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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/24/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: I recently noted the stock sector rotation that had dramatically shifted patterns of performance in the market. Tracking these themes has been key to trading the market so far this week. Above we see percent changes in the S&P 500 Index (SPY); the financial sector within the S&P 500 universe (XLF); the homebuilders index ($HGX); the consumer discretionary stocks...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: I had to smile when I came across this 2002 article from Forbes titled "Dull is Good: Preferred Stocks". As the charts for two preferred stock ETFs above depict, preferred stocks have been anything but dull in recent weeks. The reason for this, as Index Universe points out , is that the majority of preferred shares are issued by companies in the financial sector....
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Moomin Valley (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
I'm continuing to think things I discussed in . I clearly can't handle the medium term (from more than a day to month) type of trades very well. Even though there are periods when I've done OK with them, there are plenty of other periods when I've gone off the rails. Bruce Hong some of the character traits that make people less suited to trading. I clearly have some of these to some degree. Brett...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/15/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: With the recent crisis among financial institutions promising further economic weakness and an expansion of fiscal deficits, the decline in the U.S. dollar (blue line above) has gotten the attention of traders and investors. I've been hearing particular talk of hedging this dollar weakness through the purchase of gold as an alternative currency. But is gold...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/15/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: The charts above show price changes for the S&P 500 Index (SPY) and seven major regional banks: Bank of America (BAC); Comerica (CMA); Fifth Third Bank (FITB); SunTrust Bank (STI); KeyCorp (KEY); Wachovia Bank (WB); and National City Bank (NCC). The top chart displays the percentage changes from Friday's close to the end of trading today, Monday. The bottom...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/13/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: In what has been billed the third-largest bank failure on record, IndyMac Bank (IMB) has been taken over by federal regulators. According to a weekend Wall St. Journal story, the bank's collapse will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. between $4 billion and $8 billion. That would exhaust over 10% of the entire deposit insurance fund of the FDIC. That...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/12/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: We all know that the way to make money in a bull market is to buy dips. And, indeed, that made traders and investors quite a bit of money from 2003 to mid-2007. As this three-year chart from the excellent Decision Point site makes clear, however, we have been lurching from one period of extended numbers of stocks making new 52-week lows to another since that...
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ETF Trends (Free subscription) | 07/14/2008
... country could fail over the next 12 to 18 months, reports Louise Story for the New York Times . Brett Steenbarger for Seeking Alpha wonders how many other failures are out there, too. He took a look at the year-to-date performance of every publicly traded bank and savings and loan institution and found that those doing the best in their sector appear to have conservative lending practices,...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/08/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: Thanks to an alert reader for this heads up on Fed Chair Bernanke's recent speech posted to the FRB website . I found this portion of the speech particularly interesting: In general, our system relies on market discipline to constrain leverage and risk-taking by financial firms, supplemented by prudential oversight when government guarantees (such as deposit...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/08/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: Is the stock market likely to take out its previous day's highs? Are we likely to test or break the prior day's lows? These are the questions I typically ask during the opening minutes of trading. As the day unfolds, I watch short-term sentiment (NYSE TICK, Market Delta ) and the behavior of various market sectors to handicap the odds of making various moves...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/07/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: click to enlarge Last week's indicator review noted that we were oversold, but that indicators were weakening and it was dangerous to try to catch the falling knives. That turned out to be pretty good advice, as we became even more oversold (top chart)--reaching levels seen at recent intermediate-term market bottoms--but continued to see an expansion of stocks...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/07/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: click to enlarge Complete Story »
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/06/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: (Click to enlarge) It was difficult to not notice the swoon in the coal sector ((KOL); pink line above) this past week, even as materials stocks have been in steady retreat ((XLB); blue line). Complete Story »
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/06/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: The Dow has been moving to bear market lows and the number of NYSE common stocks making fresh 52-week lows has taken out its March peak, but so far investors seem to be seeing this as more credit-related sin than tragedy. I've mentioned in the past that there have been spikes in traffic on my blog at recent intermediate-term lows (August, November, January,...
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Seeking Alpha (Free subscription) | 07/04/2008
Brett Steenbarger submits: SFO Magazine has another trading psychology issue available, and there are several articles worthy of a look. Here is the link to my article in that issue . The theme of the issue, as titled on the magazine cover, is "Contain Your Emotions". Here is a sampling of quotes from articles included in the feature: Complete Story »
