So the $700 rescue plan finally passed this afternoon. The entire process was a disgrace. While various members of congress extracted over a billion dollars in extra goodies over the last two weeks for their votes, investors lost well over $1 trillion of IRA and other tax-deferred investments as the market plummeted. That was money [...]

Given the market volatility, I wonder if anyone is actively trading the market outside of professional traders and a few desperate hedge funds. All week they tried to stem the rising tide of sentiment which threatens to drive the markets lower. In the end they succeeded but it was a bit like putting lipstick on [...]

The global markets took it on the chin from the beginning of the holiday-shortened week right up until the close Friday. It was the worst week in six years for world markets. The Dow, NASDAQ and S&P 500 were all down more than 2 percent and if you’ve been reading this column you know that [...]

As oil traders depart for the long weekend most of their attention will be focused on weather forecasts in the Gulf of Mexico rather than the backyard barbecue. Tropical Storm Gustav will be moving inexorably over the next three days, gathering strength with hurricane force as it bears down on refineries, drilling platforms and pipelines [...]

When markets behave in this fashion—trend less, low volume, meandering—it is hard to come up with something intelligent to write. Sure there was a bit of excitement here and there like the move in energy on Thursday (up 4.9%). And yes, other commodities followed suit but much of that was given back on Friday. So, [...]

Market volatility continued this week as the averages moved up and down in trend- less, light summer volume. Yet all three averages managed to finish on the plus side for the week as the continued fall in oil prices supported the market. This was even more impressive given the continuing stream of bad economic news [...]

When looking at recent developments in the world’s stock markets, I always ask myself this question: is today’s news reflected in the price of securities? If not I maintain my positions or even add to them, if so, then I look for the exit. Consider this summer’s decline in oil and other commodities. That’s great [...]

Market volatility continued this week as the averages moved up and down in trend- less, light summer volume. Yet all three averages managed to finish on the plus side for the week as the continued fall in oil prices supported the market. This was even more impressive given the continuing stream of bad economic news [...]

We opened the week at about the same level we closed on Friday give or take a point or two. That’s not to say it was a boring week, quite the contrary. The volatility was enormous. The markets moved up and down on light volume with the Dow gaining hundreds of points only to give [...]

In my last column “Expect a Bounce” I suggested that the markets were deeply oversold and a tradable bounce was in the offing. Thanks to several initiatives by the government last week, we indeed moved up over six percent from the lows. But don’t be fooled, a bounce is just that. We are definitely not [...]