Blog Archives
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.
Politics As Usual
November 1, 2010
Good morning. A very quiet finish to the market last week as the nation prepares to go to the polls this coming Tuesday. Someday someone will explain to me (officially) why elections are not held on a Sunday like in Europe, but I guess the unofficial reason that those in power really do not want big turnouts will suffice. This election, at least in Illinois, has been particularly nasty, with a lot of outside money entering the state (a lot due to the absurd Supreme Court ruling last year) that is virtually untraceable as to its real source.
Traditionalists Ask “Why?”
October 12, 2009
Happy Columbus Day. Remember to feed the meters even though all public employees are enjoying a paid Holiday. More on that later. The market had a huge rebound week last week, and we are on the verge of totally forgetting that nasty, and ultimately forgettable to some, sell-off of the last two years. The SPY rallied from 102.49 to 107.26, a very large weekly move of 4.7%. The VIX was pummeled, starting the week at 28.68 and finishing 19% lower at 23.12. So we are to believe that not only is the market going straight up, and your investment in the market worth more, the insurance on the now higher value should be less. I thought the market was supposed to be rational?
The Corporation: A Portrait of Dysfunction
February 9, 2009
Good morning. We actually started the month of February with a solid advance, with the SPY up $4.15 (or 5%) on the week. This still leaves the SPY down around 3.6% for the year, but still a real advance cutting the losses for the year roughly in half. The VIX was down from 44.84 to 43.36 (3%) for the week, moving in the expected direction for an up week, but still hanging historically very high.
Trillions
February 2, 2009
Good morning. Another week, another sell-off in the S&P. The good news is that the week was only down a little, about .3%, the bad news is that there was a 3.4% up day erased. The up day was caused by the announcement that the Obama administration was going to announce a so-called bad bank to take bad assets from struggling commercial banks, the subsequent sell-off was caused by glitches in that plan as well as increasing issues with the new stimulus package.