Skip to main content

Another Fed day, another dollar

Market chatter and action today has been (predictably) dominated by the spectacle of yet another Fed announcement day.

Today's shocker: rates are left unchanged near zero, with talk (from the high priests in media and central banking) of some kind of unfolding economic recovery (one supported by "stimulus" and accompanied by high unemployment rates for the next couple of years).

Actually, I spent very little time focusing on this subject today, aside from catching up with some amusing and informative tweets on the market impact from the likes of Howard Lindzon, Tradefast, and others in my Twitter stream.

Good to know there are people keeping up with some of this stuff (Fed's impact on yield curves, equities) when you need a quick refresher and a bit of insight from those in the know. This is one of the areas in which my Twitter community and favorite blog lists really stand out.

I'm also checking in with BMB's market wrap (hot off the Wordpress) for an overview of the day's action and a look at what may lie ahead for the stock market in the coming days.

What I'd really like to do is revisit this January 2009 piece from Bronte Capital, "Zero in Japan versus zero in America", and find some more recent material on the differences between ZIRP Japan and ZIRP US in the late 2000's. This is an area I could stand to learn more about, so look for updated notes in the comments section (or please add thoughts/links of your own).

To hell with the TV news, I will be searching the blogosphere and online print and journals for more on this.

Popular posts from this blog

Nasdaq credit rating junked.

S&P cut Nasdaq's credit rating to junk status citing debt burdens and its questionable strategy to buy a controlling interest in the London Stock Exchange. Financial Times reported that the exchange's counterparty credit & bank loan rating were lowered fromm BBB- (lowest investment grade rating) to BB+. The change will increase Nasdaq's borrowing costs should it wish to pursue aquisition targets. For an earlier look at the exchange consolidation trend that brought about Nasdaq's push for a stake in the LSE, please see "Exchange fever" .

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Jesse Livermore: How to Trade in Stocks (1940 Ed. E-book)

If you've been around markets for any length of time, you've probably heard of 20th century supertrader, Jesse Livermore . Today we're highlighting his rare 1940 work, How to Trade in Stocks (ebook, pdf). But first, a brief overview of Livermore's life and trading career (bio from Jesse Livermore's Wikipedia entry). "During his lifetime, Livermore gained and lost several multi-million dollar fortunes. Most notably, he was worth $3 million and $100 million after the 1907 and 1929 market crashes, respectively. He subsequently lost both fortunes. Apart from his success as a securities speculator, Livermore left traders a working philosophy for trading securities that emphasizes increasing the size of one's position as it goes in the right direction and cutting losses quickly. Ironically, Livermore sometimes did not follow his rules strictly. He claimed that lack of adherence to his own rules was the main reason for his losses after making his 1907 and...