I had an interesting conversation with a colleague this morning on the counterintuitive concept of higher energy prices being “good” for equities. For most of my career, the oft-repeated maxim was that higher energy prices were, on balance, a negative for the S&P 500. Essentially, higher energy prices translate into lower margins for companies that…
S&P 500
Keeping It Real: Dow Broke 10k Because IBM Didn't Split Too Often
All of my fellow bloggers are gonna do their Dow 10k pieces today, so I may as well join the cacophony… I’ve learned two important lessons from the thousands of hours of Hip Hop music I’ve consumed… 1. “Kings lose crowns but teachers stay intelligent” – KRS-One 2. Always “keep it real” – Various Artists…
We Are NOT The Champions: 25 Worst S&P Stocks of 2009
Right about now is when they start picking through the trash. As the Taxpayer Rally marches on, there is a huge temptation for managers to go “dumpster diving” for stocks that have underperformed. I think we’re approaching that point right here with the S&P 500 sporting a year-to-date gain of 16.5% (and a much bigger one…
About That Hedge Fund Renaissance You Were Told Of Yesterday
For some reason, yesterday I heard the soundbite that “Hedge funds are back! On pace to have their best month/quarter/year since blah blah blah” repeated at least a dozen times. Absurd. I can think of several high net worth people I’ve spoken with in just the last few weeks that would give up a firstborn…
Halfway Through?
Click Image to Embiggen Doug Short‘s really done a fantastic job on this one…a chart comparing our current nasty bear market (summer rally notwithstanding) with both the 20 year bear market that followed the Crash of ’29 and the lost pair of decades for the Nikkei that began in 1989. The most important thing to…
Breakfast Links: Trader Mark, Judd Apatow and the Cankle Epidemic
Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… The NYSE applies the old “Grandmother Rule” in it’s barring of a bad broker. (SEC Teaparty) Javier Bardem is out as the villain of the Wall Street sequel. Check out the comments section on Dealbreaker for some of the most hilarious replacement suggestions imaginable. (Dealbreaker) So far, a monstrous comeback…
Eric Jackson on The Best Corporate Boards
If you don’t know Eric Jackson, he’s an activist shareholder through his fund Ironfire Capital and he also writes a terrific blog called Breakout Performance. When a knowledgeable activist talks governance and the quality of corporate boards, I try to listen and learn something. Jackson came upon something interesting during the course of his research…
We're All Correlated Now
Lockstep Main Entry: lock·step Pronunciation: ˈläk-ˌstep Function: noun 1 : a mode of marching in step by a body of persons going one after another as closely as possible 2 : a standard method or procedure that is mindlessly adhered to or that minimizes individuality — in lockstep : in perfect or rigid often mindless…
Market Recap: Monster Day for US Market, Vegas Stocks Lead the Way
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2311899&w=425&h=350&fv=m%3D27467187%26type%3Dvideo%26a%3D0] Let me get this straight, Obama hosted an unscripted Q&A and the market still went up triple digits? That’s Gangsta. This will take some getting used to as our prior President wasn’t that good at the whole off-the-cuff thing. The mark-to-market standards easing, while already telegraphed in advance, was like an anabolic steroid…
Barron's Buzz: January 4th, 2009
Quick thoughts on this week’s Barron’s… Bubble in Treasuries? Yeah, probably…Read the cover article, called Get Out Now by Andrew Bary and you decide. Kopin Tan does the obligatory “cash on the sidelines about to come into the market” story in The Trader column. I’ll admit, the figures are huge, but they’ve always seemed huge,…
