Friday, September 15, 2006

A Lot of Loud Silence

As I peruse throught the various stocks and indices out there, I notice that volume has been gradually decreasing for months and more. It's like more people are either sitting on their bets, pulling out of the markets, or just aren't sure where to go (uncertainty). Sure, a few stocks here and there are moving around, but I sure am noticing a lot of volume trailing away. I suppose whenever the market decides to get moving, it's really gonna move!

Perhaps when the reality of housing hits, ARMs convert, foreclosures go up, cats & dogs start living together, we'll see renewed interest in stocks? Or more running for cover?

Speaking of housing, there's this great comment I read off of my favorite (other) blog, The Big Picture:

"...To complete the global picture, consider this - in one of the condo buildings I surveyed in Pune (near Bombay), the builder told me that 50% of the condos were sold to US investors who used, wait for it, HELOCs in their US properties to buy property in India."

And I thought the lottery was the only tax on stupidity!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Bond-O

My last post addressed how the news and gossip that I read sound very upbeat and positive about the markets. This is a good sign that the smart money might be ready to take some profits. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this rally/correction to the bear-correction may soon be ready for its own correction.

Some say that the bond market contains the 'adults' of the markets, and bond prices are rising. Isn't that a sign that we might be in for some more bad days in stocks? There are all the reasons, FED Watch, Oil prices, housing, etc.. but the fact remains that bonds are rising.

Even this morning, the local Orlando news had a story of realtors admitting that the soft landing is going to be harder than previously thought. They expect the slump in sales to bottom next summer. But they were wrong about the landing (or just didn't want to admit it), so I take their word with a pinch of salt.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Been Off Track

It's been a while since my last post. My excuse is that I haven't had much to say the past few days. I've been busy with work and family, and really haven't been able to keep up on the markets.

This has cost me in my trading as well as my blogging. I've been hammered the past few days, losing gains while not keeping on top of them. Tonight I begin to scan the indices, news, and other blogs that I watch for updates and find out what I've missed. Gold has fallen, oil is down, and the markets have been rallying in concert.

It's been 3 days now for the Nasdaq to rally, and it's showing signs of weekness. Since I've been hurt shorting so many times, I hesitate to short now. I was hoping to become more bullish, probably because of this uptrend that we've been in for a few weeks now. Meanwhile, the prophecies of another major correction in October still linger, with a few mentioning it. Now WOULD be a good time for another correction, because no one expects it.

There are several reasons that things are up this week, Options expiring Friday, oil down, consumer confidence rising, VIX down, optimistic FED expectations, and the smart money is pounding the Bears. I expect to see some profit-taking on Friday as the rest of us newbies decide to go long.

As for myself, I'm going take a good, long look at the big picture before I jump back in.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Long Weekend

Well, the 'adults' are back in the markets, as CNBC put it yesterday. And trading is supposedly back to serious trading, as everything closed way up on Monday.

It's good to see an up-day, but I feel that the recent end-of-summer rally is a bit overbought. In particular, I noticed Ford's chart was showing a weeker slope with possible signs of a turnaround. I shorted yesterday, right before Bill's announcement of his new CEO. The stock is up on the overnight news, but I'm not ready to give up yet. The stop is set, and I expect the price to recover down to the low of a channel, maybe to 7.80, before recovery.

Basically, the good news had already been 'baked in' to Ford's stock. I wanted to go long when I first heard Ford had hired a well-known turnaround manager, but the stock had already rallied. But I watched it rise another 2 bucks while waiting for the rocket fuel to burn out. I don't expect to be short more than a week, as I have good faith in the new CEO. However, it will be a long and slow recovery.

Here's a random question:
Why is it that the really cool/funny commercials these days are by the credit card companies? Namely, the Capital One commercials, and the Citi Identity Theft victims are my favorites today. Until about 5 years ago, the beer commercials were the best. What happened? Did those talented marketers move to companies that serve the credit card companies? Or is this a sign of the times, that money is no longer in beer, but in the financial industry?