Chart o’ the Day: The Annotated Biotech Breakdown

I would say it’s too soon to tell whether or not last Friday’s breakdown for the biotech index will be meaningful or not. Bears will note that the IBB (biotech index ETF) probably topped in late February but the market hasn’t “accepted” it yet. They’ll point to declining momentum indicators like Rate Of Change and…

Moooooooooo! The Ag Trade is Back!

Agricultural commodities, on the whole, have been one of the very worst places to be invested over the last three years. Compressed farm incomes, weak demand from emerging markets and a general distaste for anything real asset-related had kept a lid on prices and investors at bay. Not anymore. Food prices are shooting up dramatically…

Yes, Biotech is a Bubble. SFW.

Let’s start here with George Soros, from a speech he delivered in June 2010: “I have developed a rudimentary theory of bubbles along these lines. Every bubble has two components: an underlying trend that prevails in reality and a misconception relating to that trend. When a positive feedback develops between the trend and the misconception,…

re: ‘Winter of Our Discontent’ references

We’re coming through one of the worst winters – weather-wise – in decades. The economic data is all being skewed by this and S&P 500 company CEOs were more than twice as likely to mention the word “weather” during this earnings season than they were a year ago.  As a result of this dynamic, market…

Earned vs Inherited Wealth

Paul Krugman’s latest tackles the issue of policies that favor inherited wealth more than earned income. He argues that Republicans have become more supportive of old, established money than entrepreneurship in recent years. Consider, as Exhibit A, the Bush tax cuts. Bush did cut the top tax rate on earned income from 39.6 to 35…

The Big Bank Breakout

Financials represent our largest sector weighting on the equity side of the portfolios we manage for clients and they have since early January. I’ve said recently that the biggest, most glaring inefficiency in the entire market right now – at least to my own eye – is the fact that bank stocks are the very…

This Week on TRB

photo: Hindu priests throws colored powder at devotees during Holi celebrations at Bankey Bihari temple in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India, on March 13, 2014. (Reuters/Ahmad Masood) via National Geographic Here were the most read posts on TRB this week, in case you missed them: Is Success Inherited or Learned? Tops, Bottoms & Middles Chart o’ the Day:…