29 July 2009

Trashcan Sinatras - In the Music - Live in Japan

The Trashcan Sinatras have returned with a new record (soon to be available here in the States) and are touring starting right about now. Here's the title track, recently performed live in Japan:

22 July 2009

Superchunk Live at South Street Seaport

Superchunk live at South Street Seaport last Friday.

I first saw 'em play outdoors at Swarthmore in 1993. They still rock.

"Learned to Surf," off of the Leaves in the Gutter EP released earlier this year:



"Driveway to Driveway," off of 1994's Foolish:



"The First Part," an ode to foreplay (I believe), also off of Foolish:



And they closed the set with "Slack Motherfucker":



Or you can watch the last three songs together in this superior video:

Superchunk | NYC @ South Street Seaport Pier 17 | 17 Jul 2009 from UN:ART:IG on Vimeo.



As you may be able to tell, there were lots of different people videorecording this show and they kindly posted the results on YouTube.

21 July 2009

Word for Wednesday is OVERBOUGHT

Metric

I think I'm meeting the CanCon requirements considering how much music I post on this blog from up north.

I've been digging on the new Metric record. The Grey Lady just posted an article on Metric's Emily Haines and other DIY musicians who are eschewing the outmoded record label business model.

Here's the video for Gimme Sympathy, which has a Chinese fire drill much like Sloan's Losing California video, which is not available on YouTube.

17 July 2009

Nimbly Trading The S&P Next Week

The markets in general had a spectacular run this week. The major U.S. indices are extremely overbought according to RSI(2). However, that doesn't mean one should load their portfolio with puts or uber-short ETFs, take a week off, and then sell 'em for substantial profit. It's not quite such a sure thing...




I wrote the following on the above chart, but it's the key takeaway, so it's worth reiterating: Where will the S&P go from here? The previous three extreme RSI(2) events give us three possibilities: 1. S&P goes down; 2. S&P goes up; or 3. S&P goes sideways.

Let's take a step back, filter out some of the noise, and note the general S&P trends:




The market trend is still sideways, with the price action soon to bump into some nice overhead price resistance.

I'm holding nimble short positions right now, meaning I'm looking for some profit-taking opportunities if the market decides to become less overbought next week, but I'm ready to dump my shorts quickly if the S&P convincingly breaches the ~950-955 overhead resistance level. That would mean that sideways trend F is giving way to upward trend G.

15 July 2009

Update on the S&P Trading Outlook

This is the chart I made quite recently with my near-term outlook on trading the S&P 500:



And here is an updated version, with an educated guess as to what may happen to the S&P 500 after the initial excitement of some earnings beats gets priced into the market:

Gold Bust

My dour gold trade hasn't worked out quite as planned:

08 July 2009

07 July 2009

Coeur de Pirate

Listening to the 200th CBC Radio 3 Podcast this afternoon, I heard the lovely lilt of Coeur de Pirate. Grab a plate of poutine and enjoy:

06 July 2009

End of a Rangebound S&P 500?

Here is an up-to-date chart of the S&P 500 for the past three months:


The market has been trading within a 60-point range over the last two months. The S&P is currently heading toward the lower end of the range after last Thursday's 2.6% dump.

The questions for me are:

1. Does the convergence of the 200DMA line and the lower end of the recent trading range mean we'll see the S&P fall toward the ~880-level, fail to penetrate it, and perpetuate the rangebound trading action through the summer?

2. Or, on the other hand, if the ~880-level is convincingly broken, should I then pile into a healthy short position as the market breaks down yet again?

I'm waiting and watching, with a small amount of money currently engaged in the market.

With these questions in mind, I have a couple of other annotated charts in the back of my mind.

Here is a longer-term chart of the S&P showing an interesting trendline I found. The red line shows support in late-January and early-February became overhead resistance in May and June.

On the chart below, we see another recent, related trading channel broken to the downside: