Monthly Archives: December 2014

Alliant Energy – Chart Of The Day

The Chart of the Day belongs to Alliant Energy (NYSE:LNT). I found the stock by sorting the Alliant Energy list for the stocks with the most frequent new highs in the last month then used the Flipchart feature to review the charts. Since the Trend Spotter signaled a buy on 12/18 the stock gained 2.72%. Alliant Energy Corp. is a growing…

Irrational Exuberance, Cuba Edition

The efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) requires that investors have “rational expectations,” that on average the population is correct and whenever new information appears, expectations are updated appropriately. Nice theory, but in the real world investors are anything but “rational.” As human beings, we tend to overreact to new information, behaving in an irrationally exuberant or irrationally despondent fashion….

EC Why You Pro

If anyone means to deliberate successfully about anything, there is one thing he must do at the outset: he must know what it is he is deliberating about. Otherwise he is bound to go utterly astray. Now, most people fail to realize that they don’t know what this or that really is. Consequently when they…

Dollar Boosted By Data

The U.S. Dollar struck a 7-year peak versus the Japanese Yen in the wake of unexpectedly strong labor data from the U.S. which tended to cement investors’ view of a forthcoming interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve Bank. Last Friday’s release of non-farms payroll data showed 321,000 new jobs were added last month, well above expectations…

US Yield Curve Collapses To 6.5 Year Lows

As yields across the Treasury complex continue to rise this week – amid desks complaining of no liquidity at all (and following yesterday’s weak auction) – the yield curve (5s30s) has collapsed to 108bps, its flattest since June 2008. 2s30s continues to slide also (at 212bps) almost eerily perfectly tracking the plunge in the curve of…

Best Of The Best: The Most Popular Thoughts From 2014

As natural resources bounced all over the charts in 2014, readers turned to the experts interviewed by The Gold Report for insights on what was driving these ups and downs, and how they could protect themselves—or, better yet, benefit—from the volatility. We combed through interviews with experts featured during the year, and offer some thoughts you might…

Conn’s Triggers A Trade

As soon as I noticed the unusually high options trading activity in Conn’s Inc. (CONN), I triggered the trade I first discussed on December 12th. On the shortened trading day of Christmas Eve, January call options flew off the shelves in CONN. At the time of writing, the Jan $17.50s saw volume of 3,536 versus open…