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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
