Michael Ashton

E-PIPHANY

Contributor since: 26 Feb 2010

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• The Weak Ahead?

  Published 31 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  All in all, January wasn't too bad. The S&P gained 4.4%. The DJ-UBS and SP-GSCI commodity indices rose 2.5% (USCI rose 4.9%). The 10y Treasury…

• No Pushing In The Default Line, Please

  Published 30 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Europe continues to smolder, but it is about to burst into outright flame. The 'private sector initiative' (PSI) discussions, which were supposed to be completed…

• Transparently Dovish

  Published 27 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Markets are finding it a little hard to believe that the Fed really said what it said. Stocks opened the day with a rally, along…

• Intentional Ignorance?

  Published 25 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  I want to state clearly at the outset that no one at the Fed was compensated in any way by me or my company for…

• A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Deflation

  Published 25 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Markets remain mostly frozen while the news continues to flow. In a way, it's Shiller's revenge. Bob Shiller wrote in the early 1980s about the…

• Maybe Silence Really Is Golden

  Published 23 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  It wasn't the slowest day of the year so far, but that is only because of the extraordinarily weak start we have had to the…

• Price-A-Palooza

  Published 19 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  The monthly price-a-palooza from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, coinciding with the auction of $15bln in new 10-year TIPS, also shared the day with Housing…

• A Big Collection Plate; A Small Congregation

  Published 19 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Stocks rallied today (but no, trading was still somnambulant - volume is still some 250mm shares per day below last year's volume to date) by…

• Yee-Haw News And Ho-Hum Trading

  Published 17 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Tuesday was another day of ho-hum trading following yee-haw news. Anyone expecting a bloodbath following the ratings downgrades clearly has not been paying attention as…

• Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...Keep Them Lenders Rolling

  Published 16 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Either the strategy of releasing downgrade announcements for Europe at 4:30 ET paid off, or sovereign ratings have become largely irrelevant. On Monday, albeit a…

• Beware the Great Unzipping

  Published 14 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  It was a fitting conclusion to Friday the 13th when S&P, after the close of the markets for the week, announced a list of ratings…

• Liability-Driven Investment for Individuals

  Published 13 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  I will have another comment out over this long weekend, and it may well mention the S&P ratings downgrades of most of Europe, which just…

• How To Exceed Expectations (Or At Least Keep Up)

  Published 11 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  As we wait for something interesting to happen in the markets - or at least for some volume! - I thought I would write about…

• As We Snooze, We All Lose

  Published 09 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  Monday was another day of feeble volume in the markets, but at least today there was the excuse that there wasn't any important economic data…

• Catching Up

  Published 07 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  On Thursday and Friday I was in Chicago, doing business but also attending the first day of the American Economic Association annual conference. Accordingly, I…

• Inflation Swaps For The Long Run

  Published 04 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  After buying stocks 'with both hands' on Tuesday, investors went with a distinctly one-handed approach as stock indices ended mixed on even lighter volume. It…

• New Year 's Revolutions

  Published 03 January 2012 | viewed 0 times

  If it's January 3rd, it must be time to buy with both hands, right? Markets leapt higher today, led by commodities. In December, managers evidently…

• Long-Term Portfolio Projections Update

  Published 26 December 2011 | viewed 0 times

  Let me first point out what this article is not: I will make no effort to predict the 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month returns of any…

• Scrooge Businesses

  Published 22 December 2011 | viewed 0 times

  Stocks rallied today, as did commodities, in thin year-end trading (I am very tired of this latter phrase, which it seems we could have accurately…

• Nomination For A New Villain

  Published 22 December 2011 | viewed 0 times

  It seems very strange to find myself suddenly on the more-optimistic side of opinion when it comes to the situation in Europe. That isn't to…