Blog Archives

Grind Out Some Returns

March 1, 2010

Good morning. The market ended last week down ever so slightly, with the SPY down a whole .40 (or .4%) on the week. However, that weekly summary masks a series of almost violent ups and downs on both an inter and intra day basis. For example, we had a virtually flat Monday, then a surprisingly negative Consumer Confidence number on Tuesday sent us down almost 1.5%. Wednesday brought a snap back rally of almost the same magnitude, followed by bad jobs numbers on Thursday that had us down almost 2% before recovering to almost unchanged.

Social and Economic Health

August 31, 2009

Good morning. Sort of an inside week for the market last week, what we in the business would call a premium sellers dream. The SPY was up a whole .41 on the week, moving from 102.97 to 103.38 (.4%). The VIX was down a little, from 25.01 to 24.76, not much of a drop considering how little movement there was. For those looking to buy long term put protection, as we do in the PIP Program, the cost for at the money put protection for December of 2011 is in the 15.5-17% of the underlying range for 28 months.

The “Knowing History” Approach

May 26, 2009

Good morning. Another in a string of very odd weeks for the market, as a huge up move on Monday of 2.8% in the SPY (235 Dow points), continuing to a high of 92.80 on Wednesday (4.6%) gradually eroded and finished with the SPY up only .31, or .3%. The Dow gave up 227 points of Monday’s strong move as the week wore on, finishing off 315 points from the Wednesday high.