Fighting Yoda

The Role of the 200-Day Average in Risk Management

200d ma should be used with 50d, 20d - to get the complete long term and short trem perspective. With volatility still so high - can't say which indicator will work best in the current environment.

Will just sit out the current madness - "markets can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent"

April's Unemployment Report: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

"Better than expected" is a tried and tested Wall Street game. Currently the Plunge Protection Team is very active and everything is being seen with rose colored glasses, and some botox added for good measure. Hey the banks have to raise money - good investment banking commissions are to be made - lets simply say - 'bottom is in' and happy days are here again. Lot of gullible investors will get suckered in.

However joining hands and clapping harder does not make the problem go away. We are in the Great Recession - no end in sight. 539K job loss is horrible number; we need to create about 125K jobs per month just to stay where we are. Temp hiring the leading indicator for future job gains is still not inching up, over time hours are paltry, work week (for people supposedly working full time) is at a historic low of 33.2.

This rally will die a bad death, all the suckers who have bought into this will be massacred again.

An Investor's Guide to Corporate Bonds

Bonds should be a integral portion of all portfolios. Rather than buying individual bonnds and dealing with single company risk - bond ETFs are a good way to do it - HYG, JNK (junk or high yield), LQD (mostly AAA). Alos should look at Muni Bonds - MUB.