The Disciplined Investor

MarketMash

Guest: Siddhartha Oberoi of S&P Indices goes over the nuances of various commodity and volatility exchange traded products (ETPs) and what you should know before investing in them.  A look back at the economic surprises over the past week as well as a discussion about the Citi Economic Surprise Indices.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:03 — 31.0MB)

Screens

US and Canada Short Interest Squeeze: Idea Generation

I asked my friend Constantin over at the Bloomberg headquarters if he had any thoughts on what would be an interesting screen to work up – looking for short-squeeze candidates. Here is what he wrote today:

Companies with high short interest tend to exhibit positive returns when the investors that have sold the shares short start buying back the shares to cover their short Read more »

Strategy Lab

From my latest MSN Strategy Lab Journal:

Market manipulators won’t go down without a fight against President Obama’s reform plans for Wall Street.

It appears that we could be heading for a showdown. In one corner: the Masters of Disasters, the Thrashers of Crashers, a.k.a. the Lending Loonies (theatrical pause) . . . Bank CEOs and Financial Company CEOs and Upper Management! In the other corner, the Cool of Rule, the Pope of Hope, the Arranger and Changer … President Barak Obama. (crowd roars).

It is no joke. The likes of Goldman Sachs (GS) Morgan Stanley (MS) and JP Morgan (JPM) have a lot to worry about. No one argues that there is a new sheriff in town and he is aiming to clean up the street. So far, he has not given the “you are out of this town by high noon tomorrow” speech, but who knows how far you can push a man on a mission.

For too long, the markets have been run and even at times manipulated by those that will do anything to make a buck. Just this summer, we were astonished to learn that a little known legal loophole was left open after the Enron debacle. Now known as the Enron Loophole, it was one of the main reasons that the price of oil was headed to $200 per barrel. Only until the Commodity Futures Trading Commission intervened and ultimately changed the definition of who was considered a speculator did the price of oil begin to fall.

Yet, all the time, Goldman Sachs analyst “Arjun “where is he now?” Murti was projecting that we should see oil at $150-$200 within a year. Here is something to think about: What firms made a killing trading oil during 2007-2008?

Read the entire journal entry HERE

Gameplan

Yes, going at shorting Silver (SLV) again. We have stayed away as there has been an erratic behavior over the last month or so. But, this metal has been quite interesting as there have been several times that seemingly out of nowhere  it drops and then recovers quickly. This commodity is susceptible to regulatory changes and until Read more »

Media

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LINKS: http://stitcher.com/listen.php?sid=892040 Read more »