 16, 2009 Featured Trades: (SPX), (TBT), (GLD), (FXA), (UNG), (INDONESIA)   1) The S&P 500 (SPX) is going to plunge 10-20% from early January, Treasury bond interest rates are going to soar (TBT), and gold (GLD) will peak out, all starting in January. There are tradable shorts setting up in all [...]