Blog Archives
What is Happening?
August 8, 2011
Good morning. It is hard to even describe what happened in the market/world last week and the ramifications it may have on the economy and individual wealth going forward. The market had a horrible week, with the SPY down 7.2% to close at 120.08. The volatility index (VIX) closed up 27% on the week to close at 32, a level not seen since June 2010. Maybe even more amazing, since the focus of the week was the impending downgrade of the US credit rating, the 30-year bond was up over 3% on the week to close at almost 132, representing a 30-year yield of 3.8%.
Moral Compass of Mayberry
July 18, 2011
Good morning. The market finished down last week despite a late short-covering rally on Friday afternoon. The SPY finished the week down 2.71 to finish at 131.69 (2%) after trading as low as 130.77 on Friday. The VIX soared 23% to close at 19.53 and the GLD (gold ETF) finished the week up 3.3% at 155.19. The market activity can be summarized as a series of fairly violent moves within the range of 130.50-135.50, with a lot of the significant trading taking place outside of normal market hours.
Competing Against Fear
August 16, 2010
Good morning. It was a sharply down week for the market last week, with the SPY closing at 108.31, down 5.08 for the week (3.6%). The VIX, as expected with the market down, ran up 20.7%, closing up 5.5 at 26.23. The close Friday on the September S&P Futures contract of 1076.10 is fairly close to the midpoint of the post-holiday low of 1003 (in the pre-market session on July 6) and the high on August 5 of 1127.
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.
Points of Interest
January 19, 2010
Good morning. While I gather my bearings for the week, I’d like to draw your attention to a couple of things that are of interest to our existing and potential investors: firstly, is that PTI Securities & Futures will be offering a FREE online Protected Index Program® Teleconference on Wednesday, February 3rd from 6:00pm – 7:30pm CST. This live session will be hosted by my brother and President of PTI, Dan Haugh. He will cover the specifics of our successful money management program, discussing the protection and diversification we provide in this long term strategy. In order to participate all you need is a phone and PC. No charges apply. In order to participate, however, you must register to attend – you can view details and register here: www.PTISecurities.com/Education.htm