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Banks are still bad: Trillions of reasons to remain short these bank names

Welcome back friends, trust you all survived the holidays (read: relatives) and are looking forward to a prosperous 2012; another year of making money while the Chicken Littles scream about falling skies and failing currencies. At some point volatility will simmer down — but probably not for the time being. If

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Today’s links: Iowa, IO, waa!

Here’s what I was reading and thinking about when I wasn’t trying to get my hands warmed up in the chilly NM mountain air this morning. On Insurance Stock Indexes – Merkel’s thinking about starting an insurance-only hedge fund and the reason I like the idea is because

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New year action

Good morning and happy new year. I hope you all had a great break. The markets are screaming to kick off the new year, up 2% here in the early going. FIO’s continuing its wild ways, up 10% on the day. And Google’s kicking in again, making my

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Remember the panics and how to profit from them

It’s Friday. And it’s the last trading day of the year. And we’re going to close out the year at just about the exact same levels we started the year at. Aren’t you glad you didn’t panic when Greece blew up. Or when Greece blew

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New short name

Markets are in rally mode, up 1%, making them about even on the year, which is what they were last week and twelve months ago too. We’ll see more pitches come our way and the only way to continue our vast ourpeformance is to be very different in our

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Today’s Links: Obama drops Biden, BNY panics, and thoughts on gold

Here’s what I was reading and thinking about when I was working late into the night: 2012 – Things that will happen – I’ve read and re-read Bruce Krasting’s latest piece here, a fascinating look at the year ahead with lots of suprise predictions. My favorites include: “-Obama will

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Trade Like Dan Marino

“But the kick was never needed. The fake spike proved Marino was most lethal as soon as the defense dropped its guard” — NFL Films Drew Brees set the NFL record for single season passing yardage last night which now stands at 5087 yards. It was rather thrilling and you couldn’

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Merry Christmas and Happy Fiscal New Year!

The markets are closed on Monday so unless there’s some emergency, there likely won’t be any posts from me until Tuesday.  In my experience, the markets tend to have a pretty strong upward bias as volumes and attendance and care is low from the pros, few of whom

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Three stocks, two longs and a short idea in a pear tree

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know. There’s over a foot of snow on the ground outside on Silver Fox Ranch here in Ruidoso, NM, and it’s still softly coming down. Makes trading stocks seem a little insignificant, except for

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Selling the last of the Akamai calls

It’s Christmas week, heading into a three-day Christmas weekend (no markets Monday) and we’ve got a bit of a rally on our hands today. FIO’s continuing its wildly volatile ways, now up nearly 20% from its recent lows which brings it back to where it was this

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Buying some puts in this name

Last week, I detailed the Apollo analysis for you guys. Today, I’ve been putting in some bids on some May 2012 puts with strike prices in the mid $40s right now.  I think APOL’s near-term earnings report, which will come in early January, is unlikely to spur much

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Near-term markets outlook and locking in profits on one trade

Howdy folks. It’s another range-bound into year-end day at the markets and that’s okay with us. As I’d hinted yesterday though, I do think we’re likely to finally see these markets break their trading range in coming weeks.  There will be year-end window-dressing by both shorts