Over the course of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, I burned out.
I no longer had any interest in penning my "Weekend Wrap," as it has come to be known. The stock market was no longer of any interest to me. I didn't write my usual column, and, I didn't write my daily market commentary on Tuesday either.
It's not as if this was a sudden, knee-jerk reaction to anything. This has been brewing inside me for a long time. Obviously, I don't even care anymore to write in the third person, as has been the usual mode of this blog. It's just not important, just as money and markets aren't important, to me, at least.
Maybe money is important to you. Maybe the ups and downs of Wall Street matter to you, to your feelings of well being, to your existence. Money and markets are not existential prerogatives to me. Never have been. And now, they really don't matter at all.
I took an interest in stocks, bonds, money, and business when I was very young. At the age of six, I was intrigued by the small type in the newspaper displaying the gains and losses of big companies. To me, at such a tender age, the world of business and finance was a fantastic place populated by titans of industry, upstanding men of character and wisdom who employed their thinking and inventiveness to build fabulous engines of wealth. Such a fascination with money and business served me well along my path through adolescence and into adulthood. I conceived any number of business ideas, launched most, failed at many, until finally, by age 30, I found success in the newspaper business.
Perhaps the rude awakening to how business actually operated was where my burnout began and it just took a long time for me to realize it. I don't like the way business is conducted anymore. When I was in business - in the 80s, before the internet - an office, a phone, and a car were just about all one needed to get oneself on the path to riches. Almost all of the deals and ad sales I did were in person. A few were done by phone, but a follow-up personal visit was always required. I did business with people, in person. Try that today and you'll be laughed out of most places. It's an email, a text, a slick website and an electronic funds transfer. Done.
Wall Street, for all it's glamor and glory, is different now as well. A quarter point or half point gain - which used to be a big deal - is now 0.25 or 0.50, and it's nothing. Hedge funds, fake news, the Federal Reserve, and a host of unseen forces - algorithms, HFTs, ETFs, the PPT - have destroyed whatever was left of free markets and the "old Wall Street after the ravages of 9/11/2001. There's no Louis Rukeyser's "Wall Street Week" on Friday nights. Today it's CNBC, wall-to-wall, all the time, blaring the trumpets for the honorable necessity of owning stocks all day long, all night long.
It's boring, and most of the time, it's meaningless, or downright wrong. Stocks all move in tandem today. There's no science; only emotion, and mine is spent.
My personal short literary demise - which this is - may have more to do with anxiety over the fate of our nation than my dislike for the current rigors of finance. Everything is in chaos and there doesn't seem to be any end to it. Nor is there any sense to it, anymore. Tucker Carlson's tirade from a few weeks back encapsulates much of what I'm feeling, but, for me, there's more.
There has to be more than stocks. When I figure out what that is, I'll be back.
Showing posts with label HFT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HFT. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Monday, April 9, 2018
It's OVER! Dow Transports Confirm Dow Theory Primary Trend Change Bull to Bear
Right off the bat, here's the theme for today's trading: Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons 1964 hit, "Dawn."
For the uninformed, today's epic pump-and-dump collapse on all the major indices was more than just "the usual." It was, simply put, a day to be marked in financial history, the day the most phony, contrived and manipulated bull market that ever existed, died an overdue death and gave birth to a bona fide bear market, something most of today's millennial day-trading demons have never experienced.
Why would the death of a bull market and the beginning of a bear market be something suitable for celebration?
Good question.
Here's an even better answer: because the bull market, which started March 9, 2009 - nine years and one month, to the day - was one built on fumes and Fed happy talk, endless fiat money printing, rounds and rounds of Quantitative Easing (QE), artificially low interest rates approaching zero (ZIRP) and corporate stock buybacks of unprecedented quantity. Almost nowhere was there a single sign of real growth; much of the gains in stocks were due to buyback manipulation as gross revenue stagnated for nearly a decade.
It was a decade of fakery, of spoofing and high frequency trading as GDP never reached three percent until nearing the end, and never actually did for a full year, including 2017, the last. Almost all of the supposed growth in the "recovery" was due to inflation, nothing else. A false sense of security was promoted by the governors and presidents of the Federal Reserve System and their regional banks and the public gobbled it up.
Meanwhile, in the real world, mark to market had been replaced by mark to fantasy, and price discovery was banished from the equity world.
According to Dow Theory - a nearly infallible projecting tool - as the Dow Transportation Index closed today below the February 9 low of 10,136.61, at 10,119.36, confirming the primary trend change, the bull market can be properly buried and a bear market born.
For anyone unfamiliar with Dow Theory, the primary trend change goes like this:
New Closing Low
Interim High, Below Previous High
New Low Below Previous Low.
This simple pattern must occur on both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Transportation Index (confirmation), and here's how it happened.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average made a new all-time high on January 26, 2018 (26,616.71).
On February 8, it closed at 23,860.46 (new low).
On February 26, it closed at 25,709.27 (interim high, lower than previous high).
On March 23, the Industrials closed at 23,533.20 (new low, lower than previous low).
For confirmation, the Dow Jones Transportation Index had made it's new high on January 12, 2018 (11,373.38).
On February 8, it closed at 10,136.61 (new low)
On February 26, it closed at 10,769.84 (interim high, lower than previous high)
On April 9, the Transportation Index closed at 10,119.36 (new low, lower than previous low = primary trend change, bull becomes bear).
Why is this good?
This is good because markets in a stable, trustworthy financial system must have a mechanism to clear mal-investment. Otherwise, stupid money must be purged from the system in order to create real value.
For instance, Facebook, Google, and many other stocks should not be trading as high as they currently are. They are overvalued, promoted by shysters and traded up by fools, one fool greater than the previous one. In other words, this is money chasing an unrealistic return. In order to get back to a realistic, fair, honest market, these stocks must lose value. Some companies will achieve their true value, which is zero. Others will lose 20, 30, maybe even more than 50%. The market will sort out the winners (there will be a few) from the losers (there will be many).
In the end, stocks will be properly valued, but when that time is to come, nobody knows. The perma-bulls out there can take heart that bear markets generally last 14-18 months, some like the one during the Great Depression which began with the stock market collapse in 1929, last much longer. How deep this one will be depends on how quickly stocks revert to an undervalued position, because the market always overshoots on the upside and the downside. There will be a bottom, when it will be wise to buy stocks. The only winning position presently is to sell stocks at a profit, park the money in bonds or money markets and wait for the bottom, which, just like the primary change from bull to bear, will be repeated - in reverse - according to Dow Theory.
For those wishing for the good old days of January 26, a return to those levels may take four to seven years, possibly longer, and, judging by the general insanity plaguing the human race presently, one should prepare for the much longer period. There are mountains of bad investments and onerous debts to be flushed from the system, since they were not flushed out in 2008-09, only papered over by TARP, QE, and ZIRP.
If you must, cry in your beer over the death of the bull. The rest of us will be having a cold one with the new-born bear.
Dow Jones Industrial Average April Scorecard:
At the Close, Monday, April 9, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 23,979.10, +46.34 (+0.19%)
NASDAQ: 6,950.34, +35.23 (+0.51%)
S&P 500: 2,613.16, +8.69 (+0.33%)
NYSE Composite: 12,380.55, +31.44 (+0.25%)
For the uninformed, today's epic pump-and-dump collapse on all the major indices was more than just "the usual." It was, simply put, a day to be marked in financial history, the day the most phony, contrived and manipulated bull market that ever existed, died an overdue death and gave birth to a bona fide bear market, something most of today's millennial day-trading demons have never experienced.
Why would the death of a bull market and the beginning of a bear market be something suitable for celebration?
Good question.
Here's an even better answer: because the bull market, which started March 9, 2009 - nine years and one month, to the day - was one built on fumes and Fed happy talk, endless fiat money printing, rounds and rounds of Quantitative Easing (QE), artificially low interest rates approaching zero (ZIRP) and corporate stock buybacks of unprecedented quantity. Almost nowhere was there a single sign of real growth; much of the gains in stocks were due to buyback manipulation as gross revenue stagnated for nearly a decade.
It was a decade of fakery, of spoofing and high frequency trading as GDP never reached three percent until nearing the end, and never actually did for a full year, including 2017, the last. Almost all of the supposed growth in the "recovery" was due to inflation, nothing else. A false sense of security was promoted by the governors and presidents of the Federal Reserve System and their regional banks and the public gobbled it up.
Meanwhile, in the real world, mark to market had been replaced by mark to fantasy, and price discovery was banished from the equity world.
According to Dow Theory - a nearly infallible projecting tool - as the Dow Transportation Index closed today below the February 9 low of 10,136.61, at 10,119.36, confirming the primary trend change, the bull market can be properly buried and a bear market born.
For anyone unfamiliar with Dow Theory, the primary trend change goes like this:
New Closing Low
Interim High, Below Previous High
New Low Below Previous Low.
This simple pattern must occur on both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Transportation Index (confirmation), and here's how it happened.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average made a new all-time high on January 26, 2018 (26,616.71).
On February 8, it closed at 23,860.46 (new low).
On February 26, it closed at 25,709.27 (interim high, lower than previous high).
On March 23, the Industrials closed at 23,533.20 (new low, lower than previous low).
For confirmation, the Dow Jones Transportation Index had made it's new high on January 12, 2018 (11,373.38).
On February 8, it closed at 10,136.61 (new low)
On February 26, it closed at 10,769.84 (interim high, lower than previous high)
On April 9, the Transportation Index closed at 10,119.36 (new low, lower than previous low = primary trend change, bull becomes bear).
Why is this good?
This is good because markets in a stable, trustworthy financial system must have a mechanism to clear mal-investment. Otherwise, stupid money must be purged from the system in order to create real value.
For instance, Facebook, Google, and many other stocks should not be trading as high as they currently are. They are overvalued, promoted by shysters and traded up by fools, one fool greater than the previous one. In other words, this is money chasing an unrealistic return. In order to get back to a realistic, fair, honest market, these stocks must lose value. Some companies will achieve their true value, which is zero. Others will lose 20, 30, maybe even more than 50%. The market will sort out the winners (there will be a few) from the losers (there will be many).
In the end, stocks will be properly valued, but when that time is to come, nobody knows. The perma-bulls out there can take heart that bear markets generally last 14-18 months, some like the one during the Great Depression which began with the stock market collapse in 1929, last much longer. How deep this one will be depends on how quickly stocks revert to an undervalued position, because the market always overshoots on the upside and the downside. There will be a bottom, when it will be wise to buy stocks. The only winning position presently is to sell stocks at a profit, park the money in bonds or money markets and wait for the bottom, which, just like the primary change from bull to bear, will be repeated - in reverse - according to Dow Theory.
For those wishing for the good old days of January 26, a return to those levels may take four to seven years, possibly longer, and, judging by the general insanity plaguing the human race presently, one should prepare for the much longer period. There are mountains of bad investments and onerous debts to be flushed from the system, since they were not flushed out in 2008-09, only papered over by TARP, QE, and ZIRP.
If you must, cry in your beer over the death of the bull. The rest of us will be having a cold one with the new-born bear.
Dow Jones Industrial Average April Scorecard:
| Date | Close | Gain/Loss | Cum. G/L |
| 4/2/18 | 23,644.19 | -458.92 | -458.92 |
| 4/3/18 | 24,033.36 | +389.17 | -69.75 |
| 4/4/18 | 24,264.30 | +230.94 | +161.19 |
| 4/5/18 | 24,505.22 | +240.92 | +402.11 |
| 4/6/18 | 23,932.76 | -572.46 | -170.35 |
| 4/9/18 | 23,979.10 | +46.34 | -134.01 |
At the Close, Monday, April 9, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 23,979.10, +46.34 (+0.19%)
NASDAQ: 6,950.34, +35.23 (+0.51%)
S&P 500: 2,613.16, +8.69 (+0.33%)
NYSE Composite: 12,380.55, +31.44 (+0.25%)
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
This Crash Has Been Interrupted... for now
While the world's richest and most-influential types were sipping Valpolicella, stuffing themselves full of petit fours at the World Economic Forum in Davos, markets around the world were in turmoil.
Wednesday saw Asian markets fall completely out of bed, with the Nikkei falling into bear market territory for the first time, and Hong Knog's Hang Seng Index off by nearly 750 points and four percent. For a change, it wasn't the Shanghai SSE leading the way. It was down a mere one percent.
Spilling over into the European session, the feeling continued, just as it had almost every day of the new year. The Dax was a relative out-performer, with the German shares off just 2.82%, better, by comparison, than the FTSE 100 (-3.46) and the CAC 40 (-3.45). In effect, the day was a massive loss for holders of European stocks.
In the US, stocks were slammed at the opening bell, a knee-jerk reaction to the worldwide carnage, and the three major indices continued lower until just after noon, with the Dow recording a loss of 566 points.
But, all of a sudden, something changed. The Dow, S&P and NASDAQ all began moving the other way, as if somebody had turned a loose screw or flipped a faulty switch, metaphors which may be closer to the truth than anyone would admit to, in the age of HFT and sophisticated algos.
The afternoon was all about erasing the embarrassment of the morning session, and it was done with considerable gusto and untold amounts of money from god-know-whom-or-where. The NASDAQ erased a 125-point decline, moving steadily higher to edge into positive territory in the final hour, though it could not hold onto gains, falling back into the red in the final 20 minutes of trading.
The losses in the other two indices were a little stickier, though the Dow improved dramatically, finishing down by just short of 250 points. The S&P lost 22.
So, what happened? Nothing, really, except that short sellers took profits midday, then sat back and counted their money, supposedly. The smart money - and there always is smart money - is currently on red. And it's going to stay there until the selling stops, which, if the past two weeks are any indication, won't be any time soon.
For instance, the Dow still has 1200 points to get to bear market territory. The NASDAQ and S&P are similarly down about 15% from their highs (last May) and will need a little more time. Don't be surprised if there's a snap-back rally with some ferocity over the next two days as options expire on Friday.
What may be of more technical interest (no pun intended) is the yield on the ten-year note, which closed today under 2.00% for the first time in nearly a year. Following the federal funds rate hike in December, rates were supposed to rise. They've gone in the opposite direction, to the Fed's dismay. Look for the Federal Reserve to call an emergency meeting in the not-so-distant future if the selling doesn't abate shortly.
S&P 500: 1,859.33, -22.00 (1.17%)
Dow: 15,766.74, -249.28 (1.56%)
NASDSAQ: 4,471.69, -5.26 (0.12%)
Crude Oil 26.76 -5.97% Gold 1,101.20 +1.11% EUR/USD 1.0891 -0.18% 10-Yr Bond 1.9840 -2.51% Corn 368.00 +0.07% Copper 1.98 +0.13% Silver 14.17 +0.35% Natural Gas 2.14 +2.58% Russell 2000 999.31 +0.45% VIX 27.59 +5.91% BATS 1000 19,792.43 -1.24% GBP/USD 1.4193 +0.22% USD/JPY 116.9350 -0.60%
Wednesday saw Asian markets fall completely out of bed, with the Nikkei falling into bear market territory for the first time, and Hong Knog's Hang Seng Index off by nearly 750 points and four percent. For a change, it wasn't the Shanghai SSE leading the way. It was down a mere one percent.
Spilling over into the European session, the feeling continued, just as it had almost every day of the new year. The Dax was a relative out-performer, with the German shares off just 2.82%, better, by comparison, than the FTSE 100 (-3.46) and the CAC 40 (-3.45). In effect, the day was a massive loss for holders of European stocks.
In the US, stocks were slammed at the opening bell, a knee-jerk reaction to the worldwide carnage, and the three major indices continued lower until just after noon, with the Dow recording a loss of 566 points.
But, all of a sudden, something changed. The Dow, S&P and NASDAQ all began moving the other way, as if somebody had turned a loose screw or flipped a faulty switch, metaphors which may be closer to the truth than anyone would admit to, in the age of HFT and sophisticated algos.
The afternoon was all about erasing the embarrassment of the morning session, and it was done with considerable gusto and untold amounts of money from god-know-whom-or-where. The NASDAQ erased a 125-point decline, moving steadily higher to edge into positive territory in the final hour, though it could not hold onto gains, falling back into the red in the final 20 minutes of trading.
The losses in the other two indices were a little stickier, though the Dow improved dramatically, finishing down by just short of 250 points. The S&P lost 22.
So, what happened? Nothing, really, except that short sellers took profits midday, then sat back and counted their money, supposedly. The smart money - and there always is smart money - is currently on red. And it's going to stay there until the selling stops, which, if the past two weeks are any indication, won't be any time soon.
For instance, the Dow still has 1200 points to get to bear market territory. The NASDAQ and S&P are similarly down about 15% from their highs (last May) and will need a little more time. Don't be surprised if there's a snap-back rally with some ferocity over the next two days as options expire on Friday.
What may be of more technical interest (no pun intended) is the yield on the ten-year note, which closed today under 2.00% for the first time in nearly a year. Following the federal funds rate hike in December, rates were supposed to rise. They've gone in the opposite direction, to the Fed's dismay. Look for the Federal Reserve to call an emergency meeting in the not-so-distant future if the selling doesn't abate shortly.
S&P 500: 1,859.33, -22.00 (1.17%)
Dow: 15,766.74, -249.28 (1.56%)
NASDSAQ: 4,471.69, -5.26 (0.12%)
Crude Oil 26.76 -5.97% Gold 1,101.20 +1.11% EUR/USD 1.0891 -0.18% 10-Yr Bond 1.9840 -2.51% Corn 368.00 +0.07% Copper 1.98 +0.13% Silver 14.17 +0.35% Natural Gas 2.14 +2.58% Russell 2000 999.31 +0.45% VIX 27.59 +5.91% BATS 1000 19,792.43 -1.24% GBP/USD 1.4193 +0.22% USD/JPY 116.9350 -0.60%
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Wall Street's Summer Doldrums Extend Into 8th Day
For nearly two weeks running, trading ranges on the major indices have been slim and volume exceptionally light, as Wall Street sees no reason to rush either in or out of positions late in the summer.
This kind of trading regime is of no particular value to anybody, even to insiders who depend on at least some shred of volatility to move stocks in one direction or the other.
There's no catalyst for stocks at the present time, a condition which could persist until the elections in November or whenever the Europeans decide to actually do something about their ongoing crisis.
On the other hand, this just could be the "new normal" for US markets, since the triumvirate of high frequency trading (HFT), insider trading and the utter lack of individual investors to trust in the markets, has rendered just about all investment decisions a moot point.
Zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) by the Fed and general fraud on the part of the nation's biggest banks - in collusion with the federal government - have many otherwise investor types on the sidelines in cash or other hard assets like gold, silver or real estate.
About the only thing showing any movement are commodities, and they're moving in a very dangerous direction, with corn prices escalating and oil jumping back up into nose-bleed territory. In a macro sense, high food and energy prices will derail any kind of recovery, even the one we haven't had for the past three years.
Stocks, however, continue to levitate at unreasonable levels, another reason why there isn't much in the way of buying activity, but the conundrum is why there hasn't been more selling, either for profit-taking (and there's been plenty of profit of late) or out of a sense that the bottom is going to fall out of the global economy any day now.
In either case, one would expect some kind of movement, and most likely not to the upside. Corporate profits in the second quarter were barely as good as lowered estimates, small business continues to struggle along, housing is not fixed and unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Perhaps the lesson to be taken from this summer respite is that one can only kick a can so far down a given road until either the road ends or somebody picks up the can for a nickel deposit return.
Something will change to get Wall Street out of its rut, but timing such an event could prove costly and dangerous.
Dow 13,164.78, -7.36 (0.06%)
NASDAQ 3,030.93, +13.95 (0.46%)
S&P 500 1,405.53, +1.60 (0.11%)
NYSE Composite 8,030.08, +10.55 (0.13%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,498,334.250
NYSE Volume 2,527,355.50
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3628-1915
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 152-57
WTI crude oil: 94.33, +0.90
Gold: 1,606.60, +4.20
Silver: 27.81, +0.05
This kind of trading regime is of no particular value to anybody, even to insiders who depend on at least some shred of volatility to move stocks in one direction or the other.
There's no catalyst for stocks at the present time, a condition which could persist until the elections in November or whenever the Europeans decide to actually do something about their ongoing crisis.
On the other hand, this just could be the "new normal" for US markets, since the triumvirate of high frequency trading (HFT), insider trading and the utter lack of individual investors to trust in the markets, has rendered just about all investment decisions a moot point.
Zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) by the Fed and general fraud on the part of the nation's biggest banks - in collusion with the federal government - have many otherwise investor types on the sidelines in cash or other hard assets like gold, silver or real estate.
About the only thing showing any movement are commodities, and they're moving in a very dangerous direction, with corn prices escalating and oil jumping back up into nose-bleed territory. In a macro sense, high food and energy prices will derail any kind of recovery, even the one we haven't had for the past three years.
Stocks, however, continue to levitate at unreasonable levels, another reason why there isn't much in the way of buying activity, but the conundrum is why there hasn't been more selling, either for profit-taking (and there's been plenty of profit of late) or out of a sense that the bottom is going to fall out of the global economy any day now.
In either case, one would expect some kind of movement, and most likely not to the upside. Corporate profits in the second quarter were barely as good as lowered estimates, small business continues to struggle along, housing is not fixed and unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Perhaps the lesson to be taken from this summer respite is that one can only kick a can so far down a given road until either the road ends or somebody picks up the can for a nickel deposit return.
Something will change to get Wall Street out of its rut, but timing such an event could prove costly and dangerous.
Dow 13,164.78, -7.36 (0.06%)
NASDAQ 3,030.93, +13.95 (0.46%)
S&P 500 1,405.53, +1.60 (0.11%)
NYSE Composite 8,030.08, +10.55 (0.13%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,498,334.250
NYSE Volume 2,527,355.50
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3628-1915
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 152-57
WTI crude oil: 94.33, +0.90
Gold: 1,606.60, +4.20
Silver: 27.81, +0.05
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Short-covering, Algo Push, Promises of Free Money Boost Stocks
Stocks were boosted globally on a combination of an HFT algo push, technical bounce, short covering and something of an unveiled promise by the ECB's Mario Draghi, Germany's Queen Angela Merkel and US print primer-in-chief, president 0-blah-blah to create more money out of thin air until all the bad stuff goes away.
Good luck with that.
The sheeple will continue to follow their leaders, nothing will really be fixed, but the sugar high will be nice... until it's not.
If anyone is entertaining the impulse to buy into this rally, be reminded that the bankrupt US banks led the way back above the 200-day moving averages on the S&P, Dow and NYSE. There are more distortions and false tops in the current market than usual, and that's saying quite a lot.
Gold got a bit of a boost, but the day's real winner was silver, closing in fast on $30/ounce.
Nothing has really changed, except the big money on Wall Street placed some short term bets on what appear to be (they're not) cheap stocks. Moves such as today's usually result in tears and pain within a small time frame. However, if every central bank in the world is going to print until they run out of ink, there could be a bit of a lift. Events may change that.
Caution is strongly advised as the correction may or may not be over. Probably the worst time to buy stocks is during a snap-back rally, especially one like this, on no news, data or earnings.
Some of the biggest gains happen within bear markets, so, be advised that we are still in a cyclical bull market ensconced by a secular bear. Profit-taking should commence within the next three trading days. After that, anybody's guess is best, dependent largely upon what Chairman Ben says to the joint committee of congress tomorrow, though our hunch is that he's already let the cat out of the bag to his henchmen on the street.
Dow 12,414.79, +286.84 (2.37%)
NASDAQ 2,844.72, +66.61 (2.40%)
S&P 500 1,315.13, +29.63 (2.30%)
NYSE Composite 7,502.04, +163.41 (2.23%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,671,509,125
NYSE Volume 4,113,058,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4818-849
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 93-33
WTI crude oil: 85.02, +0.73
Gold: 1,634.20, +17.30
Silver: 29.49, +1.08
Good luck with that.
The sheeple will continue to follow their leaders, nothing will really be fixed, but the sugar high will be nice... until it's not.
If anyone is entertaining the impulse to buy into this rally, be reminded that the bankrupt US banks led the way back above the 200-day moving averages on the S&P, Dow and NYSE. There are more distortions and false tops in the current market than usual, and that's saying quite a lot.
Gold got a bit of a boost, but the day's real winner was silver, closing in fast on $30/ounce.
Nothing has really changed, except the big money on Wall Street placed some short term bets on what appear to be (they're not) cheap stocks. Moves such as today's usually result in tears and pain within a small time frame. However, if every central bank in the world is going to print until they run out of ink, there could be a bit of a lift. Events may change that.
Caution is strongly advised as the correction may or may not be over. Probably the worst time to buy stocks is during a snap-back rally, especially one like this, on no news, data or earnings.
Some of the biggest gains happen within bear markets, so, be advised that we are still in a cyclical bull market ensconced by a secular bear. Profit-taking should commence within the next three trading days. After that, anybody's guess is best, dependent largely upon what Chairman Ben says to the joint committee of congress tomorrow, though our hunch is that he's already let the cat out of the bag to his henchmen on the street.
Dow 12,414.79, +286.84 (2.37%)
NASDAQ 2,844.72, +66.61 (2.40%)
S&P 500 1,315.13, +29.63 (2.30%)
NYSE Composite 7,502.04, +163.41 (2.23%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,671,509,125
NYSE Volume 4,113,058,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4818-849
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 93-33
WTI crude oil: 85.02, +0.73
Gold: 1,634.20, +17.30
Silver: 29.49, +1.08
Friday, February 24, 2012
Playing the Market, Twitter-Mob Style; Mogambo Guru Returns
It was certainly an exciting - if uneventful (depending on perspective) - end to the week, as the pumpers on CNBC breathlessly kept viewers in a strange state of animated suspense and anticipation over whether the Dow would actually close above the "psychologically important" (only to them) 13,000 level and the wrangling over details of the latest Greek bailout continued apace across the pond.
But, a funny thing happened on the way to 13,000 - or rather on the way down away from it - this morning, shortly after 10:00 am ET.
With the Dow at what would become the highs of the day, a sudden about-face took place, sending the index screaming for mercy in a 37-point drop over a roughly ten minute span.
Moves like this are not uncommon in the world of fast-paced HTF algos (a subject which has been noted here all too often in the past), but today's event might have had a bit of a different skew. Yesterday afternoon, a group of individuals (no names, please) decided to have a bit of fun, or mischief, possibly at the expense of the well-heeled crowd that convenes on Wall Street regularly.
A plan was concocted to see if a bunch of unrelated, inconspicuous internet users could have an effect on the HTF algos, which, as we know, track headlines from the likes of Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, but also follow trends on social websites like Facebook and Twitter.
The idea was that everyone would Tweet, at precisely 10:03 am, "Greece defaults" and see if the dumb algos would fall for the bait. The tweets went out, not all at the same time, and not uniform by any means, though the 10:03 time-stamp was extended, with various mentions of Greece defaulting flowing into the Twitter-verse in earnest for about twenty minutes.
Whether the tweeters actually managed to trip up the HFT traders and their zipity-do-dah algorithms is now and will likely forever be a matter of speculation, but if there were an actual cause and effect, it brings some interesting - and scary - possibilities to the table.
Suppose such crowd-sourced media were actually effective in moving the algos, thus affecting the price of an entire index? What then would be the effect on an individual stock? Were a group of people intent of making some money with this trick, it might be easier than anyone imagines, somewhat akin to elevator whisper campaigns designed to take down candidates in local elections or the old pump-and-dump strategies that were so effective in the early dotcom days of the internet, circa 1998-2001.
A plan could easily be put together to move a stock a few points in one direction or another, with appropriate bets placed by those "in the know." If truly effective, the profits could be staggering. Truth is, that's probably what has been happening in the US markets and elsewhere for quite some time, but especially theses days, as the market seems less than reluctant to trade on rumors and headlines rather than fundamentals.
Whatever the case, today's experiment via Twitter might raise a few eyebrows and give people some ideas. As for 13,000 on the Dow, the CNBC presenters and those with an emotional tie to the number will just have to wait until next week.
The other major development of the day also took place on the internet, and actually happened on Thursday, when the frightful visage of the Mogambo Guru suddenly reappeared sporting his own blog. The majestic Mogambo Guru (MMG) had been a regular typist and word-twister of financial follies on the Daily Reckoning for a long time, though he had taken an absence from penning the occasional witty and irreverent column (OWAIC).
Now that he's back and regularly submitting his thoughts to the public via a blog there should be little doubt that his hordes of faithful followers (HHOFF) will flock to his work like... ummm, bees to honey, or something like that.
Welcome back, oh great, glorious, hallowed, devious and mischievous Guru! Your absence left a hold in the fabric of time and space, but we're sure you'll be promptly attending to mending it.
Just a few quick notes for the weekend:
Today's volume, which has been horribly anemic on a regular basis anyway, was fairly ghastly today, the lowest in a decade, notes ZeroHedge.
There's a meeting of the G20 in Mexico City over the weekend in which the big fight is supposed to be between the IMF's Christine Lagarde and the finance ministers and representatives of Germany. The IMF wants more dough and the Germans are tiring of spending so much. Besides the main event, the undercard features thousands of police in riot gear protecting the one percenters from rock-hurling Mexican hooligans and potentially, armed drug cartel operatives. One has to admit that setting a meeting of world leaders in a place as dangerous as Mexico City offers a bit of intrigue, to say nothing of its inducement to all kinds of mayhem.
Dow 12,982.95, -1.74 (0.01%)
NASDAQ 2,963.75, +6.77 (0.23%)
S&P 500 1,365.74, +2.28 (0.17%)
NYSE Composite 8,151.96, +15.72 (0.19%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,641,587,000
NYSE Volume 3,367,789,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2827-2792
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 281-11 (Really?)
WTI crude oil: 109.77, +1.94 (pain at the pump)
Gold: 1,776.40, -9.90
Silver: 35.34, -0.22
But, a funny thing happened on the way to 13,000 - or rather on the way down away from it - this morning, shortly after 10:00 am ET.
With the Dow at what would become the highs of the day, a sudden about-face took place, sending the index screaming for mercy in a 37-point drop over a roughly ten minute span.
Moves like this are not uncommon in the world of fast-paced HTF algos (a subject which has been noted here all too often in the past), but today's event might have had a bit of a different skew. Yesterday afternoon, a group of individuals (no names, please) decided to have a bit of fun, or mischief, possibly at the expense of the well-heeled crowd that convenes on Wall Street regularly.
A plan was concocted to see if a bunch of unrelated, inconspicuous internet users could have an effect on the HTF algos, which, as we know, track headlines from the likes of Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, but also follow trends on social websites like Facebook and Twitter.
The idea was that everyone would Tweet, at precisely 10:03 am, "Greece defaults" and see if the dumb algos would fall for the bait. The tweets went out, not all at the same time, and not uniform by any means, though the 10:03 time-stamp was extended, with various mentions of Greece defaulting flowing into the Twitter-verse in earnest for about twenty minutes.
Whether the tweeters actually managed to trip up the HFT traders and their zipity-do-dah algorithms is now and will likely forever be a matter of speculation, but if there were an actual cause and effect, it brings some interesting - and scary - possibilities to the table.
Suppose such crowd-sourced media were actually effective in moving the algos, thus affecting the price of an entire index? What then would be the effect on an individual stock? Were a group of people intent of making some money with this trick, it might be easier than anyone imagines, somewhat akin to elevator whisper campaigns designed to take down candidates in local elections or the old pump-and-dump strategies that were so effective in the early dotcom days of the internet, circa 1998-2001.
A plan could easily be put together to move a stock a few points in one direction or another, with appropriate bets placed by those "in the know." If truly effective, the profits could be staggering. Truth is, that's probably what has been happening in the US markets and elsewhere for quite some time, but especially theses days, as the market seems less than reluctant to trade on rumors and headlines rather than fundamentals.
Whatever the case, today's experiment via Twitter might raise a few eyebrows and give people some ideas. As for 13,000 on the Dow, the CNBC presenters and those with an emotional tie to the number will just have to wait until next week.
The other major development of the day also took place on the internet, and actually happened on Thursday, when the frightful visage of the Mogambo Guru suddenly reappeared sporting his own blog. The majestic Mogambo Guru (MMG) had been a regular typist and word-twister of financial follies on the Daily Reckoning for a long time, though he had taken an absence from penning the occasional witty and irreverent column (OWAIC).
Now that he's back and regularly submitting his thoughts to the public via a blog there should be little doubt that his hordes of faithful followers (HHOFF) will flock to his work like... ummm, bees to honey, or something like that.
Welcome back, oh great, glorious, hallowed, devious and mischievous Guru! Your absence left a hold in the fabric of time and space, but we're sure you'll be promptly attending to mending it.
Just a few quick notes for the weekend:
Today's volume, which has been horribly anemic on a regular basis anyway, was fairly ghastly today, the lowest in a decade, notes ZeroHedge.
There's a meeting of the G20 in Mexico City over the weekend in which the big fight is supposed to be between the IMF's Christine Lagarde and the finance ministers and representatives of Germany. The IMF wants more dough and the Germans are tiring of spending so much. Besides the main event, the undercard features thousands of police in riot gear protecting the one percenters from rock-hurling Mexican hooligans and potentially, armed drug cartel operatives. One has to admit that setting a meeting of world leaders in a place as dangerous as Mexico City offers a bit of intrigue, to say nothing of its inducement to all kinds of mayhem.
Dow 12,982.95, -1.74 (0.01%)
NASDAQ 2,963.75, +6.77 (0.23%)
S&P 500 1,365.74, +2.28 (0.17%)
NYSE Composite 8,151.96, +15.72 (0.19%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,641,587,000
NYSE Volume 3,367,789,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2827-2792
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 281-11 (Really?)
WTI crude oil: 109.77, +1.94 (pain at the pump)
Gold: 1,776.40, -9.90
Silver: 35.34, -0.22
Monday, June 13, 2011
Stocks Up? Not Really.
The desperation, both on Wall Street and in the hallowed halls of Congress and at the white House, is becoming palpable and, if the whole sordid state of affairs of our economy were not so profoundly sad, laughable.
Today, the wizards controlling the High Frequency Trading (HFT) computers, which account for about 75% (some say it's more than that) of all stock trades, managed to send the broad indices up in the morning, down a bit in the afternoon and close nearly unchanged. This is a very neat trick, devised to scalp money from day-traders, hedge funds, momentum players and anyone else foolish enough to venture into the caverns of Wall Street.
What it is not, is indicative of a stable condition in the markets. The current environment is about as unstable as it has been since the fall of 2008, when the entire global financial system nearly fell off the rails. There is the condition of the Greek debt, which sorely needs restructuring and plans have come, gone, come back, been revised, altered, accepted, rejected, sliced, diced, proposed, failed, and eventually found to be lacking. Greece will default; it is only a matter of time, as will Ireland, Spain, Portugal and maybe even Italy, Hungary and other small countries, like Balarus, which already has revalued its currency. Ouch.
It's interesting to note that Belarus took the extreme measure of revaluing its currency in light of a current account deficit that was 16% of GDP. In the US, congress is toying with raising the debt ceiling, and if it does so, will likely result in a current account deficit that's at least 10-12% of GDP. We're getting closer, and we can do it, for sure. USA - USA - USA!
Today's flat line finish was a sham. Take a look at the shattered internals.
Dow 11,952.97, +1.06 (0.01%)
NASDAQ 2,639.69, -4.04 (0.15%)
S&P 500 1,271.83, +0.85 (0.07%)
NYSE Composite 8,017.06, +0.67 (0.01%)
Losing stocks led winners by a wide margin, 3918-2699. NASDAQ new highs: 32; new lows: 139. NYSE new highs 21; new lows: 90. The combined total of 52 new highs and 229 new lows marks the seventh straight day in which new lows have exceeded new highs and indicates, more strongly than ever, that this downturn is going to be deeper and longer than anyone on Wall Street of in Washington is willing to disclose. A few numbers have been bandied about, like 1000 on the S&P and 10,000 on the Dow as possible bottoms, though die-hard deflationists are looking for much lower figures, rivaling or even exceeding the lows of March, 2009.
Volume was, as usual, depressed and depressing.
NASDAQ Volume 1,854,694,875.00
NYSE Volume 4,102,367,000
In deflationist terms, there was good news. WTI crude oil fell by $1.99, to $97.30, the lowest price in month. Now, if drivers can just hang on a while longer, some of the price declines may begin showing up at the pump.
Precious metals were also lower, with gold coming down $16.80, to $1515.30, and silver once again breaking below $35/ounce, down $1.44, to $34.76.
The handwriting is on scrawled across the economic wall: No growth, no wages inflation, no commodity inflation, all assets are due for another round of devaluation. Hold, wait, then buy gold, silver, tools, arable land and other desirable assets.
Today, the wizards controlling the High Frequency Trading (HFT) computers, which account for about 75% (some say it's more than that) of all stock trades, managed to send the broad indices up in the morning, down a bit in the afternoon and close nearly unchanged. This is a very neat trick, devised to scalp money from day-traders, hedge funds, momentum players and anyone else foolish enough to venture into the caverns of Wall Street.
What it is not, is indicative of a stable condition in the markets. The current environment is about as unstable as it has been since the fall of 2008, when the entire global financial system nearly fell off the rails. There is the condition of the Greek debt, which sorely needs restructuring and plans have come, gone, come back, been revised, altered, accepted, rejected, sliced, diced, proposed, failed, and eventually found to be lacking. Greece will default; it is only a matter of time, as will Ireland, Spain, Portugal and maybe even Italy, Hungary and other small countries, like Balarus, which already has revalued its currency. Ouch.
It's interesting to note that Belarus took the extreme measure of revaluing its currency in light of a current account deficit that was 16% of GDP. In the US, congress is toying with raising the debt ceiling, and if it does so, will likely result in a current account deficit that's at least 10-12% of GDP. We're getting closer, and we can do it, for sure. USA - USA - USA!
Today's flat line finish was a sham. Take a look at the shattered internals.
Dow 11,952.97, +1.06 (0.01%)
NASDAQ 2,639.69, -4.04 (0.15%)
S&P 500 1,271.83, +0.85 (0.07%)
NYSE Composite 8,017.06, +0.67 (0.01%)
Losing stocks led winners by a wide margin, 3918-2699. NASDAQ new highs: 32; new lows: 139. NYSE new highs 21; new lows: 90. The combined total of 52 new highs and 229 new lows marks the seventh straight day in which new lows have exceeded new highs and indicates, more strongly than ever, that this downturn is going to be deeper and longer than anyone on Wall Street of in Washington is willing to disclose. A few numbers have been bandied about, like 1000 on the S&P and 10,000 on the Dow as possible bottoms, though die-hard deflationists are looking for much lower figures, rivaling or even exceeding the lows of March, 2009.
Volume was, as usual, depressed and depressing.
NASDAQ Volume 1,854,694,875.00
NYSE Volume 4,102,367,000
In deflationist terms, there was good news. WTI crude oil fell by $1.99, to $97.30, the lowest price in month. Now, if drivers can just hang on a while longer, some of the price declines may begin showing up at the pump.
Precious metals were also lower, with gold coming down $16.80, to $1515.30, and silver once again breaking below $35/ounce, down $1.44, to $34.76.
The handwriting is on scrawled across the economic wall: No growth, no wages inflation, no commodity inflation, all assets are due for another round of devaluation. Hold, wait, then buy gold, silver, tools, arable land and other desirable assets.
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