It wasn’t long ago that volatility seemed to have flat-lined. Those were the good old days. Just look at market results for the past two months and you’ll see a…
Trading is on Autopilot
“Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a … canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?” …
High-Frequency Headache
Previous posts this week shared concerns from John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics about exchange-traded products and high-yield bonds. Mauldin also called out high-frequency traders, who did nothing to keep the market from dropping…
Kill the Quants – Before They Kill the Markets
As we noted last week, there is always something to worry about. Yesterday, we discussed the risks being created by exchange-trade products, quoting a Mauldin Economics column. In his column,…
Exchange-Traded Products Can Be Risky
While fear of rising interest rates has clearly been a factor in recent market volatility, there are plenty of other reasons for the sudden jolts that are worrying investors. Doug…
Gold Can Be Fickle
“Nobody really understands gold prices, and I don’t pretend to understand them either.” …
RIP High-Frequency Trading?
“It’s like a perfect storm. The cheats are going away, the volatility is going down and the costs are going up.” Haim Bodek, former head of electronic volatility trading, UBS AG…
Abnormalization and QE4
It seems to be a policy of the Federal Reserve Board to never use a two-syllable word when a four- or five-syllable word is available. So we have “quantitative easing”…
Central Bankers: Masters of the Universe
Earlier this month, along with our usual dire observations about an economy that has come unhinged, I noted that the world was not coming to an end. On closer inspection,…
Prozac Nation
It’s all stress-free bliss these days … at least for anyone who’s not paying attention. Has someone been putting anti-depressants in the water supply? That’s one way to explain Wednesday’s…