Market Structure Insights
February 6, 2019
The Investment Company Institute (ICI) says US equities saw net outflows of $5.1 billion Jan 2-23, the latest data. Add the week ended Dec 26 and a net $26.2 billion left. So how can stocks be up? Maybe flows reversed after the 23rd? Okay, but...
January 30, 2019
Half the volume in the stock market is short – borrowed. Why? It’s the more remarkable because stocks since late December have delivered an epic momentum rebound. A 15% gain is a good year. Half the sectors in the market were up 15% in just...
January 23, 2019
We’re told that on Friday Jan 18, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared on optimism about US-China trade, then abruptly yesterday “global growth fears” sparked a selloff. Directional changes in a day don’t reflect buy-and-hold behavior, so why do headline writers insist on trying to...
January 16, 2019
Do we need another stock exchange? I’ve been asked this question repeatedly since Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, E*TRADE, Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley, TD Ameritrade, UBS, and Virtu Financial agreed Jan 7 to collaborate on seeking approval for a 14th official...
January 9, 2019
Paul Rowady writing at Alphacution says 67% of securities in US stock markets are derivatives dependent on an underlying 33%, made up of company stocks. It’s leveraged. We can talk about ramifications at the end. To begin, the point is to understand, investors and investor-relations...
January 2, 2019
For the Federal Reserve, 2018 was the end of the lane. For us, 2019 is fresh and new, and we’re hitting it running. The market comes stumbling in (anybody remember Suzy Quatro?). The Dow Jones dropped 6% as it did in 2000. The index fell...