The Market Structure Map
January 21, 2026
The number of Large Cap Blend Exchange Traded Funds holding a deal stock dropped 40% in the two months after the announcement. Most investment bankers don’t know that deal stocks can struggle not because investors reject transactions but because they skew from benchmarks – and...
January 14, 2026
Should the Federal Reserve be independent? Depending on how you count, the enumerated powers of the United States government in Article I Section 8 of our Constitution are about 20. And all of these powers are a single sentence with clauses separated by semicolons. Two...
January 7, 2026
If we need more proof that the stock market is an autonomous system, look no further than a rally on the “Donroe Doctrine,” as some are calling it. Happy New Year! We resume our coverage of US equity market structure, the mechanics of stocks. I’m...
December 17, 2025
The market isn’t really the market. Yesterday, I told Diane King Hall on Schwab Network that futures are no crystal ball. Cracked myself up with that. I meant signals from futures contracts for benchmarks like the S&P 500 often are wrong. Why is that?...
December 10, 2025
I don’t know if it’s better to be the Wildebeest or the Hyena. But there’s safety in the herd. That’s one conclusion from my NIRI Senior Roundtable panel last Thursday with Simplify Asset Management chief strategist Mike Green (who is now also the economics rockstar...
December 3, 2025
Where is the money coming from? It’s the question Karen and I had down in Cabo ahead of Thanksgiving as we observed the hillsides overlooking the Sea of Cortez now festooned with elegant homes. It wasn’t that way the last time I visited 25 years...