Blog Archives

Skewed Volatility


Good morning. The Federal Reserve gave us another strong market last week, with the SPY up 1.93 (1.7%) to close at 116.54. That is the highest close in the SPY since last May 12. The VIX was down sharply on the week, closing at 20.7 (down 8%), which is the lowest closing since May 3 of this year. Again the investing public appears comfortable with the price of insurance on the market decreasing as the market advances, something that, to me, has always seemed counter-intuitive.

Read more


The Fred Sanford Way


Good morning. Another positive week for the market last week, as the market has continued to creep up steadily since the correction low of 104.58 on February 5. Last week the SPY was up 1.25 to close at 119.55, a gain of 1.5%. Interestingly, the VIX, which has been trending steadily down as the market has advanced, had a fairly strong advance on the week, closing up 9% at 17.46.

Read more


Grind Out Some Returns


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.

Read more


Banking Industry Backlash


Good afternoon. Last week was the worst week in the market since last March, with the SPY down over 4% to close at 109.21. That closing number is also lower than the 111.44 closing number from last year, wiping out all of the early January gains. The VIX was up a dramatic 52% for the week to close at 27.30, and erased a lot of the upward sloping volatility skew we talked about last week.

Read more


The Water Is Still Cold


Good morning. First off, I would like to extend an invitation to you to attend our Saturday, August 29th Protected Index Program In-Office Seminar, which will be from 9:00am – 12:00pm at our downtown Chicago office. It is completely complimentary and we provide a nice continental breakfast, coffee bar and classroom materials. My brother Dan and I will be presenting and you will also get to meet some of the PTI brokers and staff and ask all the questions you want. Seats are still available but you must register to attend. Click here to view the details and register. I hope to see you there!

Yet another positive week for the market last week, propelled mainly by Friday’s rally after the relatively positive jobs data. For the week the SPY was up 2.4%, from 98.81 to 101.20, with most (1.31 points) of that gain coming on Friday. The VIX was also down on the week, from 25.92 to 24.76, although curiously still above the 23.09 close of two weeks ago. The even more amazing thing is the moves in individual stocks, mostly those that are steeped in government involvement.

Read more