Market Structure Insights

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...

December 19, 2018

In the stock market the beatings have been consistent while we all wait for morale to improve. What’s causing it? I’m surprised conservatives haven’t blamed midterm elections. Alert reader Pat Davidson in Wisconsin notes CNBC viewers say tariffs, global economic weakness and Fed rate-hikes are...

December 12, 2018

Surly Furious would be a great name for a rock band. And maybe it describes stocks.  It’s for certain the name of a great Minnesota beer. We are in Minneapolis, one of our favorite cities, where Midwest client services Director Perry Grueber lives, and where...

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