Jon G

Commodities: How to Trade Like Goldman Sachs

how to trade like golman involves trading against your institutional clients....since we can't see order flow, we are at a big disadvantage

8 Foreign ETFs with Attractive Year-End Distributions

The only thing you are incurring by investing in an ETF or mutual fund with a large dividend payment is a nice tax bill --

Citadel Set to Control 97.5% of E*Trade's Order Flow

I stopped trading options on Etrade last year. I was trading options on the indicies and highly liquid but volatile stocks & consistenly found myself getting bent over for 1 or 2 cents on my options' market orders vs. real time prices. I complained several times to no avail.

Goldman Sachs (GS) raises its outlook for second-half economic growth to 3% from 1%, on good signs from inventory liquidation, fiscal policy and residential investment.

GS needs higher prices to continue to print money -- what are they going to do when flash trading is gone?

The End of Asset Allocation

managed futures, deep out of money puts, short managers all did well last year.

Now we have an investment that tracks the VIX in an ETF which I begged Rydex for 3 years ago when the VIX was approaching single digits.

Asset allocation is not dead. As I say on the golf course, its not the tools in your bag, its how you use them.

Wednesday Outlook: Commodities, Global Markets

Just like clockwork - 3 pm stick save into the close

Time to Exit Oil / Gold Pair Trade

Sean -- why not take a look at Oil to Nat Gas from a ratio perspective. I can make a fundmental argument why the ratio is so out of whack but I took a position in UNG anyway based on it. Would love to hear your thoughts as well

Bond Expert: Wednesday Wrap

Maybe in the next year or so we will measure spreads of treasuries off of corporates as the govt continues to bankrupt the US !

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: The Fed did not cause - and could not have prevented - the housing bubble. - Alan Greenspan in a WSJ op-ed

Nice editorial but consider the source (let me defend my legacy). I think when history is written, we all know where Greenspan will be in the blame list (right near the top). I think he saw the train coming down the tracks and pushed his pal Bernanke in front of it while he jumped (hoping to preserve his place in history as the maestro).

As the banker of the last resort, the Fed failed to respond to a massive bubble that they created. Recall shortly after Greenspan left, he said in a speech that history has not dealt kindly when risk premiums were so low. Risk premiums were so low from the wealth effect created by real estate prices. In addition, encouraging people to use option arms at the peak of the bubble as Mr Greenspan did was very irresponsible. To me this said, keep the game going until I can get out of here.

I can go on and on (allowing banks to lever up in a post Long-Term Capital environment - didn't they learn the lesson once?, not regulating derivatives and CMBS, etc, throwing money at any problem) but it will make me sick.

12 Reasons to Short Gold

1. David Einhorn is buying gold so the hedgies will follow him in
2. Gold and miners have broken out technically
3. Info-mercials is just the beginning of they hype. Remember, you want to find something people will build castles in the air out of (think tech stocks, real estate, etc)....we have yet to begin a disconnect from true fundamental value for us to call the price a bubble....this will happen but not yet....

It's Time for GE to Lose Its Triple-A

Felix - in regards to point #2 --- GE (at a spread of 326bps to treasuries for 5 yr bonds) is now trading like a AA - A rated bond

Comparing current spread to T bonds vs. what junk bonds were trading like in 2006 is a terrible argument to make

Additionally, I recall earlier this decade GE bonds were trading like they were going to be downgraded and they weren't

For GE to come to market with new bonds, investors would demand A-AA rates (based on current pricing). In essence, regardless what S&P or Moody's do, GE has been already been "downgraded" by investors

Harvard Endowment: Punishing the Present to Benefit the Future?

Time for them to launch a new fundraising campaign!

Yet another sign early indications of strong holiday sales may be misleading: Gift card sales are down 10%.

I would dismiss this as an indicator as every news organization has been blasting the message "don't buy gift cards" this year in case of bankruptcy

Interested in Bank of America? Consider the Preferred Shares

If you are looking for a more diversified approach to preferred stocks look at closed end funds HPF and PFO - both sporting near double digit or higher yields

Fixed Income: Little Value in Treasuries, Preferred Financials Yielding 8%

Also look at HPF and PFO - 2 closed end funds that do nothing but pfd stocks....better yields and you get "active" management