With 24/7 access to thousands of websites and blogs covering topics as far afield as VIX to private REITS to good old passive equities via ETFs, weeding out the *really* good ones can be a challenge. Although it would be nice to spend all day canvassing the internet for the best ones around, we think […]
Category: Your Investments
03
Jan
2019
Asset Class Scoreboard: An Ugly 2018
Well that was ugly…. 2018 is in the books, and looking at the asset class scoreboard for the full year is like looking at who won in a race to zero. What was down? Take your pick! Stocks, yep. World Stocks (worse). Commodities (worse yet). Real Estate (down). The diversifiers Hedge Funds and Managed Futures? […]
31
Dec
2018
The best and worst futures markets in 2018.
With 2018 coming to a close, we’d once again like to take a look at the best and worst of this year’s futures markets. Using the year to date tab over on finviz on the last day of the year lets us see the 2018 performance of 48 futures markets: What we noticed: VIX […]
11
Dec
2018
Wild Trading is Straining the Plumbing?
You have to hand it to the WSJ – they really know how to make the safety of Trillions of Dollars in derivatives trading across dozens of exchanges look pretty pedestrian. Their hero image of the firm, which cleared 4.3 Billion contracts last year and holds about $130 Billion in margin deposits for clients, is […]
10
Dec
2018
Asset Class scoreboard: November
How did it get to be December 10th already? We feel like we were just having turkey and pumpkin pie last week, but looks like we’re already a week into the last month of the year. Which brings us to a delayed release of last month’s asset class scoreboard, where it was a reversal of […]
26
Nov
2018
Crude has dropped 25%, is it in a Down Trend?
It’s been no secret that Alternative investments haven’t provided on their promise of diversification during the recent sell off in equity markets (even if that promise is based on providing non-correlation, not negative correlation at each down turn). The excuses are mostly valid – in that the sell off was a reversal of an up […]
14
Nov
2018
Natural Gas back to Widowmaking?
While natural gas over much of past 4 years has been about as fun as watching paint dry – staying mostly in a range between 2.50 and 3.50, it has picked up in activity as of late, shooting up about 17% today behind some cold weather in the Northeast. It was enough to get Josh […]
05
Nov
2018
Asset Class scoreboard: Red October
Even if one of our favorite books/movies is the Hunt for Red October – it was a little disconcerting to see a sea of red on the asset class scoreboard in October – with nowhere to hide among traditional stocks and bonds or alternatives like Managed Futures, Hedge Funds, and Commodities. No quarter was given […]
01
Nov
2018
AMAZONIAN sized risk
We can’t help but stare at the Amazon ($AMZN) charts this month in amazement. An investment down -25% over the case of a few weeks is generally seen as an unmitigated disaster. As a sign of big problems and a failing business. But while Amazon has shed a quarter of its Trillion dollar value recently […]
25
Oct
2018
VIX: Not All 1,000 pt drops are the same
We jokingly tweeted out yesterday how the VIX’s three different reactions to seemingly similar market sell offs this year has reminded us of the many faces of Jim Carrey. Here’s the imagery to go along with that concept: But all jokes aside, it’s worth noting the movement […]
