The Tasgall Group

Apparently ProShares is now offering inverse and double-inverse ETFs.? That means you can short an index with leverage by buying an ETF.? Ideal for retirement accounts where you can’t short very easily and don’t want to be tied down to the end-of-day trading of ProFunds’s inverse mutual funds.

Read more about it from The Big Picture’s post on the topic.

Gee golly gosh, 9 hours away from a possible rate hike by the BoJ and the stock market takes a bigger dive than an Italian soccer team at a water park.? “But oil hit a new all time high!”? Sure.? “But Israel!”? Ok, I’ll give you that.? But I just can’t get it out of the back my mind that maybe, just maybe, some Yen-tottin’ equity-holdin’ types decided to squeeze every last second out of that free money?that they could and then cashed out.? Sure, the rate hike has been broadcast in the media but why would you not wait until you had to sell?? Though I’m sure the perfect storm today wasn’t the ideal gauntlet to run on the way out.? But I have to wonder what’s the big deal about 0.25% anyway (though I wouldn’t be surprised if we see 2.00% in a year or so)?? It’s still the cheapest money around.? Oh wait, this is the same world that will drop a stock like Materazzi if it?”just”?meets?earning expectations.? Fear, thy name is…well, it’s?Fear but you get the point.

Check out the latest CD rates at ING Direct… I copied a few of the rates here:

• 6 mo – 5%
• 12 mo – 5.25%
• 24 mo – 5.30%
• 26 mo – 5.25%
• 60 mo – 5.25%

So, if you’re shopping for CDs, ING will pay you more to hold your money for 24 months than to hold it for an even longer term. In economic parlance, that’s an inverted yield curve. (You can see a similar inverted curve at VirtualBank where the big winner is the 6 month CD at a 5.55% APY.)

Nevermind that the real bond market is also inverted right now. We can discuss the implications of that in a different post…

Has anyone else noticed the difference lately in the Nasdaq Composite ($IXIC or $COMPQ depending on the source) and the Nasdaq 100 ($NDX – tracked by the ETF QQQQ)?

The composite is making higher lows since mid-June, but the Nasdaq 100 is testing its lows for the year today. The news (CNN, NPR, CNBC, etc.) all seem to quote the composite index instead of the NDX, even though the NDX index is more heavily traded (via NDX options and QQQQ). (more…)

I just ran across a horribly wrong search result, only to find a stock symbol with the most amusing company name I’ve seen in a while. The stock symbol WYDY is for “Who’s Your Daddy Inc“, purveyor of energy drinks by the same name.

Don’t bother considering it though, it’s market cap is an amazingly small $9.5 million dollars (yes million with an “M”). With revenue of $250k and a current cash position of $1,000 (wait… I have more cash than that in my bank account!) it’s amazing that they even went public at all.

You’ll find the shares trading over the counter as they can’t even stay above $1/share to stay listed on the Nasdaq.

Thought I’d point you guys to a rather harrowing chart:

USG, the producer of wallboard materials and much more, has practically been in a free-fall the last few months. It was practically a rocket on the way up as it fought past a ton of negative asbestos litigation and is about to emerge from bankruptcy.

I typically wouldn’t care, but I recently sold USG because it hit my trailing stop (when it was at 95!). If you ever needed an argument for keeping trailing stops on individual stocks, just look back at this chart.

(USG is now so oversold it might be worth watching for a turnaround…)

I absolutely enjoyed this and will be posting these somewhere to be in view at all times and will recite them daily:

Defining Features of Market Pros

Hopefully, The Tasgall Group is a perfect way to fulfill #5.

There is a good section in one of the Market Wizard books about option expiration and why there tends to be a lot of volatility. I will try to recreate the blurb here… (more…)

An excerpt from John Mauldin’s e-letter:“The market was already up 120 points when the Fed made its announcement and then roared ahead almost another 100 points. So it was not all Bernanke. In fact, I tend to think it was more likely end of the quarter gamesmanship, with funds working to move their favorite stocks up, moving into stocks that will look good in their portfolios and dumping the dogs. If XYZ stock is up 10% for the quarter, you want some of it in your portfolio to show investors you were on top of it. Of course, you don’t have to say you got to the game late.

End of the quarter rallies are common. Any old excuse will do. My bet is that whatever the Fed did would have produced a rally, short of stating that they had decided a recession was in order.”

Interesting stuff and good to keep in mind. I need to create a calendar with items like “End of quarter games might cause a rally–don’t read anything special into a suddent 100+ plus gain!” and other similar friendly reminders.

Welcome, and let’s get started!