Returning readers will be familiar with our continued negative outlooks for many of the market’s problem children – financials, REITs, and certain commodities. A short while ago, we posted about an aggressive series of trades on that thesis, and promised to track the progress of both the underlying positions as well as a specific options [...]
Entries Tagged as 'The Markets'
All Data Points to Getting Short the Market
January 30th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Hot Stocks, The Markets
This recent post on the TradeKing community site got me thinking about current sentiment among traders, and what implications (if any) it has for the markets going forward. Regular readers have seen bearish stances over the past several months on financials and energy, along with a focus on alternative strategies to earn profits when the [...]
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Trading Financials: Managing Risk a Must
January 19th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Hot Stocks, The Markets
One thing we have focused on heavily in the last month is presenting strategies used to create absolute returns – that is, manage risk and turn trading profits regardless of the general market’s direction. It’s a difficult market, and the days where simply owning a handful of hot tech or commodity stocks could result in [...]
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Absolute Returns for Individual Investors: Commodities, Part II
January 15th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Hot Stocks, The Markets
In the previous article introducing commodities, one strategy that was mentioned was relative value trading using long positions paired with short positions. A benefit of this strategy is that having both long and short positions can help offset broader market moves; for a more detailed explanation see “Absolute Returns for Individual Investors: Long/Short”. When [...]
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Absolute Returns for Individual Investors: Commodities, Part I
January 14th, 2009 · No Comments · The Markets
As the established order of the financial system underwent upheaval in 2008, the Federal Reserve responded by greatly expanding its balance sheet, ostensibly to provide liquidity to a number of strained markets. This means that, after holding Federal Reserve credit outstanding just under $900 billion for most of 2008, the Fed’s expansionary policies mean it [...]
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Absolute Returns for Individual Investors: Convertibles
December 22nd, 2008 · No Comments · Hot Stocks, The Markets
Last time, we discussed how investors willing to analyze opportunities up and down a company’s capital structure open up numerous possibilities to generate absolute returns – in particular, through looking for undervalued embedded options in convertible securities. Reading the last article will be helpful to understanding this one, but an abridged summary is that convertible [...]
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Absolute Returns for Individual Investors: Capital Structure
December 19th, 2008 · No Comments · The Markets
As was discussed last time, all too often investors handicap themselves by defaulting to the long-only equity investment strategy. While equity ownership is the best path to wealth in peaceful and stable capitalist societies, having a portfolio solely comprised of long stock positions is in reality minimal diversification; in cases where the broad markets suffer [...]
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Absolute Returns for Individual Investors: Long/Short
December 15th, 2008 · No Comments · The Markets
Looking through Morningstar mutual fund data the other day, I was struck by the fact that every single US stock fund in their 10,093 fund universe had posted a negative return year-to-date. While eight funds had posted “only” single-digit percent losses, not one fund had a positive return – think about that for a moment. [...]
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