Blog Archives

What Ever Happened to Mayberry?

November 22, 2010

Good morning. There was conflicting news in the market last week that had the market moving fairly violently on an intraday basis, only to close almost exactly unchanged. The SPY closed up a whole .09, at 120.29, after trading as low as 117.59 on Tuesday. The VIX closed down a solid 12% at 18.04, reflecting confidence that nothing bad will happen in the upcoming Thanksgiving week, or maybe for the rest of the year. Normally that would be the case, quiet trading before and after the holiday, but the recent few years have been anything but normal.

Escalation Clause

November 8, 2010

Good morning. Huge gains for the market last week, with the SPY’s up 3.6% to close at 122.72. This was primarily due to the announcement by the Fed on Wednesday that they were going to peg the so-called quantitative easing (QE II) at around $70B per month to a total of $600B. I think this number is in excess of the “street” number of $500B and I suspect the $70B per month is a little more aggressive than most thought before the announcement.

Blago and Bernie

December 15, 2008

Good morning. We actually had an inside week for the market last week, with the SPY down only about a point on the week. The VIX (volatility calculation for the S&P 500) was also down around four points on the week, still closing at a very historically elevated 54.28.