It’s Probably Nothing

QE4 is well underway… … orderly markets are contained globally. While the market as a whole is treading water, some software names continue to get beaten down. And some of the “pilot to copilot, we goin down in flames” names have seen their sharpest reversals in decades. PETS recently had its biggest one-day gain in …

Financial Securities Melt Down, Bitcoin Melts Up

Once again the stock market was down bigly on the ongoing trade war headlines. One of the few asset classes that has not crapped the bed recently is cryptocurrencies, which have rallied hard over the past couple weeks. Are cryptocurrency investors betting on financial conditions getting so bad the Fed has to cut rates? Why …

CMGI Sighting: Taking a Break from Trading

I’ll still read about the capital markets daily, but I have found trading quite distractive when considering my daily workflow. I’ve sold most my positions other than WBA, CVS, a REIT & a somewhat negatively correlated stock that tends to outperform when the market craps the bed. In the current market where a flood of …

Walgreens Off A Comfortable 13% on Earnings

Walgreens (WBA) announced results where they slightly missed top line revenues & missed earnings. Net income fell to $1.16 billion, or $1.24 a share, from $1.35 billion, or $1.36 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding nonrecurring items, the company said adjusted EPS declined 5.4% to $1.64, below the $1.72 that FactSet …

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 …

Picking Up Nickels In Front of a Steamroller

Trading yesterday certainly felt like picking up nickels in front of a steamroller. Of the Nasdaq 100, a few minutes before close the only 3 stocks that were up were overrun / off sized clothing discounter Ross Stores & then food product companies Pepsi & Mondelez International which help give bodies an irregular size so …