How did Things Go?
Dax loses over 5%. FTSE 2.8% In monetary terms however it’s about the same as FTSE is worth twice as much as the DAX. The US markets made a big reverse and rose 2.5% off the day’s lows.The Nasdaq tends to lead the market and was positive >1%yesterday(down 1.6% on the week) Is there something we are not seeing?
Our Trades Did OK-Except the Call Condor
We are still running the March trades, and while profits are vital,having a big drawdown can leave you marking time for months. Options always give us a chance to adjust though.The good news is that volatility is here. The smugness of the dumb money has for 2 years made trading so difficult, against passive investing. Simply dumping money in the stockmarket or any business without due diligence does not deserve reward.
What Can We Expect?
We did not get non farm payrolls this week, but typically fresh money enters the markets on the 1st of the month. (Going long here is not a reliable strategy). Unless you know otherwise-we’d love to know. The new man at the Fed we are told is NOT an economist. Worse, he’s a lawyer! Not sure they deserve such a bad rep, but you have to think there’s a team of smart people running the show. Being the mouthpiece does not make you the architect of massive fiscal decisions. The Bank of England has a committee, in the same way as Troy had a committee when deciding to bring in that wooden horse!
The January effect
Recently saw an article nixing this idea- whither January goes, so goes the rest of the year. There are too many variables-more so than the weather.You could not expect a great summer based on a cold winter. Meanwhile, volatility gives us some choices. And then, THIS………..
Tariffs- not a good idea especially as Chinese steel is not a problem being 2% of America’s steel imports. China’s economy is predicated on stealing copyright-and really we should just boycott all their stuff until they start to recognise that design and origination must be respected. It is the decent thing to do