The Game is Rigged?
One byproduct of conversations like the one yesterday about the Occupy Wall Street protests is the sentiment that the stock market is rigged, that the little guy does not have a chance, that the individual investor cannot possibly compete.This raises a...
The Uselessness Of SPX Price Targets
The WSJ had an article about SPX price targets from brokerage firm strategists coming under scrutiny, or maybe fire is a better word. You probably heard that BofA bumped its equity strategist about ten minutes (slight exaggeration) after he reaffirmed ...
Market Commentary From Navin R. Johnson
There are a couple of ways you can take this post. One is that I am a jerk (I have family that will agree with you) and the other is to understand how important it is to call BS on what you are hearing and look at things in their simplest light. Put di...
Slow Rollover Gives Way to Fast Decline
A couple of weeks ago a reader asked a question about the 2% rule which is a way of isolating a slow rollover (2% decline three months in a row). We took some defensive action when the SPX breached its 200 DMA (at the time I joked that if it kept going...
Fade To…Red?
This was a strange open. Everyone on the teevee was calling for the pop to fade. While I believe that a fade was obvious, I guess I am surprised we did fade because so many people called for it.Sorry if that doesn't make sense but that so many people c...
That Didn’t Take Long
Yesterday's little post-market post was reposted by Seeking Alpha very quickly and it was remarkable how quickly the comments filled up with a lot of emotion. Someone called me a moron, there was one about the wealth gap, several about politics; really...
Market Update
I just got back in from playing tennis all morning, did something happen?Relax, just a little humor. The market appears to have entered a panic mode and obviously there is no way to know how long a panic will last. Yesterday and today, we took moderate...
They Blew It All To Hell!
The market action might have left investors feeling like George Taylor (the Heston character) at the end of Planet of the Apes. In this case "they" might be the Congress or the entire political system.Unfortunately the economic data stinks too. As a ve...
Tuesday Tidbits
Yesterday was one of the greatest examples of sell the news I've ever seen. Overnight I had seen the SPX futures up by as much as 20 points. When I got up Monday morning it was down to 14 points. The high for the day was hit at 9:32 and then it cratere...
The Big Picture for the Week of July 31, 2011
A reader asks;Looks like the 3 consecutive months of average 2% declines is upon us...yield curve looks OK, but 200 day MA in play...new bear market or not? First things first, the 200 DMA is my preferred catalyst for defensive action. I don't really t...
Common Sense Is Allowed
Two points that have been made here repeatedly resurfaced elsewhere in the last day or two and are worth repeating.First was an article from theStreet rerun on Yahoo Finance that took on the 4% retirement withdrawal rule. The article cited a study from...
