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
A few years ago, I went to a charity fund raiser at San Francisco?s priciest jewelry store, Shreve & Co., where the well-heeled men bid for dates with the local high society beauties, dripping in diamonds and Channel No. 5. Well fueled with champagne, I jumped into a spirited bidding war over one of the
ETF?s are much more attractive than mutual fund competitors, with their notoriously bloated expenses and spendthrift marketing costs. You can?t miss those glitzy, overproduced, big budget ads on TV for a multitude of mutual fund families. You know, the ones with the senior couple holding hands walking down the beach into the sunset, the raging
Global Market Comments March 18, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (MARCH 20 GLOBAL STRATEGY WEBINAR), (HAS APPLE BOTTOMED?), (AAPL), (TESTIMONIAL), (SOVEREIGN DEBT WAS A GREAT PLACE TO HIDE), ?(PCY), (LQD) Apple Inc. (AAPL) PowerShares Emerging Mkts Sovereign Debt (PCY) iShares iBoxx $ Invest Grade Corp Bond (LQD)
No one has suffered more than I from my slavish devotion to Apple?s products, its performance, and, oops?. it?s stock. A long position in Steve Jobs? creation remains my only losing position of 2013 (remember the January $525-$575 call spread?). Without the hit I took on that, my Trade Alert Service would be up 33.3%
I am constantly asked where to find safe places to park cash by investors understandably unhappy with the risk/reward currently offered by the markets. Any reach for yield now carries substantial principal risk, the kind we saw, oh say, in the summer of 2007. I have had great luck steering people into the Invesco PowerShares
Global Market Comments March 15, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (TAKING PROFITS ON STOCKS), (SPY), (TAKING A BITE OUT OF STEALTH INFLATION), (TESTIMONIAL) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)
With the (SPY) approaching an all time high, there are just a few pennies to go, I am going to take the money and run on my position in the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) April, 2013 $145-$150 deep in-the-money bull call spread. At $4.97, there is only 3 cents left in potential profit, and I
When I visited the local Safeway over the weekend, I was snared by some uniformed pre-teens, backed by beaming mothers behind a card table selling Girl Scout cookies. I was a pushover. I walked away with a bag of Thin Mints, Lemon Chalet Creams, Do-Si-Dos, and Tagalongs. I have to confess a lifetime addiction to
Global Market Comments March 14, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (2013 STRATEGY LUNCHEON SCHEDULE), (THE ELTON JOHN MARKET), (SPY), (RAMPANT WAGE INFLATION STRIKES CHINA), (FXI), (CYB) SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund (FXI) WisdomTree Chinese Yuan (CYB)
Come join me for lunch at the Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s Global Strategy Luncheons, which I will be conducting throughout the US and Europe over the next five months. 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
I remember 1997 like it was yesterday. Bill Clinton was president, the US government was running a balanced budget, and the Dotcom IPO bubble parties in Silicon Valley were happening almost every day. The Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in a seven game World Series, where the last game went to a heart stopping
I rely on hundreds of 'moles' around the world whose job it is to watch a single, but important indicator for the world economy. One of them checks for me the want ads in the manufacturing mega city of Shenzhen, China, and what he told me last week was alarming. Wage demands by Chinese workers
Global Market Comments March 13, 2013 Fiat Lux Featured Trade: (APRIL 12 SAN FRANCISCO STRATEGY LUNCHEON), (BLACK SWANS ARE CIRCLING), (SPX), (A COW BASED ECONOMICS LESSON) S&P 500 Large Cap Index (SPX)
Come join me for lunch at the Mad Hedge Fund Trader?s Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in San Francisco on Friday, April 12, 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 stocks,
Basking in the glow of my 31% gain so far this year, I have to start wondering what could go wrong. Call me a pessimist, a paranoid, and worrywart, but whenever things got this good in the past, they were about to turn very bad. It is not my intention to ruin your day. But
SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbor. COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you. BUREAUCRATISM You have 2