The psychological element of markets is always an interesting thing to study and dissect. While sitting rangebound for seemingly forever, we’ve heard two camps of thought as 4200 on the S&P remains close and yet so far away at the same time. That being, the longer we remain elevated from the October lows, the more bullish for the market. Alternately, the more we go without breaking through that level, the worse it is. With another type of ceiling hovering above the market’s head, it gave invest…

A belated Happy Mother’s Day! Of all the wonderful attributes we can bestow upon this special group, and there are many, patience is most certainly near the top of the list. We’d be wise to follow our mother’s lead as the market continues to be test our collective will over and over again. As if the rangebound market and lighter volumes well before the summer kicks off weren’t enough, we now have the daily debt ceiling dance to contend with. This morning there were fits of optimism that further…

A close friend of mine threw a party to celebrate his birthday over the weekend. That’s all well and good; one should celebrate themselves. The issue lies with the starting time – the host had the temerity to kick things off at 10pm. Egregious and unacceptable. Much like the attendees on Sunday and likely Monday (the 1-day recovery ship sailed long ago..), the market felt a bit tired today, volumes and volatility both lacking. Markets are traipsing into a bit of a new frontier, with all signs p…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSr-VWc_7WQ

Over the weekend I stumbled onto a show I’d heard little about, but immediately binged from start to finish. The concept was so brilliant, the execution so masterful, that I promised I’d tell everyone I know to watch it immediately. And then I remembered about this handy little vessel to help relay that message. The show is Jury Duty on Amazon Prime and you will love it – if not, we may not be able to be friends. Interestingly, it was the media/TV field itself that provided a fair bit of the da…

There’s a lot happening here. And by here I mean the tri-state area. And by happening I mean an orgy of sports fantasticness. The New York Knicks off to a great start in their playoff series, the Brooklyn Nets are…also in the playoffs. All 3 local hockey teams are part of the extended season too, the Rangers and Devils renewing their blood rivalry in Round 1. But you didn’t come here for a sports rundown (happy to provide further though if anyone wants) – while there were a fair bit of things ‘…

If only Uncle Warren was buying up a few firms in the US, perhaps we could’ve had a bit of a better result. We woke up to Mr. Buffett passing out bouquets (and gobs of cash) overseas but his generous spirit translated to little domestically. It feels as if every week we’re readying for some big data point or decision that stunts market activity and this week’s impediment comes in the form of CPI data coming tomorrow. Given it’s pertinence to the Wizard of Oz/Fed, at least you can say investor r…

On a recent vacation, the course I was playing at assigned me a caddie that went by the name ‘Vegas.’ Right then I knew it was going to be a good day. (The score relative to the enjoyable time had was, to borrow an oft-used word of late, ‘mismatched.) But Vegas was offering more than just advice on club selection and before my approach on #1 (stuck it), I was hearing about his option trading and how he’d moved to a longer-dated strategy because he needed more theta. Of course. We could use some…

There are a few axioms in this business that can at least help contribute to a long and fruitful career. One is, don’t go out on a Monday night. Sure it may sound great in theory (it doesn’t) but it sets a pretty arduous tone for the rest of the week. (I’ll give you one guess as to what I was up to last night.) Another one is don’t fight the Fed. And yet the market seems to be fixing for a showdown as it remains steadfast in its belief rate cuts are coming as soon as June. The only issue is Pow…

One wouldn’t think going from Fed chairperson to head of the Treasury would be that big a leap but Ms. Yellen seems to have forgotten the importance of parsing one’s words. (Her and Jerome have each other’s mobile #’s no?) Some confusing commentary seemed to derail the market’s move higher yesterday, although key resistance on futures not holding did contribute to the fail. Today’s initial jump lent new meaning to the axiom that the first move is the wrong one, but it was far from the only one…