Monday Mutterings

It was a choppy roller coaster day, but there were some bright spots.

International markets stayed afloat as commodities moved up.

The financial sector finds itself in peril once again. Stay away from the big names who are too big to fail. Their bond holders might see cash, but the equity gets wiped out.

HYG printed another near term high, but the upper Bollinger is a good place to take profits.

Treasuries made a new high, but in an ominous fashion, reversed and sold off sharply till the end of the day. I've acquired some TBT and will add more if the tape presents itself.

The weakness in equities and strength of commodities versus bonds was unusual. I purchased a tiny amount of DBC to take advantage of the money leaving Treasuries.

Short trades continue to pay, but the weakness in bonds is divergent with the direction of equities. The money leaving the safety of bonds must go someplace, potentially energy and precious metal related categories. This market continues to move slowly relative to the past few months, but stay focused and take advantage of the few opportunities 2008 still offers.

Interesting Indexes

Some markets are stronger than others. Here are 4 potential leaders.

The international markets are performing better than domestic ones.

The insurance sector has acted surprisingly resilient, Berkshire Hathaway anyone?

Spend your grandchild's future now, just don't take away my drugs.

Silver is looking sexy as it breaks above recent resistance. I'm buying the dip, and keeping a short leash.

I hope we get a big gap up tomorrow and then a nice fade all day long. Since it doesn't matter what I think, I'll be taking the day one tick at a time. The banks still look troubling to me, so I'm not touching those Ponzi fuckers. A bounce or two in the USD would be nice, but with so much money coming off the sidelines, there is no reason to think that the dips will be anything other than quick and shallow.