That Was the Week Ending 09March

Tariffs and Tantrums

So, not everyone is happy about tariffs. Canada and Mexico exempted but Asian countries not amused. We are being treated to stable genius economics. Trade wars don’t usually work out well and Trump may have bullied rivals in tiny world, but not in the big world. Curiously the US economy ‘looks’ fabulous,and non farm payrolls smashed it out of the park. But is any of it real?

Back in Little Britain

We see little progress with Brexit, retailers getting crushed- John Lewis profits down 77%(yes,seventy seven). So, the retail world is changing and it’s a concern as we see malls with empty units,and footfall dwindling.

The Market and The Week Ahead

FTSE up over 2% and expiry looms large.  This trader observes  in the recent low vol environment we have seen down weeks for our monthly options event. Typically the market moves up for expiry, though you wouldn’t want to try and trade this.(Commentator’s curse!) So is volatility getting back to ‘normal’?

How Are We doing?

Our own trade 69 smashed it utterly- the rich premium quickly dissolved as the vol scampered away. I feel for the clowns(ouch!) who shorted vol through some of the ETPs with gearing and got a sharp lesson in market behaviour. The point is that vol moves from low to high,not low to lower. It was bumping along at record lows. We are here to point out the ways to trade,the strategies, and the reason why we trade the only level playing field.

Expiry Week Trades

For this trader it’s a jumble sale, but some folk really love the third week as theta is massive of course but so is gamma. Your delta can thus look ugly real quick when you are short. We must keep margin within sensible bounds. Trade safe.