It has been a bad week for most managed futures programs. Choppy conditions, including the reversal of the recent down move over the past two days, has made it difficult for many programs to recover from the commodity price correction. And about that price correction… we seem stuck in a sideways price action, which looks […]
Category: Off Topic
20
May
2011
19
May
2011
Asset Class Scoreboard Through April 2011
It’s time to update our asset class scorecard through the end April. Compared to the numbers we reported for March, it seems as though the general ascent has continued. Commodities, real estate, US and World stocks, and hedge funds continued to bring in positive returns, while bonds and managed futures did an about face. But […]
18
May
2011
The end of the commodity rally? Not so fast…
With Silver down 29.703% from its high, Crude down 12.54%% from its high, and markets like Cattle, Sugar, and Cotton at multi-month lows – the press has been calling it the end. But it seemed just a little too easy to us. Now, don’t get us wrong, we’re all for cheaper prices at the pump, […]
13
May
2011
Weekend Reads
It was one of those weeks. Commodity prices, by and large, stayed low. Penson got into a world of trouble. Gas prices are still obnoxiously high. But it’s now the weekend, so enjoy these reads and relax until the work-week grind begins again. Why won’t the Fed fight inflation (Forbes) Good insight into why/how prices […]
11
May
2011
How long would you sit in jail for $1 billion?
The news story dominating the airwaves is the guilty verdict delivered today for one Raj Rajaratnam- the infamous hedge fund chief who was taken to task for alleged insider trading in 2009. He was found guilty of 5 counts of conspiracy and 9 counts of securities fraud, which theoretically, if maximum sentencing and fines take […]
06
May
2011
Weekend Reads
It finally happened… commodity prices came tumbling down. We’ve spent a fair amount of time covering the issues, but it’s the weekend now. It’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy some entertaining reads: The Risk of Risk Management (ReformedBroker) Ten reasons the world economy may be going soft (Telegraph) CME explains the method behind […]
05
May
2011
Revenge of the Fifth
Star Wars fans (not just those who like the movies, but the really disturbed ones with action figures still in their packaging) know today as ‘Revenge of the Fifth’, a knock off of the final movie installment ‘Revenge of the Sith’, and following the ‘May the 4th be with you’ Star Wars holiday on May […]
04
May
2011
Is Gold REALLY a Flight to Safety Investment?
It is hard to turn on CNBC or read an investment website these days without hearing of Gold as a ‘safe haven’ or ‘flight to safety’ investment. (See here and here as examples) But following a 2% or so drop in gold earlier today whilst stocks were also down (about -1%), and the general feeling […]
02
May
2011
So you want to trade silver…
Last night we saw silver futures fall from a high of 48.19 all the way down to 42.20… a move of –12.42% in a one hour’s time. Talk about a flash crash. Reasons varied between exchange margin hikes last week and MF Global margin hike Friday night. And now here we are just 20 hours […]
02
May
2011
Special Reads Post: Bin Laden’s Death
The major event dominating news coverage today is death of Osama Bin Laden at American hands. The markets don’t seem to be responding as much as might have been predicted, so we’ll reserve judgment on its impact for a later date. While politics and warfare are not our areas of expertise, it’s still a momentous […]
