One of my many alma maters, the University of Southern California, announced that they had received their largest private donation in history. As a third generation alumni of this fanatical football factory (I went to school with Mark Harmon, Lynn Swan, and, oops, OJ Simpson), I still receive their alumni newsletter, where I learned the
Global Market Comments March 26, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (MAY 8 LAS VEGAS STRATEGY LUNCHEON), (HERE COMES THE ROLLING TOP), (VIX), (BAC), (UAL), (SPX), (IWM), (A DIFFERENT VIEW OF THE US) VOLATILITY S&P 500 (VIX) Bank of America Corporation (BAC) United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) S&P 500 Large Cap Index (SPX) iShares Russell 2000
Come join me for lunch at the Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. An excellent meal will be followed by a wide-ranging discussion and an extended question and answer period. I?ll be giving you my up to date view on
The S&P 500 is now at 1,564, and most strategist forecasts for the end of 2013 hover around 1,550-1,600, plus or minus some spare change. So the next nine months are going to be incredibly boring. Or they won?t. Even in a bull market, one expects to see pullbacks of at least one third of
My mother lives in Pakistan, my daughter in Greece, and I have a ski chalet in Peru. What's more, I have strategy luncheons planned for Australia, Thailand, and Turkey. At least these would be my conclusions after looking at a map of the United States prepared by my esteemed former employer, The Economist magazine, renaming
When I was a young, clueless investment banker at Morgan Stanley 30 years ago, the head of equity sales took me aside to give me some fatherly advice. Never touch the airlines. The profitability of this industry was totally dependent on fuel costs, interest rates, and the state of the economy, and management hadn't the
Global Market Comments March 22, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (BUY EVERY BLACK SWAN), (SPY), (QQQ), (IWM), (AAPL), (UAL) (REVISITING CHENIERE ENERGY), (LNG), (UNG), (USO), (DVN), (CHK) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) PowerShares QQQ (QQQ) iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) Apple Inc. (AAPL) United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) United States Natural Gas
At least that?s what Ben Bernanke thinks. He said as much in his press conference yesterday in the wake of the latest Fed statement. He might as well have waved a red Flag at a bull. The central bank took the opportunity to downgrade its US growth forecasts going forward as a result of sequestration
Occasionally, I so totally knock the ball out of the park that I qualify for a place in the stock picker?s Hall of Fame. That was the case when I put out a recommendation to buy LNG exporter, Cheniere Energy (LNG), a year ago (click here? for Take a Look at Cheniere Energy (LNG). Since
Global Market Comments March 21, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (TRADE ALERT SERVICE SEIZES 31.8% GAIN IN 2013), (SPY), (FXY), (IWM, (BAC), (AIG), (FCX), (FXE), (FXB), (GLD), (USO), (THE BULL CASE FOR BANK OF AMERICA), (BAC), (WHEN STERILIZATION IS NOT A FORM OF BIRTH CONTROL), (TLT), (PCY), (MUB), (JNK), (TESTIMONIAL) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) CurrencyShares
The Trade Alert Service of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader has posted a 31.8% profit year to date, taking it to another new all time high. The 27-month total return has punched through to an awesome 86.9%, compared to a miserable 18.5% return for the Dow average during the same period. That raises the average
I?ll give you the quick and dirty argument behind buying Bank of America. For the past four years, the main argument for avoiding this stock like the plague was the hidden book of bad home loans it was hiding on its back bookshelf, thought to be in the tens of billions of dollars. This is
I received a flurry of inquires the other day when Ben Bernanke mentioned the word ?sterilization? in his recent congressional testimony. And he wasn?t giving advice to the country?s wayward teenaged girls, either. Sterilization refers to a specific style of monetary policy. Sterilized policies seek to manipulate the money markets without changing the overall money
Global Market Comments March 20, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (THE RECEPTIONS THE STARS FELL UPON), (NLR), (CCJ), (CORN), (WEAT), (SOYB), (DBA), (BECOME MY FACEBOOK FRIEND), (OIL ISN?T WHAT IT USED TO BE), (USO), (DIG), (DUG) Market Vectors Uranium+Nuclear Enrgy ETF (NLR) Cameco Corporation (CCJ) Teucrium Corn (CORN) Teucrium Wheat (WEAT) Teucrium Soybean (SOYB) PowerShares
My friend was having a hard time finding someone to attend a reception who was knowledgeable about financial markets, White House intrigue, international politics, and nuclear weapons. I asked who was coming. She said Reagan?s Treasury Secretary George Shultz, Clinton?s Defense Secretary William Perry, and former Senate Armed Services Chairman Sam Nunn. I said I?d
If you would like to get a free headline service from The Diary of the Mad Hedge Fund Trader, then please join my 1,448 friends. Every day we are posting headlines along with summaries of the stories on our Facebook page. As soon as you open your own Facebook page, you will receive our latest
Virtually every analyst has been puzzled by the seeming immunity of stock markets to soaring oil prices (USO), (DIG), (DUG) this year. In fact, stocks and crude have been tracking almost one to one on the upside. The charts below a friend at JP Morgan sent me go a long way towards explaining this apparent
Global Market Comments March 19, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (BUY STOCKS ON THE CYPRUS DIP), (SPX), (SPY), (INVESTORS WILL WIN THE ETF PRICE WAR), (BIDDING FOR THE STARTS), (THE DEATH OF THE MUTUAL FUND) S&P 500 Large Cap Index (SPX) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)
I?ll never forget the last time I was in Cyprus. I landed my twin Cessna 340 and asked for a fill up, hoping to make it back to Rome in one hop. An hour later, a truck dumped three 45-gallon drums of 100LL avgas on the tarmac with a hand pump, and asked to be
Many hedge fund traders are unhappy about the current near monopoly enjoyed by the top three ETF issuers, Black Rock, State Street, and Vanguard, which control 80% of the market. At last count more than 1,300 ETF?s were capitalized at more than $1.4 trillion. The result has been grasping management fees, exorbitant expense ratios, and