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Since day one of Ben Bernanke’s testimony did not provide any clear signs of when we could see another round of quantitative easing, Big Ben has gone into obfuscation mode and he’s playing it close to the vest Perhaps, we might need to look at the

Last week’s market tug of war seemed to be better than expected U.S. earning versus European woes. Europe clearly won Friday as the markets spent the good part of the trading session face down in the mud, refusing to move after their loss. While a

Friday’s stock indices all closed markedly higher, which came after huge higher gap opens. What happened in between the higher gap opens and the close was nothing. The markets were dead…until the closing bell. Only then was there life when the

The Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform measures that Congress passed in the summer of 2010, (or more aptly name The Frankly-Do-nothing Act) called for the majority of the $600 trillion derivative market, including credit default swaps, to be traded

Occasionally the SEC and other regulators will castigate, actually punish, fraudulent events on Wall Street. Of course the real punishment is only meted out to individuals and small companies. Mega banks – the banking mafia – are largely immun Martha

The world of trading has many parts that seem a little foreign to new traders. There are plenty of catch phrases, symbols, and other banter that can be intimidating or even confusing at first. One of the biggest sources of confusion includes the

Ben’s Twilight Zone Power Poin The market closed lower for only the second time in the last ten trading sessions, yet it can hardly be considered a pullback. Instead, it was just another lethargic trading day with mostly sideways action and light

There is a one-day FOMC meeting tomorrow where the #1 topic of discussion will be “to QE or not to QE.” Should the FOMC print more counterfeit money out of thin air? The answer certainly lies in how badly the banksters want it, and if inflation is

Before we get to the moral hazard piece, I have to mention rollover. Thursday is the first day of rollover, which is when the March ES futures contract changes (rolls) to June. We call it “top step” in the pit. In the past we would trade the new June

In my opinion, every trade you consider should be laid out ahead of time with a roadmap. A complete map should have an “off ramp” or a place where it makes sense to enter the market. It should also have exits for your destination (profits) as well as

Yesterday I said “Wednesday’s data will be bigger than Tuesday’s data which are; GDP, Chicago PMI, Beige Book, and Ben Bernanke speaks to Congress. Moreover, we will get the results of the European LTRO – Act 2. Although some are saying the LTROs are

Stop orders are often used to try to protect profits. Take the stop order to another dimension and use it to reverse your position and open another trading possibility! When you place a stop order, it is only activated if the market trades at or

While some things change, most things stay the same. The sun came up this morning; Democrats and Republicans still hate each other; central bankers are still printing money with reckless abandon; Oprah Winfrey is still rich; the stock market made new

Markets are powerful things. When you first start trading, you are likely to hear a lot about the risk that comes with the potential opportunities in trading. Don't just pay it a lip-service. It is important that before you risk one dollar, you

I think trading with a specific plan is one of the most sensible things a trader can do. It helps you learn and identify key areas to watch for in a market. More importantly, it helps you avoid sabotaging yourself because it helps keep your emotions

For most traders, charts are like their road maps to potential trades. Technicians see potential patterns, key clues that they interpret for trading opportunities. Fundamentalists see confirmation of news stories or supply and demand dynamics playing

You have often heard me say that the market is rigged, which it most certainly is via the Federal Reserve’s overall interest rate “engineering,” as well as outright manipulations through quantitative easing (QE), backdoor bailouts, POMO, massive swap

The market continues to wait on the news of the next Greek bailout. Each day that something “might” happen, the market grinds higher. When that “something” falls flat, the market goes flat again. After an early slide this morning, the market received

Last Friday the European continent was (essentially) completely downgraded. Standard & Poor’s slammed the region with NINE downgrades – some one notch and others two notches. S&P cut the ratings of Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal by two notches

I had high hopes for Monday’s trade when I said “Are enough traders home from their holidays to make for good trading Monday? That’s a close call in my opinion; however, there just may be enough scheduled economic data releases, including the Fed, to