This morning the S&P 500 opened above its all-time high of 1878. Looking at the charts, the uninformed investor would surmise that it’s been an easy road for investors. It has not. People have trouble with new all-time highs. We’re programmed to assume that things are about to go the other way. We do dumb…

Tops are a process, Bottoms are an event and Middles are a motherfucker. Because when you’re not at a top or at a bottom, but somewhere in the middle, you spend the bulk of your time worrying about which one of those two you’re closer to. Market-timers don’t live long, it’s a horrible existence.  My…

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According to today’s official release, Zions Banorp was the only major US financial institution found to have failed the Federal Reserve’s “Stress Test” this spring. The CEO is widely expected to commit ritual seppuku on the steps of the company’s headquarters to atone for his disgrace. Just kidding, he’ll get a raise and increased bonus,…

The Federal Reserve is in the process of removing emergency stimulus after having raced headlong into reflating the economy six years ago and keeping its foot on the gas despite all the criticism. We don’t know if the exit will be successful in the end, but so far so good. Europe is a different story….

Your morning financial links, expertly curated.

The Fed’s taper of stimulus continues this month, QE purchases are now set at $55 billion (and dropping). Gone from the statement is the 6.5% unemployment threshold for forward guidance, from now on it will be all “qualititative” which means deciding what they want to do in advance and then weaving an anecdotal tapestry of…

My friend Greg Harmon is a trader’s trader, a real guy who actually does this for a living and not as a role-playing exercise on Twitter. I’ve known Greg for a few years and have been reading his excellent blog Dragonfly Capital for the last three or four years. Greg’s a technician by training and even though…