Opening Market Commentary For 03-31-2014
Premarkets were up over +0.60% this morning and the DOW jumped to +0.71% at the opening. The opening volume was low, the $VIX fell to the highs 13’s and the savvy investors were wondering how much longer this party was going to last. Traders are loving it as the volatility is starting to makes it way back into the markets.
My 10 am the Bull party was in high gear, the NASDAQ was at +1.03% and the large caps were chugging along at +0.90% while investors were digesting the ‘not-so-good’ numbers of the Chicago Purchasing Manger coming in at 55.9 as it plunges to a 7 month low.
Janet Yellen has just started speaking at a Development Conference in Chicago and apparently she does not like the rise in US Yields after the FOMC meeting two weeks ago. “sees considerable slack in the labor market and the economy, QE taper does not mean reduced commitment to stimulus.” The markets have surged as she goes ‘Uber-Dovish’ at this point in time.
On other news, I have made disparaging remarks just about every day for the past 4 years regarding the algo computers, the henchmen HFT operators and other market manipulators. I seriously believe we could do without these nasty operations and it would be for the good well-being of the World Financial Markets. It is just so obvious and unbelievable that the SEC would allow them to continue to operate. Oh, that right, the SEC is a crooked bunch of leotard wearing girlymen themselves.
“The Market Is Rigged” – Michael Lewis Explains How HFTs “Screw” Investors Every Day
It was almost [exactly] five years ago to the day, on April 10, 2009, that Zero Hedge – widely mocked at the time by “experts” – began its crusade against HFT and the perils of algorithmic trading (which of course were validated a year later with the Flash Crash).
In the interim period we wrote hundreds if not thousands of articles discussing and explaining the pernicious, parasitic and destabilizing role HFT plays in modern market topology, and how with every passing day, markets are becoming increasingly more brittle, illiquid and, in one word, broken.
Or, as Michael Lewis put it most succinctly, “rigged.” With Lewis’ appearance last night on 60 Minutes to promote his book Flash Boys, and to finally expose the HFT scourge for all to see, we consider our crusade against HFT finished.
At this point it is up to the general population to decide if this season’s participants on Dancing with the Stars or the fate of Honet Boo Boo is more important than having fair and unrigged markets (obviously, we know the answer).
