Federal Reserve Winds Down Balance Sheet Wind Down

Coming into today lots of people were net long ahead of the Federal Reserve announcement & remembered the pain of the prior two meetings, so there was a sell off early in trading. Those who put money to work ahead of the Fed’s announcement saw decent gains as the market recovered somewhat on the new …

CNBC Scary Headline of the Day

The stock market reaction to this sort of headline Stocks rapidly give back gains on report China walking back trade concessions was quite bullish. By the time the digital ink had dried (was it ever wet?) the market once again traded higher. And stocks which would be impacted heavily by an escalating trade war like …

Portfolio Insurance, Real or Imagined

Volatility in currency markets is largely nonexistent, at least for now: With central banks standing pat and little else to drive markets, the betting on low volatility itself is helping to drive trading, says Russell LaScala, Deutsche Bank’s global co-head of foreign exchange trading. He calls the situation “self-perpetuating,” adding that “these loop orders control …

A Bull Market Masks Many Sins

It is easy to attribute strong returns to one’s own skill & greatness, but any day some crazy event like an earthquake or war could massively tank the markets. When the stock market goes up broadly momentum stocks work, but then when the market is really strong overall sometimes there isn’t even a lot of …

As Seen on YouTube!!!

Sector rotation continued yesterday with some emerging market plays like Ctrip up big, bring up other smaller parallel plays like MakeMyTrip. Despegar might be a higher leverage way to play OTAs in emerging markets, though the sort of “national champion” model promoted by China & which India aims to emulate will likely provide a greater …

Faux Marketing Innovation by Non-marketing Companies

The lens through which you have experienced the world is also the lens through which you ultimately view the world. Thus a person who spent decades in marketing could argue that almost everything is a subset of marketing. But sometimes it becomes a bit of a reach. Last year I read Ken Auletta’s Frenemies book …