This post will be 99% anecdotal, 1% empirical, because I haven’t the time or energy to go dig up supporting data for what we all know: Most years, the market rips higher during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve and this one week run is commonly referred to as The Santa Claus Rally….
Trading
Market Rallies Without the Banks
Did you happen to notice that today’s triple digit rally happened without the banks? JPMorgan cut estimates on its peers in financialville and no one seemed to care. Here’s what some of the Money Center banks did on the day: Laggards in Price Performance (Intraday) SUNTRUST BANKS [sti] -1.82% T C F FINANCIAL CORP [tcb]…
New Glossary of Finance Terms Volume II
Back in March, I updated the definitions of several finance terms to better suit the times. Due to popular demand, I’m bringing this feature back this afternoon and covering a handful of definitions for y’all. Here’s the New Glossary of Finance Terms Volume II… Stagflation: This occurs when the number of male deer grows too…
Investing Fads and Themes by Year, 1996 to Present
Take a trip down memory lane with me, if you would, and maybe even have a chuckle at your own expense. After all, at one point or another, we’ve all been caught up in a few of these over the years. Here is Investing Fads and Themes by Year, 1996 to Present It’s right around…
Of Oil and Equities
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…
For Those Keeping Score: Bespoke's Top Performing Stocks of '09 By Sector
The Bespoke Investment Group just posted a phenomenal resource for those keeping score, the Top Performing Stocks By Sector since the beginning of 2009. I was pretty surprised by some of the best in each group. I put up the energy stock top ten above, but I recommend you go and check out the whole…
Eight Trading Superstitions
Every profession has its own idiosyncratic superstitions. In honor of tomorrow being Friday the 13th, I thought this would be a good time to discuss this topic.
Holiday Gift Idea for Traders: Chart Jewelry
Just in time for the holidays, allow me to introduce the new PLOT line of jewelry. Launched by advertising firm Wieden + Kennedy, PLOT takes charts and turns them into wearable art. Below is their gold necklace followed by the gold chart that inspired it: They’ve also done some cool stuff with the charts of…
Insider Trading Cards – Collect 'Em All!
3 Potential Bubbles for Retail Investors
The “everybody’s a real estate mogul” era started innocently enough, with a distaste for the stock market after the dot com meltdown and an incredibly long stretch of time with 1% interest rates. The leap from trading up in house size to using home equity loans for financing boat purchases certainly didn’t take very long. …
