Capitalogix

Market Confidence Remains High Despite Glitch

An offline N.Y.S.E. barely made a ripple in a day’s trading a few weeks ago.  

Moreover, industry research indicates that confidence in the US Equity Market Structure is at a 5-year high, with 64% of the respondents having “High/Very High” confidence and 18% responding “Neutral.”

In years past, a shutdown like that might have stopped Wall Street dead in its tracks, with a broad range of companies’ shares sitting frozen until all technical problems were unwound.

But as the lengthy stoppage showed, the modern world of stock trading is much quicker, more complex and reliant on sophisticated computers — and in many cases able to adapt to issues that could have proved disastrous to the financial markets and the investors’ holdings.

To put it in perspective, NYSE-listed (Tape A) stocks account for approximately 53% of US National Market System (NMS) stock volume. 

Below are industry and Tape A market share metrics for Self-Regulatory Organizations (SROs) for the first six months of 2015. NYSE accounts for 23.2% of NYSE-listed stocks and 12.3% of overall equity volume.

 

 

via Tabb Forum.

Weekend Links

Hillary Clinton may have to deal with more fall-out from her deleted e-mail fiasco.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Economist Explains: The End of Moore's Law. (Economist)

• Big Data Explained in Less Than 2 Minutes - To Absolutely Anyone. (DSC)

• A Preliminary Taxonomy of the Voices Inside Your Head. (Digest)

• Disney’s Research Lab Figures Out How To Put Words In Your Mouth. (TechCrunch)

• 'What I Would Tell My 20-Year-Old Self'.  (Fortune)

 

Trading Links:

• Tech Boom 2015: What's Driving Investor Insanity? (Forbes)

• This Is Your Brain on Money: How Investors Trip Themselves Up. (WSJ)

• These 2 Simple Slides Show Just How Hot FinTech Is Right Now. (BizInsider)

• Soros Says China Is Major Risk For World War 3. (ValueWatch)

• China’s Yuan Has ‘Long March’ To Reserve-Currency Status. (MarketWatch)

China Tries to Prevent a Market Crash

It has been a tough several weeks for Chinese markets.

As such, the Chinese government has taken some extreme measures to intervene and minimize the selloff.

Some of these measures include more than half the companies on the exchange "voluntarily" suspending trading.

But, it has not worked yet.

    

via WSJ.

 

Stratfor posits:  Beijing has an underlying interest in ensuring that China's stock markets do not collapse, even though any intervention risks exacerbating whatever financial and political fallout may come from an eventual market decline or crash. Therefore, the government will likely continue to intervene to the best of its ability, propping up markets and market sentiment whenever the risk of a major sell-off becomes too great.

This does not mean that stock prices won't slide further, or that the market will stabilize — indeed, it could well become even more volatile over the coming months. Until Beijing invents more avenues for investment, or unless it embraces interest rate hikes and any post-crisis restructuring, it will have to rely on the few tools available to ensure that citizens can generate the wealth and financial security they need to consume.  

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

So, are you conflicted about Trump running for President?  

 

 

Good for entertainment ... Just not sure how good it will be for the country?

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• How to Use the Gratitude Advantage at Work. (Michael Hyatt)
• Microsoft Study Shows That Tech Is Shortening Your Attention Span. (Engadget)
• What 5 Days of Junk Food Does to You. (Time)
• The U.S. Army is Testing a Real-Life Ray Gun. (The Week)
• Science Fiction writer, Warren Ellis, Answers Your Questions about the Future. (WN) 

 

Trading Links:

• An Offline N.Y.S.E. Made Barely a Ripple in a Day’s Trading. (NYTimes)
• Are CTAs Good for a Diversified Hedge Fund Portfolio? (FINalternatives)
• The Rise of the Trader-Bots. (The New Yorker)
• Unravelling Capitalism's Hidden Networks Of Power. (New Scientist)
• The Economics of Polo, the Sport of Kings. (Forbes) 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

In the spirit of 'Independence' ... here is a photo of the British Royal Family.  It could be captioned: "Did Phillip Fart?"

The expressions are priceless!  Notice Harry, and of course, the Queen.

 

 

What do you think?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• What Happens When Our Computers Get Smarter Than We Are? (TED)
• Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. (Aerogramme Studio)
• Watching Porn With Porn Stars Is Hilariously Awkward. (HuffPost)
• U.S. Suspects Hackers in China Breached 4 Million People’s Records. (WSJ)
• IBM is buying thousands of Macs for its employees. It wants to deploy around 50,000 MacBooks by the end of the year.  (9to5mac)

 

Trading Links:

• Most Millionaires Think They Are Middle Class. (CNBC)
• Uber is Now Worth MORE than Federal Express. (Lindzon)
• Feds’ Crystal Ball Shows Oil Comeback. (Investing Daily)
• Who Is Saudi Arabia Really Targeting In Its Price War? (OilPrice)
• How The Fed "Engineered A Massive Squeeze In The Markets" with the Help of 683x Leverage. (ZH)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

To put a bad decision in context.  Take a look at this.

 

The actual date was April 12, 1976, but other than that, you get the point. 

One of the links below is to a story about an investor who lost $15 Billion in an hour.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye this week. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 20 Quotes to Inspire Successful Innovation. (Mindjet)
• John F. Nash Jr., Math Genius Defined by a ‘Beautiful Mind,’ Dies at 86. (NYTimes)
• Why Mathematician John Nash Was a Genius. (Mashable)
• Service Transforms Your Tweets Into Something Worth a Look. Here's mine. (RM)
• Tag Heuer to Rolex: How Luxury Watch Brands Are Responding to the Apple Watch. (Fortune)

 

Trading Links:

• The IPO Class of 2015. (Forbes)
• China’s IPO Market Leaves U.S. in the Dust. (Wall Street Journal)
• China's Richest Man Recently Lost $15 Billion In One Hour. (Money)
• How a London Man May Have Helped Trigger the 'Flash Crash'. (BigStory)
• An Objective Look at High-Frequency Trading, Dark Pools and The Flash Crash. (ValueWalk)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• How The Future Is Really Built. (Innovation Excellence)
• Debate: Is Smart Technology Making Us Dumb? (NPR)
• Miracle Grow for Your Brain. (Farnam Street)
• The 70 Coolest New Buildings in the World. (Insider)
• How Lebron James' Trainer Gets Him From One Herculean Effort To Next. (CBS Sports)

 

Trading Links:

• The Information Age Is Over. Welcome to the Infrastructure Age. (Gizmodo)
• Presenting De-Dollarization In One Simple Map. (ZeroHedge)
• Three Reasons Apple Should Acquire IBM. (Forbes)
• How Tesla Will Change The World. (Wait But Why)
• In Rare Admission of Guilt, Wall St. Banks Say They Rigged Markets. (CBS)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

The best new science skill is ...

 

 

via The New Yorker.

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• How to Invent the Future. (HBR)
• Transformation: The Imperative to Change. (BCG Perspectives)
• 100 Years of Change. (Daily Infographic)
• The Quest to Measure Machine Intelligence. (MIT Technology Review)
• Why Scientists Believe Dogs Are Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For. (Vox)

 

Trading Links:

• Billionaires 2015: The Richest People on the Planet. (Forbes)
• Where Do the World’s Wealthiest People Live? (WSJ Blogs)
• Why Americans Are Giving Up Their Passports. (NYTimes)
• Quantum Computers Will Change The World, Business, and Trading. (BizInsider)
• Should Mutual Funds Be Illegal? (Bloomberg View)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Attracting the Faithful isn't as easy as it used to be.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Disruption Machine. (New Yorker)
• How Watson Changed IBM. (Harvard Business Review)
• Download the 'Conversational Geek' e-book. (Infoworld)
• 25 of Oscar Wilde's Wittiest Quotes. (Mental Floss)
• What Democrats can learn from Republicans. (Vox)

 

Trading Links:

• Michael Lewis Reflects on Flash Boys. (Vanity Fair)
• High-Frequency Trading's Rise and Rise. (Businessweek)
• The 20 Fastest-Growing Economies This Year Business. (Bloomberg)
• Feds’ Crystal Ball Shows Oil Comeback. (Investing Daily)
• Presenting De-Dollarization in One Simple Map. (ZeroHedge)

Walking in Memphis

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a charity barbecue cook-off in Memphis.

Turns out I was there the night B.B. King died. Here is a picture at his bar that night.

 

 

The group I was with was relatively small ... but accounts for a large portion of the daily ag trading volume on the exchange. As a technical trader, it was interesting to listen to them discuss fundamental trading techniques (like crop forecasts and weather forecasts). But I wasn't ready for what I found when I visited one of their offices.

 

 

 

via YouTube.