Turns out short interest was indeed a tailwind for stocks in the two weeks ended October 15th. On SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, short interest declined 10.6 percent, to 332.1 million (Chart 1). The ETF rallied 5.6 percent during … Continued
Up until Wednesday last week, the hypothetical trade involving a weekly short put on SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, was going pretty well. Then came the 2.8-percent jump in the remaining two sessions, and the trade began to bleed. … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 20, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: At the press conference following the ECB meeting on Thursday, when asked by a WSJ reporter as to why the bank is fighting … Continued
The S&P 500 index rallied 0.9 percent last week – its third consecutive up week. Off the September 29th intra-day low, it is now up 8.7 percent (Chart 1). That is in 14 sessions! This is too fast, and probably … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 13, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Central bankers were probably busy scratching their heads this week. Despite trillions in quantitative easing and their valiant effort to push inflation above … Continued
During the September 15-30 reporting period, short interest on SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, dropped 15 percent period-over-period (Chart 1). This was interesting because the ETF shed 2.9 percent during the period, having just tested the August 25th closing … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 6, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Since the September 16-17 FOMC meeting, barring comments from hawks like John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, and Dennis Lockhart, president … Continued
Despite the rout in stocks that August and September experienced, the fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) is alive and well. From low to high, the S&P 500 index rallied eight plus percent between August 24 and September 17, followed by a seven-plus percent … Continued
Third-quarter earnings season begins in earnest this week. Operating earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies have been persistently coming down for 2015 – from as high as $137.52 at the end of the second quarter last year to $110.98 as … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of September 29, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Hat tip to bond vigilantes! Heading into the FOMC meeting two weeks ago, they never bought into the message coming out of the … Continued