Blog Archives
The Water Is Still Cold
August 10, 2009
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.
A Fiasco Here, A Fiasco There
August 3, 2009
Good morning. Another positive week for the market last week, but the rate of advance slowed markedly. The SPY was up from 98.06 to 98.81, or .8% on the week. This increase was a little unusual given that the VIX was actually up significantly on the week, from 23.09 to 25.92. This morning, early, the S&P Futures are up another 10 points after the good car sale numbers following the “Cash for Clunkers” week. We also had a slew of Economists come out over he weekend, most notably Alan Greenspan, saying the recession is over and growth will be better than expected. It is almost frenzied, if you are a prognosticator, to get on board with how good things are going to get very rapidly.
Our “Brand” of Capitalism
April 6, 2009
Good morning. The market, despite a bad start on Monday, had another strong week as the S&P finished at $84.26, up $2.65 or 3%. Friday’s close represents an amazing 26% rally from the lows set on March 6, and for the buy and hold types it gets you back to roughly where you were on Feb. 10. We are still down about 7% on the year, but it sure feels like up compared to the first week of March. Is this a real rally?
Predictions
March 9, 2009
Good morning. Yet another horrible week for the market, as the SPY continued its seemingly relentless slide lower. The SPY finished the week at $68.92, down 6.8% for the week, bringing the yearly carnage to 23.7%. These numbers are despite a fairly substantial closing rally last Friday that had the SPY close 2.7% above its low print, and actually finish up slightly on the day.
The Heart of Darkness
February 18, 2009
Good morning. The hits just keep on coming. Last week the market (SPY) was down $4.22, or 4.9%, and yesterday it followed up with another drop of $3.54, or 4.2%. That brings the unhappy totals for the year to down 12.2%, and it is only mid-February. Yesterday’s “official” reason for the sell-off was the continuing stream of bad economic numbers from Asia and Europe. Remember how we were forced to listen to some of the so-called “experts” within the last couple of years ago telling us how Asia was so strong that even if we went into a recession it would not matter to them? How is that theory working? And why were those morons on my TV set?