Courtesy of Mish Banks are not content to have bidders rape taxpayers on their behalf. The banks want to rape taxpayers themselves. Please consider Banks Aiming to Play Both Sides of Coin. Some banks are prodding the government to let them use public money to help buy troubled assets from the banks themselves.Banking trade groups are lobbying the Federal...

Piece From The WaPo: U.S. Weighs Single Agency to Regulate Banking Industry Senior administration officials are considering the creation of a single agency to regulate the banking industry … They favor vesting the Federal Reserve with new powers as a systemic risk regulator, with broad responsibility for detecting threats to the financial system....

If you didn’t make money this month then you weren’t watching Market Club’s Trade Triangles. CURRENCIES May has been quite a month, especially for the British Pound (GBP). In an earlier video, Adam alerted everyone of the potential upward move. The market ended up moving right in line with his expectations and is showing some excellent profits....

8:30 a.m. Initial Jobless Claims 8:30 a.m. April Durable Goods Orders 10:00 a.m. April New Home Sales 10:00 a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer 1:00 p.m. May 22 U.S. Energy Dept. Oil Inventories

The June NASDAQ 100 closed lower on Wednesday due to profit taking as it consolidated some of Tuesday’s rally. The low-range close sets the stage for a steady to lower opening on Thursday. Stochastics and the RSI are turning neutral to bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near-term. If June extends this week’s rally,...

The Nasdaq extended its battle with the 200-day moving average by jumping back above with a big advance on Tuesday. With this latest move, the index has now crossed the 200-day at least five times this month. Notice that yesterday’s surge occurred on the second lowest volume of the month. Courtesy of Stockcharts

July crude oil finished the session higher by 96 cents to $63.41. June nat gas, which expired at the close, ended up 1.8 cents to $3.555. July nat gas closed flat on the session at $3.643. June RBOB gasoline gained 1.16 cents to $1.8524 while June heating oil shed 1.03 cents to $1.535.

It’s crucial in these trying economic times to stretch every penny you spend to grow your trading knowledge. Some companies charge thousands for products and services that are only meant to tease members into buying the next product or service. This is called the up sell, and the up sell is ruining the minds and wallets of traders daily. The answer...

Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider Good news for iPhone app developers: Apple (AAPL) is again giving away a free iPod touch (after rebate) to students who buy a new Mac. While this won’t help Apple’s margins, it means there’s going to be a bigger iPod touch install base to buy more iPhone and iPod touch apps. Apple sold about 3...

Playing FAS & FAZ, IMHO, are NOT the ETFs for retail investors, even in a pairs trade, who are not able to watch their portfolio day-in and day-out. retail investors by definition are not day traders. Pairs trades are sophisticated techniques applied by professional money managers, and hedge funds. They very rarely justify the risk for retail traders...

Pragmatic Capitalist The great debate in investment circles continues to be the inflation story.   We’ve seen huge hedge funds moving into reflation trades (Paulson) while others are still rumored to be playing the deflation card (Hayman Advisor and Bridgwater are notable).   A key component to the inflation trade will clearly be raw material...

Courtesy of Tim Knight at Slope of Hope The fact that the /ES didn’t break 875 is bad news for the bears. Period. The above is a pretty damned bullish chart, as much as I hate to say it. The “upside risk” seems pretty substantial to me, as I look through my general index charts. This market is going to keep climbing higher until some...

Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova of Clusterstock The S&P 500 has rallied nicely off its March lows, but along with nascent signs of a recovery have come higher gas prices. For today’s chart, we went back to 1976, looking at how many gallons of regular unleaded you could buy for the cost of the entire S&P 500. Ever since the peak of...

Lets watch this mornings move. Some are saying the shorts were set up yesterday. Futures just turned positive again so we could have the continuation of a higher move. Below is a chart Courtesy of Trader Mike which paints a clear picture. Soon this will be resolved in one direction or the other. Stay Nimble.