by phil - October 23rd, 2014 7:56 am
We decided to give yesterday a pass.
Though the indexes failed to hold our strong bounce lines (well, 3 of 5 did), we can blame Canada for that one as a gunman shot up Parliament yesterday afternoon and the "terrorist attack" news sent our markets lower. Other than that (and these things are unavoidable when you sell 500M guns to 400M people in North America), it wasn't a bad day for the markets, so we're going to wait and see what actually sticks. Our watch levels remain:
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Dow 16,466 (weak) and 16,632 (strong).
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S&P 1,878 (weak) and 1,903 (strong).
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Nasdaq 4,280 (weak) and 4,360 (strong).
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NYSE 10,360 (weak) and 10,540 (strong).
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Russell 1,104 (weak) and 1,128 (strong).
So the Dow fell almost exactly from it's strong bounce to it's weak bounce yesterday. Aside from confirming the 5% Rule™ is firmly in charge, holding the weak bounce line is bullish – IF it holds. The S&P and Nasdaq held their strong bounce lines (thanks to AAPL) while the NYSE stayed in it's range but the Russell was a big disappointment and failed the weak bounce – a very bad sign if they can't take it back today.
We had a lot of fun playing the Russell Futures yesterday, starting with my too-early short…

Tags: Butterfly Portfolio, CZR, Futures Trading Workshop, GSK, Las Vegas Seminar, Live Trading Seminar, Russell 2000, Russell Futures, TNA, Trade Alerts, trading profits
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by ilene - May 10th, 2010 2:25 pm
Jesse converses with his pit-dwelling friend and shares what he learned at the Cafe. – Ilene
Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays…
We are beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life. In this process evil things formerly accepted will not be so easily condoned…"
Franklin D Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 1937
The hubris associated with the trading crowd is peaking, and heading for a fall that could be a terrific surprise. It seems to be reaching a peak, trading now in a kind of euphoria.
I had a conversation this morning with a trader that I have known from the 1990′s, which is a lifetime in this business. I have to admit that he is successful, moreso than any of the popular retail advisory services you might follow such as Elliott Wave, for example, which he views with contempt. He is a little bit of an insider, and knows the markets and what makes them tick.
He likes to pick my brain on some topics that he understands much less, such as the currency markets and monetary developments, and sometimes weaves them into his commentary, always without attribution. He has been a dollar bull forever, and his worst trading is in the metals. He likes to short gold and silver on principle, and always seems to lose because he rarely honors his first stop loss, which is a shocking lapse in trading discipline.
His tone was ebullient. The Street has won, it owns the markets. They can take it up, and take it down, and make money on both sides, any side, of any market move. I have to admit that in the last quarter his trading results are impeccable.
We diverged into the dollar, which he typically views as unbeatable, with the US dominating the international financial system forever. He likes to ask questions about formal economic terms and relationships, or monetary systems and policy. He
…

Tags: AIG, Bear Stearns, derivatives, Dollar, financial industry, Gold, Goldman Sachs, Greece, investigations, Lehman, SEC, stock markets, trading profits
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by ilene - May 10th, 2010 11:33 am
Courtesy of Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
If you ever wanted to see what monopoly looks like in chart form, here it is:

In the quarter ended March 31, Goldman made money on every single trading day. The firm did not record a loss of even $0.01 on even one day in the last quarter. That’s 63 days profitable out of 63 trading days. The statistic probability of this event is itself statistically undefined. Goldman is now the market – or, in keeping with modern market reality, Goldman is the house, it controls the casino, and always wins. Congratulations America: you now have far, far better odds in Las Vegas that you have making money with your E-Trade account.
Adding to the alice in wonderland insanity of this announcement, the firm made over $100 million daily on 35 different days. Of Goldman’s $9.7 billion in total Q1 revenue, 76% came from trading. Forget investment banking, forget underwriting, forget advisory: over three quarters of the firm’s value is based on being the house to the biggest corrupt casino in existence. Ever.
Tags: casinos, Goldman Sachs, Stock Market, trading profits
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