lol: "Apple makes up 18.12% of the Nasdaq"

"'CNBC just reported that mortgage defaults may be driving consumer spending. Lender Processing Service reported that the nation's foreclosure inventories spiked 51.1% year-over-year. That means that 7.9 million Americans are not paying their mortgages. Assuming the average mortgage is $1,500 a month that would free up $11.85 billion every month of extra spending money for iPads. Perhaps that's why Apple now makes up 18.12% of the Nasdaq (QQQQ). What will happen to the Nasdaq if Apple stumbles?'" -read the rest here

Disclosure: I own QQQQ puts.

$SPX FALSE BREAKOUT?

$SPX SP500 DAILY 01/04/10-04/28/10

RISK DISCLOSURE: PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. THE RISK OF LOSS IN TRADING FUTURES AND OPTIONS IS SUBSTANTIAL AND SUCH INVESTING IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS. AN INVESTOR COULD LOSE MORE THAN THE INITIAL INVESTMENT.

Saturday Rock Blog: Kids

Sunday Rock Blog: Rage

The SEC took a step in the right direction on Friday with their very public accusation of Goldman but we all know how these things usually turn out. With their globe dominating reputation on the line, GS will throw their highest paid pack of lawyers at this. In the end they will probably get a slap on the wrist, I'd guess not more than a $500M fine which is worth it to them. They make far more money screwing over the planet than they would ever pay in fines so the business model will live on. In my opinion this whole charade is about the SEC trying to regain credibility in the eyes of investors. Unless we see some serious follow through to Friday's broad market downside then GS will probably bounce back. I'm tempted to get very bearish on GS based on the above chart but it was only down 13% Friday and it held the key $160 level. GS merely fell back to March prices. A close below $160 would spell doom for GS. If this is just the beginning of a crackdown on the Fraud that goes on at GS then it wouldn't be surprising to see GS head back to 2009 lows.



While I'm on this topic completely lacking federal credibility when it comes to cracking down on Wall Street fraud I'd like to draw attention to the timing of this release. Why is it that any major market moving news always, always comes out on option expiration. Any investors holding futures options get totally screwed because execution of these options happens at the open. What is the hidden agenda? The fed used the same timing when they announced the banning of shorting of financial stocks in 2009, also when they recently raised the overnight interest rates. Are these announcements timed to transfer wealth? I'd also point out that GS's stock was up quite a bit ahead of this announcement. Did they wait for a price cushion in GS's stock price? I should point out that there are other theories about the timing, like the desire to catch Goldman off guard:

"Yesterday, for more than an hour after the SEC filed its charges, the SEC had the headlines to itself. A short Goldman denial appeared around noon, and a longer, more compelling one appeared at the end of the day, when most people had already started checking out for the weekend. Thus, the SEC's fraud story dominated the headlines all day long."

Another more scandalous idea that Bloget points out is that the SEC timed to release to draw attention away from the disturbing results of an investigation into the actions of the SEC in the Stanford ponzi scheme.

Tuesday Rock Blog: The World is a Ghetto

Since I didn't get around to doing a blog post Saturday here is a special Tuesday rock blog. I've paired it with this beautiful unemployment chart I found on Calculated Risk. CR has aligned the troughs of past recessions with the current one, they all seem to form almost perfect Gaussians!

Has the Euro bottomed?

Hey folks, I have returned from my hiatus. I just wanted to quickly throw this FXE (Euro ETF) chart up here that seems to show a clear breakout. The next step is for FXE to close above its 50 dma which is about 20 cents higher. So far its looking pretty solid, the next test will come at $137.53 and if that breaks, the 200 dma (~$142). On the other hand, the euro might very well just bounce off the declining 50 dma and start making new lows in earnest. I'd bet the euro makes a big move one way or the other in the next few days.

Disclosure: I have no currency positions currently.

Saturday Rock Blog: Money

I'll be traveling for another two weeks, don't expect much.