Monday, September 26, 2011
nice job Art!!
Indices were up 2-3% across the board but the financials (the stocks that all the mutual funds overown) were up as much as 5-10%!! That must have been some good news out of the EU last night right?
Art Cashin is aware of the quarter-end mark!! Congrats Art!!
from CNBC
Mon Sept 26, 2011
Stocks could be in for very choppy trading on Friday following the heavy sell-off in the previous session, but get ready for a “massive rally” sometime next week, said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services.
Art doesn't give much of a reason but I'm guessing he glanced at a calendar in the last day or two.
Mon Sept 26, 2011
Stocks could be in for very choppy trading on Friday following the heavy sell-off in the previous session, but get ready for a “massive rally” sometime next week, said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services.
Art doesn't give much of a reason but I'm guessing he glanced at a calendar in the last day or two.
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Mark
It's always very funny to me that the last few days of the month the big, bad mutual funds will "window dress" their positions, and along with it, the broader market. Window dressing is adding to positions at the end of a marking period (ie: month, quarter or year end). Mutual funds will add to, oftentimes aggressively, their biggest positions, and in doing so improve their performance for the current period. If they want to sell an existing position they will sometimes wait until the beginning of the month so as not to negatively affect their performance numbers.
Window dressing is also known as marking up positions. And the more important the marking period (year-end is more important the quarter-end etc.) the worse the window dressing is and the higher these stocks will move into the end of the period. The real problem with marking positions is that the whole market will move with it for three or four days and will then typically drop back to where it was before the mark at the beginning of the new period.
Take the end of August for example. The S&P was up roughly 3% for the last three days of what was a poor month, only to give it all back and then some on the first two days of September. I am aware of the poor economic data that we g, bot today, but the market would have found a reason to go down with or without it because all the demand for stocks had dried up.
I respect the mark for what it is: pure market manipulation. A very smart trader who runs a large Connecticut hedge fund once told me to "never fade the mark". This simply means that the market will go up and go up violently and that you should not try to be on the wrong side of it during this period. If I am long I will take advantage of the mark by selling my longs into it. If I get caught short into the mark I will slowly try and get shorter into it. Just keep in mind that the mark may be longer or stronger than you think.
Window dressing is also known as marking up positions. And the more important the marking period (year-end is more important the quarter-end etc.) the worse the window dressing is and the higher these stocks will move into the end of the period. The real problem with marking positions is that the whole market will move with it for three or four days and will then typically drop back to where it was before the mark at the beginning of the new period.
Take the end of August for example. The S&P was up roughly 3% for the last three days of what was a poor month, only to give it all back and then some on the first two days of September. I am aware of the poor economic data that we g, bot today, but the market would have found a reason to go down with or without it because all the demand for stocks had dried up.
I respect the mark for what it is: pure market manipulation. A very smart trader who runs a large Connecticut hedge fund once told me to "never fade the mark". This simply means that the market will go up and go up violently and that you should not try to be on the wrong side of it during this period. If I am long I will take advantage of the mark by selling my longs into it. If I get caught short into the mark I will slowly try and get shorter into it. Just keep in mind that the mark may be longer or stronger than you think.
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