Trader’s Narrative

Is it just me or is Barron’s really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel? I’ve been reading it for more than half a dozen years now, and I get the uneasy feeling that each week the quality is just that tiny bit less than last.
This most recent issue of Barron’s (left) is […]

Here’s an interesting 3 minute video from TED by Richard St. John on what leads to success:

Here’s the cheatsheet:

Serve
Passion
Work
Focus
Persist
Ideas
Good
Push
Sounds good right?
No.
This is the “what”. Most people know the “what”. Most people know that passion is an important ingredient in a successful and meaningful life. That you have to persevere through setbacks, that you need to […]

Gold futures (December contract) closed higher at $709.70 an ounce today and dragged with it gold stocks. While many journalists claim it was today’s atrocious jobs data, I doubt it.
That explanation may be neat and tidy but it is useles since gold and gold stocks started this short term rally a while ago, before any […]

The sentiment overview for this week in the markets:
Sentiment Surveys
The usual suspects: AAII, Investor’s Intelligence, LowRisk, Consensus and Market Vane did not vary significantly over this past week so I won’t go into detail.
ISE Sentiment Index
Although technically a measure of options activity (ratio of puts to calls), the ISE Sentiment Index (ISEE) reached a […]

Insider activity is a reliable metric which I haven’t discussed in a while. It is a bit quirky because by nature, insiders are net sellers. They get allocated shares as a pay package or through option incentives and they usually turn around and sell.
It is also natural for them to sell in a rising market. […]