Blog Profile / Behind the Headlines

Everything is perfect

An excerpt from this morning's Quick Takes Pro newsletter: Everything is going right for the market now. Good news is good. Bad news is good. No news is good. And no bears are on television saying hings are not what they seem. Perhaps...Show More Summary

The In Your Face Move

This is from Tuesday's Quick Takes Pro newsletter in the "Today's Lesson" section. Enjoy! The chart of Qualcomm really illustrates what has been becoming a bit too common in this market. False moves, fake-outs and a "whichever way the wind blows" culture is driving old school chartists crazy. Show More Summary

Sign of a Top

We all know that despite educators' and hand holders' best efforts, the little guy is always the last to the party. When the public starts to bite on Wall Street hype you know it is getting very close to time to sell everything and hide...Show More Summary

Free Market Will Soon Have Enough

From this morning's Quick Takes Pro newsletter. The answer to a letter to the editor. Your worries over the market's dysfunction are echoed everywhere. However, the market may be manipulated by the Fed and gamed by the algos (algorithmic...Show More Summary

Why?

Free Market Rules

“This is a punch to the gut. This is not a good number. And I think now you’re going to interestingly start seeing a lot of discussion about maybe the sequester’s a bigger deal than people thought it was.” — Austan Goolsbee, former chairman...Show More Summary

Still Alive

Help I'm alive My heart keeps beating like a hammer - Metric, Help I'm Alive (2008) Sorry for being so inactive but I was away last week and honestly it is easier to send quick updates out on three social media platforms at one time using HootSuite. Show More Summary

Unintended Success

I did something today that I never do - I watched a bit of Ben Bernanke's speech following the end of the FOMC. Other than being totally crisis-ed out over the government, economy and world, Ben's recounting of the Fed's successes in fixing the economy struck me as almost comical. Show More Summary

Personal Capitulation

In recent missives, I wrote about what seems to be the silence of the lambs, er, bears. These days, vocal bears do indeed get made into chops, served with a nice mint jelly (and fava beans). Today, I've got a little soul searching and...Show More Summary

Capitulation?

I won't get into explaining, justifying or denigrating the new high on the Dow. You've seen plenty of pundits do it already so let me talk about what the market "feels" like today. An analogy: You are driving on a four-lane highway somewhere in the outer reaches of the local city radio station. Show More Summary

Public Servants - not

Rant against what our government has become - local edition. I pay just about all my bills online and earlier this month attempted to pay my local real estate taxes. I do this four times per year without incident but apparently I missed hitting the final button to actually submit the payment. Show More Summary

Naz vs financial bubble

Many analysts like analogs and I admit I like them too. In writing a recent Barron's Online column on financials, I looked at how that bubble compared to the one before it and saw something interesting. Unfortunately, it was left on the cutting room floor. Show More Summary

Red Robin - Yummm. Wait!

Here is one of today's big movers. Captions say it all. Earnings, not takeover. Or was it? (cue detective music).

Stuff that that pickles my gherkin

I have decided that I have been in this business long enough to write stuff here only when I have something to say (vs every day to try to coax you all to love me and buy my newsletter). And as an old timer (not really) what I usually...Show More Summary

Tech was not the driver

Who read the market headlines after the close today? "The market bounced back led by tech." Yahoo! I mean GoogleBing! As long as I am digressing, does anyone remember HotBot, Excite and Lycos? They still exist. So does Altavista but it is now only a facade for Yahoo. Anyway, the market was led by tech, they say. Show More Summary

Right on Schedule

In case you've been wondering where I have been or even if I am still on the planet, you can stop. I just had nothing to say. So here is today's thought - retail is coming back into the market just in time for the top. No, I am not going to call a top here although it is tempting. Show More Summary

Pre-Apple Blahs

I am writing this with less than a half hour to go before Apple reports its earnings although by the time it is published the news will be out. Wouldn't it be nice if your company got such attention? The world has been on hold for days leading into the cult's revelations. Show More Summary

Congress Saved Us!

Of course the title of this blog post is sarcastic. You all know me better than that.And if you are sick of reading about the fiscal cliff, just skip to the bottom two paragraphs. I don't know who to credit but somebody said that the opposite of PROgress is CONgress. Show More Summary

Reflections

It's been a wild and crazy year, hasn't it? Of course, we can say that about every year. True, some events this year were rather horrific but overall my view is that this was a year marked by inflammation. Inflammation? Taking a page from a late night infomercial, it does seem that we were all mostly irritated this year from the news. Show More Summary

The Cliff

I supposed I am pundit-y enough to have a blog post on the fiscal cliff. Y'all will have to forgive me for not having any posts at all for a while but this country (and world) are messed up right now. The ink was barely dry on news of a mall shooting then we get a school shooting. Show More Summary