By Lawrence G. McMillan
As traders and investors express more of an appetite for derivative products, the research departments at the exchanges (primarily the CBOE) and at various creators of ETFs (Proshares, First Trust, Rydex, etc.) have been busily designing new products. In this article, we're going to look at a few that have recently been announced. There are probably many more, but these are receiving a certain amount of new publicity at this time.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market continues to move higher, albeit at a very slow pace. The bears have been frustrated at mostly every turn, as one negative news item after another has been tossed aside in favor of the “risk-on” strategies dictated by the expected monetary easings from both Europe and the U.S.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Tuesday's action started out with a morning rally, and then spent the rest of the day giving a lot of it back. Overnight, though, S&P futures rose strongly, exceeding Tuesday's highs. They have given back some of those gains, but S&P futures are up 5 points in Globex trading tonight. There is now tentative support at 1430 – the lows of the last two days. Below there, the entire area between 1400-1420, where the market spend most of August, is support.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market, as measured by the Standard and Poors 500 Index ($SPX) has been meandering sideways for the past couple of weeks. This had the effect of alleviating the overbought conditions that had existed two weeks ago. Finally, today, the ennui ended, as $SPX blasted to the upside. It made new post-2008 highs, and it looks certain now to test 1440-1450.
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained on buy signals throughout the last three months. However, they are now reaching extremely low levels on their charts.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The volatility of the stock market has dwindled to extremely low levels. The 20-day historical volatility of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is now 6% — the lowest levels since just after Christmas last year.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market has been in a dull, drifting mode all week. It is still easily within the bullish trend channel that began last August, and as long as that statement continues to be true, the bulls have the upper hand.
Equity-only put-call ratios are beginning to waver, but for the time being they remain on buy signals.
Market breadth oscillators turned bearish a week ago. They have remained on sell signals ever since.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The stock market, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index wound down into an extremely tight range this week.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (MarketWatch) — Despite the fact that the news media and fundamentalists can’t seem to find any reason to like this market, it refuses to sell off. In fact, as we head into the last holiday of summer, the market is poised near four-year highs.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
For quite some time now (perhaps since last November), we have been pointing out how the voracious appetite for volatility protection has had the effect of distorting the term structure of the $VIX futures. Recently, though, this activity has branched out in a way that is only rarely seen in the markets: in short, large institutional traders are both buying stocks and buying volatility ETNs (thus, by inference, they are buying $VIX futures).
By Lawrence G. McMillan
For most of the last two weeks, the Standard & Poors 500 Index ($SPX) plowed ahead, finally making new post-2008 highs this past Tuesday. Our intermediate-term indicators have been bullish for over two months now, so these new highs were in line with those indicators. However, as soon as the new highs were made, $SPX began to retreat, and an overbought correction now appears to be underway.
