From the monthly archives:
Who Says Economic Numbers Don’t Matter?
The expectation for the Durable Goods Orders was a 0.4% increase for August, but the actual number came in with a drop of 2.4%. The emini S&P 500 futures dropped immediately when this figure was released when expectations of a positive opening moved to a weaker position.
This poor [...]
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Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has stated the recession is probably over. Does he believe it? If so, is there any chance the statement at the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will change tone dramatically? Or, even more exciting; will the target rate raise off the 0-25 basis point level? What would [...]
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Over the last week, we have seen developments on the merger front that are interesting both from an individual standpoint and as a commentary on the view of companies as a whole. Last week, Adobe (ADBE) bid $21.5 per share for Omniture (OMTR), and today Dell (DELL) announced an acquisition of Perot Systems (PER) for [...]
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My source in the SPX pit is highlighting several large trades hitting the pit. Specifically, the September 1000 straddle is being sold at 38 dollars 8000 times.
This may be an attempt to capture some time-decay as the implied levels in the SPX have increased as we head into the 3-day Labor Day [...]
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Mosiac is topping the OptionsHouse hotlist in the first hour of trading. The stock is higher by 3.5% and over 70,000 contracts have already traded.
This company was the subject of a possible buyout attempt from Brazil Vale SA VALE that was abandoned last month after Brazilian government officials nuked the 25 billion dollar takeover plan.Today [...]
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Yesterday, FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) announced Regulatory Notice 09-53. It addresses the need to charge more margin for leveraged ETFs than standard ones. I have said many times that these products are as much a function of increased leverage as they are about anything else. It is a way around the margining rules. [...]
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