I’ve made it a point not to use this blog to say “I told you so” over the years, which is probably why it remains among the most-read in finance while so many others have come and gone. The braggarts and table-pounders have been picked off one-by-one since I got started – either their blogs…

Posting will be light for the remainder of this week as I make my way to Austin, Texas for an educational conference (and hopefully some barbecue). I may or may not be on 6th Street tonight, depending on when my plane lands. In ther meantime, I leave you in the capable hands of Mr. Tadas…

  Cartoon by Harley Schwadron

Retail Sales for the month of December shocked The Street to the downside. via the Wall Street Journal: U.S. sales at retailers and restaurants decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.9% in December from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was the largest monthly decline since January 2014. Excluding gasoline sales, purchases fell 0.4%,…

Uber-quant investor Jim O’Shaughnessy did Squawk Box this morning and talked a bit about where the opportunities lie in 2015. More importantly than any “picks”, however, is the way he describes his process. At my firm, RWM, we’re big fans of OSAM and the way they manage money.

The absolute level of margin debt is a traditional boogeyman the bears like to pull out from time to time. This is because large numbers – especially record large numbers – tend to get people’s attention and everyone knows that debt is “bad” or indicates too much optimism / speculative fervor. But the bears have…

Whether it’s hedging or spec, commodity and futures trading volumes have been taking off. The CME, where much of this activity is hosted, just put out the below infographic with the accompanying release: CHICAGO, Jan. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — During 2014, a number of market-moving events led to seismic shifts in volatility. As a result, market…