The Market Structure Map

Economic Downturn
February 26, 2025

It’s been a long time since the Flash Crash. So long in fact that heads of investor relations and chief investment officers of funds have come and gone in between. It was 15 years ago.  The Flash Crash – an excellent name for a rock...

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February 19, 2025

Some stocks are killing it.  A bunch aren’t. Jon Sindreu at the Wall Street Journal called it an “Investing Riddle” (subscription required) that stocks in the market are in turmoil but the stock market isn’t.  Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed at a new record, getting...

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February 12, 2025

Why do sellsiders cover beta? Quast, you’re like a Kendrick Lamar rap: inscrutable. Let me speak English. NVDA, the most widely held stock and a component of the Index Trifecta – Dow Jones Industrials, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 – is covered by 63 sellside research...

SPGlobal 2024 Capital Flows
February 5, 2025

“Really? That’s all the time you spent?” I said,”Yessir. It doesn’t take long to pull weeds.” I think I was twelve.  The mailman had suggested to Walker Fry, the richest guy in Huntington, Oregon, population 530, where I grew up that the Quast kid would...

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January 29, 2025

DeepSeek would be a great name for a rock band. As would Rapeseed, an alternative offered by the helpful Whole Foods staff when I asked for canola oil. Canola so far as I know is unrelated to Nvidia, which is in 756 Exchange Traded Funds....

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January 22, 2025

A headline at Bloomberg from Jan 13, 2025, reads: I was a Wall Street Analyst. They are Irrelevant. The article by opinion columnist Shuli Ren (subscription required), a former sellsider, describes factors reducing the value of sellside research. It’s one of three in a span...

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