Book Review: “An American Hedge Fund” – The Story of Timothy Sykes Who Turned $12,000 in Bar Mitzvah Money Into $1.65 Million and Started a Hedge Fund Before Finishing College

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Timothy Sykes offering me the opportunity to review an advance copy of his forthcoming An American Hedge Fund – due out October 1, 2007.  At first I was skeptical.  I’ve had…

The Best Concise Explanation For What’s Going On In Markets Now – Risk Is Being Repriced (And What That Actually Means)

This weekend, in his “Current Yield” column for Barron’s, Randall Forsyth wrote the best concise explanation I’ve read for what is going on in markets now in an article entitled “Giving Credit Its Due, Finally” (subscription required – e-mail me and…

Selling Into Strength

“Although the overall market is up, I’m seeing a balance of buyers and sellers.  There are people taking advantage of the ‘up’ market to do some profit taking.” – Joe Ranieri (subscription required), Co-Head of Trading, Canaccord Adams The Dow was…

Stocks Get a Nice Bounce

“We’re in a period of volatility.  We’re not out of the woods yet….. All of the things that bothered the market last week are still around….” – Bill Nichos (subscription required), Trader, Bear Stearns  After the brutal selloff last week, stocks…

What The Charts Say – Watch Dow 12,800 and S&P 1450; The Underperformance of the Russell and The Outperformance of the Nasdaq 100

On a day like today, after a big drop, I think the markets are more about emotion than they are about facts and fundamentals.  Therefore, I find it useful to look at the charts for some guidance about how people…

The Credit Crunch Is Here: I-Banks Fail To Sell Bonds and Loans To Finance Chrysler and Alliance Boots LBOs

All you really need to read to understand today’s market crash is an article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal titled: “Banks Delay Sale of Chrysler Debt As Market Stalls” (subscription required).  If you really want to…

My, My How Quickly Things Change On Wall Street – 10 Year Treasury Closes Below 5%; Ken Fisher Says: Watch Credit Spreads

A month ago the big story was rising interest rates.  Everybody was talking about how the economy was holding up while inflation was still a problem and so, far from cutting rates later this year, the Fed’s next move might…