Blog Archives
The Fred Sanford Way
April 12, 2010
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.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
November 30, 2009
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.
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.
Full Speed Ahead
April 20, 2009
Good morning. Yet another positive week for the market, making it five advancing weeks in a row! Is there anyone out there (except the talking heads on TV who seem able to revise their predictions on the fly) who would have thought that on those dark days of early March?
Technical Difficulties
December 8, 2008
Hello. I am writing a day later than usual due to technical difficulties. It turns out that power surges are very bad for old monitors with transformers, even with power strips intact. Look at the bright side, armed with new monitors we can talk about yesterday’s rally. Pretty serious rally, it has now carried the market up 22% from the SPY market low of $74.34 on November 21 to $91 yesterday.