“Our stock dropped because Citi downgraded us today.” So said the investor-relations chief for a technology firm last week during options-expirations. For thirty years, this has been the intonation of IR. “We’re moving on the Goldman upgrade.” “UBS lifted its…
View pageThe whole market is behaving as though it’s got an Activist shareholder. In a sense it does. More on that in a minute. We track the effects of Activism on trading and investment behaviors both before it’s widely known and…
View pageThe market appears to have become the Walking Dead. I don’t mean a collection of bodies reduced to bloody pulp by a barbed-wire encased baseball bat. That would be the Presidential election. (Aside: you who watched the new Dead episode…
View pageIn the five trading days ended Oct 17, 49.1% of average daily stock volume was short. “Wait, what?” you say. “Half the stock market is short?” Yes, that’s right. Short volume last topped 49% marketwide in mid-April. The market glided…
View pageLast week a stock strategist said passive investment is worse than Marxism. That’s a way to get attention at risk of offending Marxists. It did (get attention). CNBC covered it. Jason Zweig did too in the Wall Street Journal weekend…
View pageIn Luckenbach, Texas, ain’t nobody feeling no pain. We were just there and I think the reason is the bar out the back of the post office. A country song by that name about this place released in 1977 by…
View pageWhat keeps stocks going is low volatility. By seeking only to earn the spread on each transaction and not bet on the direction of markets, you can make money close to 50 percent of the time. This one sentence from a…
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