A price pattern known as a “rising wedge” can make mince meat of investors caught on the wrong side of the move. This very pattern is unfolding now in the Nasdaq Composite, along with lagging momentum. At the same time, investor optimism is high. Sounds like a “set up.” Behold this wicked chart formation: This chart appeared...

From Nic Lenoir of ICAP The key change in today’s FOMC is the announcement of the reinvestment to keep constant balance of securities purchased by the Fed. While there have been a lot of talks about it, it was not priced in by the market. At a time when the political capital to increase the balance of the purchases is lacking, it’s...

Calculated Risk I think there are three things to look for in the statement today at 2:15 PM ET. 1) How will the statement discuss the recent economic slowdown? From the June 23rd FOMC statement: “Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the economic recovery is proceeding and that the labor market...

by Tyler Durden The Treasury just auctioned off another $34 billion at what appears to be a record low yield of 0.844%, which incidentally came 1.8 bps tight to the When Issued. The Bid To Cover of 3.31 was the second highest in history, lower to just the 3.33 in November of 2009. Direct Bidders continue to take down a major portion of the auction,...

by Tyler Durden In advance of today’s FOMC statement which the entire market is waiting for with bated breath, specifically focusing on just what form any incremental quantitative easing will take (if any), Barclays’ Joseph Abate once again steps back to observe the forest in avoidance of the trees, and asks the critical question: just...

Tim Iacono There seems to be a growing consensus that home prices are headed down, not up, in the absence of free money from Uncle Sam, the only important question being the magnitude of the decline. Housing Wire reports on a few of the latest analysts’ estimates including Moody’s where the chart below was offered. The “vicious cycle”...

by Karl Denninger Pretty amazing when you see something intelligent out of China – that we, and the rest of the so-called “Western World”, refuse to do: The assets linked to wealth management products provided by trust companies must be shifted onto banks’ balance sheets by the end of 2011, the people said, declining to be identified...

To my Market Guardian Readers…Over the last few weeks,  I’ve been working closely with the Internet’s leading expert on Trading Discipline, Norman Hallett. Why? Because in order to take full advantage of the upcoming,  unprecedented profit opportunities the market is about to present  to us, you MUST be disciplined in your trading…...

By: Scott Redler T3Live IBM is one of the few names that has made it through the test of time, and it is trading at the same price it was a decade ago. On the fundamental side, EPS have quadrupled while the dividend has doubled and business is strong. On the technical side, the daily chart is getting very tight with a buyable pivot above 132, then...

Tim Iacono Does anyone else remember a time when there were so many false positives for the economy and financial markets as in recent weeks and months? That is, false so far. The ECRI Weekly Leading Index has been screaming recession for about a month now and all we’ve seen in other economic data is slowing growth (though the jury is certainly...

by Tyler Durden A quick look at market volume: in a word – deplorable. It confirms what Gillian Tett said last week, piggybacking on our ongoing fund outflow observations, that there is “a loss of confidence – not merely in the idea that the future will be a brighter place, but also, most crucially, about whether anybody is able to predict...

Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist The topic of quantitative easing (QE) has rapidly become the most important discussion in the investment world.  As deflation becomes the obvious risk and the economic recovery looks increasingly weak investors are again looking to the Fed to save their skin from a Japan style deflationary recession.  The...

Tim Iacono A curious financial market development in recent weeks has been the near-lockstep moves by stock and bond prices, two asset classes that, most of the time, move in opposite directions as investor sentiment swings between fear (bonds) and greed (stocks). Shown below is the S&P500 stock index alongside the ten-year treasury yield,...

Brandon Rowley Trading Wall Street Investments // Stocks gain 1.8% for the week recovering after disappointing jobs report Traders immediately hit their sell keys when the government jobs report was released Friday morning at 8:30 AM. US futures were trading up pre-market and then out came the report and markets quickly dropped. Eventually...

I find it amazing how many traders do not use volume as a factor in their trading decisions. I believe it’s always important to track the volume no matter which time frame you are trading simply because it tell you how much interest there is for that investment at that given time and price level. If you use volume and understand how to read it...