Thinkorswim- The Best Brokerage
by Walter Fox A time when the financial institutions because of their harsh conditions easily was not getting credit ... categories including equities, the fund currency, bonds, futures trading of mutual funds can help ... . More and more people jumped into the competition, introduction of online options trading systems. They are aware [more...]
Date: 2008-12-29 17:17:10
Blog posts
(87) |
Videos
(3)
Managed Futures Funds Gain in Popularity and Performance
Excellent article from MarketWatch. Of course to us it’s just preaching to the choir ... of negative performance. Managed Futures funds (also referred to as Commodity Trading Advisors or CTAs ... , commodity futures and currency markets. Managers who have done well to- date this quarter have generally [more...]
Date: 2008-12-29 23:09:12
Technical Picture - Consolidation Ahead of FED
Stocks sold off in early trade as investors grappled with ongoing uncertainty and the threat of more losses from the financial sector, ... funds futures imply a reduction to the fed funds target rate is certain. There is currently a 66 ... in commodities such as agchem, natural gas, gold, and crude oil. Crude was up as much as 8.2% during [more...]
Date: 2008-12-16 06:16:00
Technical Picture - Consolidation Ahead of FED
Stocks sold off in early trade as investors grappled with ongoing uncertainty and the threat of more losses from the financial sector, ... funds futures imply a reduction to the fed funds target rate is certain. There is currently a 66 ... in commodities such as agchem, natural gas, gold, and crude oil. Crude was up as much as 8.2% during [more...]
Date: 2008-12-16 07:00:16
The layman's finance crisis glossary
The layman's finance crisis glossary via BBC Here is a guide to many of the business terms currently cropping up regularly, ... Carry trade Capitulation Chapter 11 Collateralised debt obligation Commercial paper Commodities ... Equity FTSE-100 Fundamentals Futures Futures GDP Hedge fund Hedging Inflation Investment bank Junk [more...]
Date: 2009-01-11 12:55:38
Some rumblings on next FOMC Meeting Tuesday, 16 Dec 2008
Sometimes, it takes a while before "the obvious" becomes "obvious" and stares at you right in the face.I don't know why I didn't see this earlier ... fund futures are now pricing in a 98 percent chance that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates ... today, the same Fed Fund Futures are now pricing in 100% probability of a 75bp cut [more...]
Date: 2008-12-11 16:53:00
The layman's finance crisis glossary
The layman's finance crisis glossary via BBC Here is a guide to many of the business terms currently cropping up regularly, ... trade Chapter 11 Capitulation Chapter 11 Collateralised debt obligation Commercial paper Commodities ... Dividends Equity FTSE-100 Fundamentals Futures Futures GDP Hedge fund Hedging Inflation Investment bank [more...]
Date: 2009-01-11 12:55:51
Managed Futures Shine in 2008 Massacre
Managed futures funds or Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ... % gain for the CSFB/Tremont Managed Futures Index. Only dedicated short-sellers have outpaced CTAs ... as margins collapse and assets nosedive. It’s a different story altogether for managed futures this year [more...]
Date: 2008-12-22 15:14:05
Diversifying Portfolio with Commodities Futures Fund
I first heard about commodities futures in the last bear market. In 2002, commodities futures returned something like +25-30% while the S&P lost 22%. People were saying back then commodities futures were a great investment because they had “equity-like” [more...]
Date: 2008-12-16 15:09:09
Hedge Funds for the Rest of Us - Revised
The idea of a hedge fund always made sense ... One Source platform, with no load or fee, and most likely through the other major discount broker mutual fund supermarkets. 1. Long/Short Funds: RYMFX: Rydex Managed Futures Strategy RYSTX: Rydex Hedged [more...]
Date: 2008-12-08 12:13:17
The SEC, Madoff and XBRL
You probably have never heard of XBRL. If you havent, and you are the least bit interested in how regulatory agencies can avoid future Madoff ... , to hedge funds, to mutual funds, to ETFs, brokers, dealers, market makers,to banks and each and every loan [more...]
Date: 2008-12-16 07:10:54
Bookkeeping: Tax Loss Selling in ReneSola (SOL) and Life Sciences Research (LSR)
Well unlike most mutual funds and institutions if you invested in this (future) mutual fund you will see what I do every week ... of consolidation in this space as it is a commodity but I thought it would come later - 2010/2011 [more...]
Date: 2008-12-31 18:45:42
Managed Futures Shine in 2008 Massacre
Managed futures funds or Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ... , trade over 100 highly liquid global futures contracts, including stock indexes, bond indexes ... compared to a 15.6% gain for the CSFB/Tremont Managed Futures Index. Only dedicated short-sellers [more...]
Date: 2009-01-07 19:38:44
James Simons' "fuzzy" math
The other day I cooked some fish for dinner, and the next day, when I walked in the house it stunk ... futures fund-DOWN 12%James Simons Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund- DOWN 16%Now I didn't mention ... %. If he managed your money, you were down 12-16%.So in honor of all those astrophysicists from James Simon's [more...]
Date: 2009-01-07 02:42:00
personal finance free ware
personal finance free ware 2009-01-05 16:01 at 2009-01-05 16:01 · Filed under stock market investing Medical malpractice, while rough to accept, ... by the Palmerston Government to help excavation group save for their futures and as a means of raising commodity day future investing trading funds for populace spending. Im conversation about a live [more...]
Date: 2009-01-05 21:02:31
Renaissance Waives Management Fee
Investors in Renaissance Institutional Futures, a $3 billion futures fund managed by Renaissance Technologies, rang in the New Year with some good news for its investors. read more [more...]
Date: 2009-01-05 15:33:43
Flawed system
11 November, 2008 General News/Issues Source TheStar Tuesday November 11, ... trading on the world stock exchanges. These commodities are traded in the futures markets where ... changes. Hedge funds and other speculative investment funds control about 60% of the wheat traded [more...]
Date: 2008-11-11 05:15:24
Scott Irwin takes down Michael Masters
Econbrowser is pleased to host another contribution from Scott Irwin, who holds the Laurence J ... the charge that speculative buying by index funds in commodity futures and over-the- counter (OTC ... misunderstanding of how commodity futures and related derivatives markets actually work. It is important [more...]
Date: 2008-09-17 20:55:26
Islamic hedge funds now a reality
Hedge funds with no leverage, options or futures might sound like a product stripped to the bare essentials of short and long equity strategies, but that has not deterred the $50 million seeding of the BlackRock Global Resources & Mining Fund by the Dubai Multi Commodities... read more [more...]
Date: 2008-11-17 09:46:32
Tuesday links: another Ponzi post
Madoff’s strategy supposedly used options, but it never added up. (MarketBeat, Barrons.com) When did Madoff go Ponzi? (Curious Capitalist) ... ? If so can you play it with option? (Marketwatch.com also MarketSci Blog) How to play the January Effect with closed-end funds. (Trader’s Narrative) Managed futures have been a beneficiary of recent [more...]
Date: 2008-12-16 15:48:54
Tips for Improving your Investing
Many investors -- especially beginning investors -- want tips for improving their investing. There are a lot of tools out there ( ... strategies. However, Stock Trading To Go has some very basic and active things you can do in order ... as funds, bonds, currencies, options, commodities, futures and other opportunities might [more...]
Date: 2008-12-19 19:38:01
A Rally Beckons — Will It Last?
Hmmm Futures have pulled a turnaround headed into the open of trading, ... government-sponsored entities saying they need a boatload of cash. Dow futures were lately ... well of funds out there,” writes Charles Payne of Wall Street Strategies, on Minyanville.com. “Where [more...]
Date: 2008-07-08 13:04:10
Market’s Decline Deepens
Layoffs and slashed profit forecasts at several bellwether companies led to a broad market sell-off Wednesday, ... , while a more than $4-a-barrel dive in oil prices sunk the energy sector. Notably, the Energy Select ... jobs jittersThe best (and cheapest) funds aroundStock futures signal dip [more...]
Date: 2009-01-07 19:36:26
The Market’s Initial Take
Trading is open on CME GLOBEX. Equity indices up slightly–S&P emini up 1.75, Dow up 20, NASDAQ up 4.25 ... . Perhaps most importantly, Eurodollar futures up 2.5 (meaning a 2.5 basis point decline in forward 3 month LIBOR) and Fed Fund futures are down (meaning a 3 basis point increase in the Fed Funds forward rate [more...]
Date: 2008-09-28 23:04:17
City Leaders (Try to?) Reassure NYers Over Economy
The faltering economy and the fall of Wall Street banks has turned city leaders into counselors trying to calm New Yorkers ... about Barclays buying Lehman Brothers' broker-dealer business, pointing out how he said NYC ... with the state pension fund--it's fully funded "oday, tomorrow and well into the future." Add [more...]
Date: 2008-09-17 18:24:21
Who is Behind the Financial Meltdown? by Michel Chossudovsky
on current Dandelion Salad by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, October 11, ... . There are several instruments including futures, options, index funds, derivative securities, etc. used ... Stearns was in part due to short selling. Short selling has also been used extensively in currency [more...]
Date: 2008-10-12 01:47:33
Fed Preparing For Another Interest Rate Cut
With inflation concerns now being trumped by the fear of deflation, and the economy still struggling, ... Fund futures are pricing in a tiny chance of a 75bp rate cut next month. The housing market ... currency pairs have been consolidating since the middle of last week and the FOMC minutes could [more...]
Date: 2008-11-20 16:38:19
Leveling The Playing Field – The Comex Fight Continues
Dear CIGAs, Trader Dan says: “The more buyers that can be recruited to this effort, particularly buyers of large size, ... will not allow you to take delivery, so don’t hesitate to ask your broker. We started taking delivery ... funded, we simply buy the futures and inform the clearing firm of our intent to take delivery [more...]
Date: 2008-12-08 18:06:40
Snapshots from a gloomy morning
A broker on Wall Street just warned of "a historic fall" ahead; Another says the "great hedge-fund unwind" continues; Stock futures are down 550 points -- the maximum amount; Entire nations -- Iceland and Pakistan, Russia and Argentina -- are in financial trouble, if not on a financial precipice; The dollar [more...]
Date: 2008-10-24 13:00:51
The Energy-Stock Chasm
In the wake of the shuttering of Ospraie Management’s largest fund Tuesday, ... positions on commodities futures and long ones on resource equities — a bet that didn’t work out, because those stocks continued to decline. “The options pricing implies that these stocks are not done [more...]
Date: 2008-09-03 19:01:57
AN INSIDER’S VIEW FROM THE CAPITAL MARKETS COOPERATIVE TRADING DESK:
The Week Ahead in the Capital Markets – December 15, 2008 Interest rates dropped to record lows last week, ... today and tomorrow, and is widely expected to drop Fed funds to 0.50% (futures predict even lower ... surge of defaults looms with $1 trillion of Alt-A loans and $500 billion of option ARMs resetting [more...]
Date: 2008-12-15 19:15:43
The Fed's rate at zero? It's no longer a far-fetched idea
Just a day after the Federal Reserve dropped its key short-term interest rate to 1% -- matching the generational low reached in 2003-04 -- the betting is intensifying on another cut. Trading in futures contracts on the federal funds rate ... , the probability of a cut to 0.50% was 32%. Fedfundschartoct29 At a minimum, the futures market expects [more...]
Date: 2008-10-30 22:41:54
When diversification fails (Reuters)
When diversification fails (Reuters) By admin | LONDON (Reuters) ... , commodities, hedge funds and managed futures — lost 29.1 percent since October 2007. This compares ... their traditional equity-bond portfolio, spread risks and seek extra "alpha" returns by buying commodities [more...]
Date: 2008-12-07 17:18:46
Real Investor Should Read Investing Blog
.fullpost{display:inline;}-We lived in a wild world, where everything you want to reach should be through struggling ... information about forex, stocks, hedge fund, futures and commodities. I never missed my day without [more...]
Date: 2008-12-18 08:42:00
Shocker: Federal Regulators Conclude That Oil Speculators Not Responsible For High Gas Prices
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has released financial data indicating that commodities traders engaged in oil speculation have had little ... driving the future price of oil down. Commodity index funds also have a much smaller share ... of transactions worth billions of dollars between January and June of this year. Commodity futures [more...]
Date: 2008-09-15 14:50:11
FOMC Alert: Traders Now Looking At Possible Rate Cuts
Today wasn't just a bad day for financial stocks nor for the markets in general. It may have been a real game changer ... FOMC meeting. You will want to check your own math hereon the CBOT Fed Fund Futures Page [more...]
Date: 2008-09-15 23:30:34
U.S. Supreme Court to determine future of Iraq’s oil funds
Plus: *2008 ends “sour” for Iraq oil, potential and roadblocks in 2009 *Natural gas loss at $15B annually *Maliki makes first premier visit to ... damage on the people of Iraq, and they should not be subjected to further harm in foreign courts as Iraq [more...]
Date: 2009-01-10 00:15:16
THE FINTAG NEWSLETTER @ 18 November 2008
FINTAG COMMENT Shoot the pig. There seems to be glee in the air as capitalists who once managed thousands of people and added ... and if you a CTA or managed futures fund you don't know what all the fuss is about. Today's news [more...]
Date: 2008-11-18 07:39:01
Precious metals slide with commodities on risk reduction & dollar strength
London, 03 October 2008 - Selling was seen across the commodity spectrum yesterday with the CRB & GSC Indexes losing around 4.5% as dollar strength, record borrowing rates and risk reduction prompted fund and investor liquidation. NYMEX crude futures finished down $4.56 at $93.97/barrel and have weakened further overnight [more...]
Date: 2008-10-03 07:43:59
What do we do if he’s right, again?
What do we do if he’s right, again? Peter Schiff predicted the bursting housing bubble contrary to those in the know back in 2005 ... investments in gold could include gold Exchange Traded Funds (potential risk: false auditing); gold futures [more...]
Date: 2009-01-12 10:34:42
The Very Flawed Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey
Mr Mortgage is a 20-year mortgage banking veteran, specializing in wholesale and correspondent sales and sales/operations management and bringing ... survey. In the past, this has been a decent measure of future refi and purchase loan fundings [more...]
Date: 2009-01-06 16:59:36
Is it Greenspan's fault?
Peter S. Goodman has some clearly written analysis:Economists from across the ideological spectrum have criticized his decision to let the nation’s ... have failed; investors no longer fund them and are not likely to in the future.”...“In a market system based ... phenomenon: the spectacular boom and calamitous bust in derivatives trading....“It seems [more...]
Date: 2008-10-11 12:47:00
It’s Those Damn Atheists Again
JEFFREY Frankel announced a few months back: “They say there are no atheists in foxholes ... have failed; investors no longer fund them and are not likely to in the future.”… “In a market system ... scrutinized phenomenon: the spectacular boom and calamitous bust in derivatives trading…. “It seems [more...]
Date: 2008-10-12 06:06:29
Give me the physical, not the paper
#fullpost{display:inline;}Ambrose Evans Pritchard over at the Telegraph has filed this report (hat tip Domus) ... their stockbroker to buy shares of one of the many gold ETFs or some commodity futures contract ... ," he said, referring to exchange trade funds listed in London, New York, and other bourses [more...]
Date: 2009-01-09 19:44:00
Oil flat, weighs Saudi output after fall from high
Oil steadied on Tuesday after touching a record near $140 the previous day, ... $500 million in futures as the head of fund Global Commodities in Australia. Refiners in the United [more...]
Date: 2008-06-17 05:09:38
TIAA-CREF Computer System: Still the Default Excuse
In January 2006, thousands of TIAA-CREF customers experienced service problems with the financial services firm when attempting to transfer funds, ... t are very worried about the future. It is astounding that the Boards of Trustees have let [more...]
Date: 2008-07-08 16:07:43
OIL PRICE SHOCKS - THE REAL CULPRITS
It is clear as to who is driving up the prices of Crude and Commodities. It is not the producers or the demand supply gap that is making the lives of billions of people horrible. It is the traders, hedge funds and banking giants and large investors in Futures Commodity [more...]
Date: 2008-06-18 01:27:37
Another Ponzi Scheme
Broken Record I’ve said it all before. The following press release can be found here ... the funds in an account that would trade in securities futures contracts, including S&P 500 stock index futures. According to the complaint, despite the impressive and consistent returns he reported [more...]
Date: 2009-01-13 03:37:41
James Hamilton Calls for Quantitative Monetary Easing
He writes: Econbrowser: The new, improved fed funds market: ... little or nothing about future prospects for the target. Second, the target itself has become largely [more...]
Date: 2008-11-10 14:57:31
Oil Traders: Don't Fence Us In
Investment bank and hedge fund representatives tell the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the oil market doesn't need more oversight [more...]
Date: 2008-06-17 00:51:19
