trading recap

“The idea that you pay governments to hold their debt, it’s just crazy,” said Alan Howard, commanding the world’s largest macro fund. And in a flash, what had once been crazy to deny, became crazy to accept. You see, investors have grown to slavishly believe they should own whatever a central bank is buying. Or short whatever they’re printing. But with $3trln of European bonds trading at negative yields, that Emperor

Week-in-Review: Mon: China cuts RRR 100bps (largest cut since 2008), China property developer Kaisa defaults, Kuroda “underlying trend of inflation has improved markedly,” NZ CPI +0.1% yoy, German PPI -1.7% yoy (20th mthly decline), France central banker Noyer “Greek banks could soon run out of ELA collateral,” UK home prices +4.7% yoy, S&P +0.9%; Tue: China’s Tianwei Group defaults, Korean PM offers to resign ov

“There is no Plan-B,” stated Moscovici. Which is in fact Plan-A. Because the only way to maintain Europe’s political construct, despite deep structural flaws and self-inflicted economic handicaps, is by denying member states an exit. Which itself is a flaw. You see, there’s always an exit. From anything. Everything. Though it may not be pretty. Lagarde denied the Greeks a grace period in repaying its IMF debts, tactf

“We’ve opened the aperture a bit wider,” said the US official, “We’re helping the Saudis get a better sense of the battlefield and the state of play with the Houthi forces.” You see, two weeks of relentless Sunni airstrikes have failed to halt the Shiite advance. Because not even the most sophisticated fighter jets have much value if pilots don’t know what to bomb. Which means that without America’s electronic

Week-in-Review: Mon: China’s Zhou “growth rate has tumbled a bit too much,” China lowers 2nd home down-payment requirement to 40%, Japan Feb IP -3.4% (-2.6% yoy), Sarkozy’s UMP party leads Sunday elections, Arab leaders announce joint military force (confronting Iran), US Feb personal spending +0.1% (income surges +0.4%), PCE core prices +0.1% (+1.4% yoy), pending home sales +12% yoy (June 2013 highs), Dallas Fed -6.

Do corrections start on bad news? Or do they end on bad news? Might corrections mysteriously anticipate bad news? Or do corrections create bad news? I don’t know. But by the time I figure it all out, I’ll be older than King Salman. More senile too. Confused. Which is why you can’t hold him responsible for naming Yemen’s new war Operation Decisive Storm. Because desert storms are never decisive. They’re divisive. Dupl

“If this unprecedented journey continues, technical, economic, legal and even political boundaries may well be tested,” warned Claudio Borio of the BIS, stunned by the prevalence of negative bond yields, frightened of change. In a changing world. Solar Impulse 2 touched down in Myanmar, completing its latest leg of a circumnavigation, powered solely by the Sun. Oil touched new lows. Elon Musk tweeted, “Au

“Is interesting, no?” whispered Vladimir, to the mirror, smoking a cigar, surrounded by tabloids. The headlines betraying editorial bias. Putin’s Dead! A Stroke! Palace Coup! And, Vladimir’s a Father! Which is my favorite. Because faced with uncertainty, we believe what we want to believe, we fear what we want to fear. And I want to believe Putin slipped out to Lugano, where his 31yr old baby mama gave birth to their

“Countries with different ideologies, different priorities, different systems of government, cooperated to defeat the Nazis,” said Iraq’s Prime Minister, “It’s foreseeable we see countries which might not get along well in terms of their bilateral relations working to help defeat this threat.” Iran’s military mastermind, America’s nemesis, General Suleimani, draped in black, sporting a grim grin, sipping tea, appeare