Blog Archives

About That “Flash Crash”…


Good morning. Wild and down market last week, despite the late day rally on Friday. For the week the SPY was down 4.78 (or 4.2%) to close at 109.11.The low on Friday of 105.36 was only slightly above the so-called flash crash low of 105, not a pretty site if you were in the camp that the “flash crash” was just an anomaly.

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This Island Earth


Good morning. Wild and down market last week, with the SPY closing down 7.55 (or 6.4%) to close at 111.26. The VIX spiked up 85% to close at 40.95, signifying that the cost to protect positions had risen dramatically, and actually closed Friday night very close to the high. In addition the market had a nightmare day on Thursday, with the markets spiking down and coming virtually unglued for a brief time in the afternoon. Investigations are abounding, and should show that the entire market structure needs to be looked at very strongly and honestly, but I am not holding out any hope for real reform.

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We have met the enemy and he is us.


Good morning, and hopefully everyone had a happy and restful Thanksgiving holiday. The market was mostly positive last week until Friday, the normally sleepy half day after Thanksgiving, when the market reacted to worldwide sell-offs on Thursday due to the impending suspension of interest payments from Dubai World. The SPY was down on Friday from 111.38 to 109.38, or 1.6%, essentially erasing the entire gain of the previous four days, but not nearly as much as the 2-5% drops in other markets around the world.

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The New Taxation


Good morning. It was a very strong week for the market last week, with the SPY making up most of the previous week’s sell-off. The SPY closed at 107.13, up 3.4% from the previous week’s close of 103.56 and almost equal to the 108.08 close of the week before. Even more of interest is the dramatic drop in the VIX last week, down to 24.19 from the last Friday close of 30.69, or a whopping 27%.

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Being of Dubious Talent


Good morning. It has been a couple of weeks since I have written, primarily due to the effort required to start the Internet show – “Stocks and Jocks”. For those who may have missed Sarah’s announcements the show airs live on www.StocksAndJocks.net every day from 11am-12pm CST and is available afterwards by archive – for on demand listening or download. Dr. J is with me, and we have a great and growing group of guests as the show gains momentum. I would encourage you to listen and participate, there is a lot going on affecting the market that we should all be understanding and talking about.

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