Posted on 09/16/2013 3:25:39 AM PDT by expat_panama
This is the Weekly Investment & Finance Thread (Sept.-16-20 edition)----
Trying to focus on the markets for today and each day and the economic news
This is where you can exchange some investment opinions and advice
If you see another FR economic thread you like and want to link to it here, please do
Post your favorite economic site links. Your favorite economic blogs and precious metals blogs and sites
Ping list -- on or off let me know here or via freep-mail. If I missed you then Freep-mail me
I might ping you to other interesting economic threads a few times a week. One per day maybe
Sites that posters have recommended ------
Over all markets looking up this morning with stocks on top ( see Futures Heat Map). A lot happening today:
First Take: Summers done in by two sets of critics USA TODAY - 11 hours ago SHARE 245 CONNECT 73 TWEET 37 COMMENTEMAILMORE. For Larry Summers, two camps of rivals apparently proved to be one too many. Everyone knew liberals didn't want the former Treasury secretary to be President Obama's pick to chair the ...Fed likely to slow bond buys despite tepid economy By MARTIN CRUTSINGER - AP - 8 mins ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring is soft. Pay is barely up. Consumers are cautious. Economic growth has yet to pick up. (full story)
Obama to tout economy while marking Lehman fall By JIM KUHNHENN - AP - 2 hrs 43 mins ago WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is seeking credit for an economic turnaround, using the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank to highlight signs of recovery and to warn against potentially market-rattling fights over the federal budget and the nation's debt ceiling. (full story)
Former Obama aide Summers withdraws from Fed chair consideration Dollar Drops as Stocks Advance on Summers; Oil Retreats
--and this week's reports start today w/ Capacity Utilization and Industrial Production and then comes CPI, FOMC rates, Claims, Housing, and more...
Pretty good rally if you were in over the weekend and sold early.
DJIA up 0.8%
S&P up 0.6%
NASDAQ flat at -1/10%
http://www.israelbonds.com/invest/investments-current-rates.aspx
I buy foreign stocks all the time --in fact just bot EDU today (Chinese education firm). The thing is I only buy them when they're listed on U.S. exchanges so I get all recourse/transparency stuff I'm used to. Not sure what the story is on foreign bonds tho, please share anything you find out 'cause who knows, bonds just may be the direction we're all going in a week or two. Foreign bonds especially...
Indexes Mixed As Nasdaq Reverses Lower
09/16/2013 07:34 PM ET - Stocks closed mixed Monday, as the Nasdaq continued a lagging trend. The composite fell 0.1% after a bearish reversal that saw the index erase a 0.9% burst at the open. The S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Dow Jones industrial average 0.8% as volume rose across the board. Since the Nasdaq made a new high Sept. 9, it has inched up just 0.3%. By comparison, ... More »
Trying a new short-term (< 1 week) IV arb strategy in options, in this case GMCR. Will report on success/failure on Thursday or Friday.
—and metals futures are down this AM.
If you get a chance, I’d be grateful for some help w/ acronyms ZH and OBRA. In the mean time, I know I got homework to do on Implied Volatility Arbitrage.
OBRA (sic) is a typo. Should have typed OPRA, the Option Price Reporting Authority. Yesterday, oppie prices were simply unavailable for 30-40 minutes. The ultimate player/arbiter/everything else here is OPRA.
The IV trade I'm trying is buying an Oct ATM staddle and writing slightly more OOM strangles that expire this Friday. Clearly, this situationally limits opportunities to those stocks that have weeklies (except for the week of the 3rd Monday of the month), but, seems to me that if there happens to be excess IV on the short side (and, here, it is small, just a couple of points), then the trade should profit.
We shall see, shortly.
Sorry, (mutter)...
I would think the opposite might be true for an extended stock market outage or war or any other economic bad news. But I could be wrong.
A little economic commentary from Mr Cash.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYog4WaB4qQ&feature=youtu.be
It’s an inconvenience when a listing goes down for a half hr but what’s scary is it often gets used by the morons in Washington to say we got a ‘crisis’ that demands massive legislative action. Fortunately what happened w/ NASDAQ not too long ago never got anywhere but we’re still dealing with the messes the lawmakers spit out after Oct. ‘87, the dotcom in ‘00, and Oct. ‘08.
The video was dumb.
I loved it —TX!
Apples and oranges, m'FRiend. As noted in the original post, I think this sort of event-timing (putative) trade is an horrible idea, just awful, no matter whether stocks, options, or kumquat quotes go down.
No 'legislative action' is required to correct this situation, either. SEC have plenary authority already to order the cessation of any form of mkt manipulation. No sane person can possibly argue that HFT is anything other than manipulation (well, HFT practitioners are probably sane enough, but I'm speaking of disinterested parties).
I like HFT's because I make money from them, as does virtually everyone that trades stocks. That makes anyone who never trades "disinterested", and I can understand their favoring government control of capital. It's a controversy; back in August Aliska were talking about this, she felt it was 'cheating' --a view held by many. My view is that I don't mind whenever someone 'cheats' me in a way that I end up making money.
Really? Care to describe your method from profiting on the back of this scheme?
Scheme, backside, hmmm. AH, you're talking about private enterprise and the open market vs state control! Still not sure what you want to know about it.
I mean, you already know that other stuff being equal a market price transaction goes through when the highest offered bid meets the lowest price asked, and that entrepreneurs are constantly looking for market niches which is constantly making trading more efficient therefore more profitable. We also know that that onlookers often try to chisel a percentage without doing any work so they call for government control.
So when I trade I find the HFTers pay me more when I sell and they ask less than the other seller when I buy. I profit. I like profit. I don't like gov't interference stopping my profits. What am I missing?
Seriously, I understand this (like all new market niches) is controversial and that the discussion often tends to generate more heat than light. Please forgive my focus.
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