Category: Bond Market

  • Sector momentum table 2011-06-17

    Each week we test major asset classes for the strength of their momentum. We check: is current price above 20-day moving average? is current price above 50-day moving average? is 20-day moving average above the 50-day moving average? does the 20-day moving average have a positive slope (i.e. is it rising)? does the 50-day moving…

    Know More

  • Asset momentum table 2011-06-17

    Each week we test major asset classes for the strength of their momentum. We check: is current price above 20-day moving average? is current price above 50-day moving average? is 20-day moving average above the 50-day moving average? does the 20-day moving average have a positive slope (i.e. is it rising)? does the 50-day moving…

    Know More

  • Look at me – I am a junk-rated bank!

    Everybody hates rating agencies. They missed Enron (balance sheet fraud), the sub-prime crisis (using models provided by banks) and sovereign debt crisis (concealed by foreign currency swaps). They have been wrong – so what? Stock market analysts are wrong all the time, and investors still read their worthless reports. And what would you expect from…

    Know More

  • Merkel to Sinn: “In my office. NOW.”

    Hans-Werner Sinn, head of German research institute Ifo, has just put his life into peril. He had to pick a Swiss magazine (“Bilanz”) to express what nobody else is allowed to mention in Germany: “Greece is a bottomless barrel”. Hans-Werner Sinn, Ifo Institute Picture: Handelsblatt For those who remember, Sinn was the only one among…

    Know More

  • Investment choices in a world of incompetent central bankers

    Much of the following next is an excerpt from the May 2011 “Letter to investors”. This is supposed to be”big-picture thinking” and will only be updated if warranted. 1. As the economy is artificially inflated so are company profits and stocks. The party might continue – until someone like Paul Volker gets installed at the Fed. It…

    Know More

  • Looking back: “We are buying Greek government bonds!”

    May 3, 2010. The EU and the IMF have just announced a EUR 110bn bail-out for Greece. Greek 10-year government bonds are yielding below 9%. German financial newspaper “Handelsblatt” launches a multi-page call to lure unsuspecting citizens into buying Greek government bonds. You can (and should) still read this master piece here. Gabor Steingart, editor-in-chief, opens…

    Know More

  • Greece: What I learned from a Vietnamese Rickshaw Driver

    Traveling through Vietnam provided a few valuable lessons for life. You arrive, armed only with a copy of the Lonely Planet. Any map turns out to be pretty useless, as street names are frequently changed or the street layout completely altered (this is mid-1990’s). You are being inundated with offers from “cyclo-” (bicycle rickshaw) drivers.…

    Know More

  • Is this a buying opportunity?

    The earthquake and nuclear situation in Japan has triggered a sell-off in the equity markets. Is this a buying opportunity? I say “no”. Two reasons: 1. The Japanese situation is likely to trigger many “unintended” consequences we cannot anticipate right now (for example a strong Yen will hurt profits of Japanese exporters, hence depress their…

    Know More

  • What a taifun in Vietnam taught me about the Euro crisis

    As I was traveling through Vietnam in the mid-nineties our bus drove through an area visited by a taifun. The road was running on a slightly elevated dam, so initially there was no obstacle to continue the journey. Looking out of the window there was water on both sides as far as the eye could…

    Know More

  • US house price decline accelerating

    US house prices have entered into an accelerating decline. The more I dig into the details the worse it gets. The most widely followed measure of US single family home price is the S&P Cash-Shiller Home Price Index (CS HPI). First a word on how it is calculated: “The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are calculated…

    Know More