Trader Talk

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Source: The New York Stock Exchange The short squeeze craziness continues and discussions are split on three lines: the implications for trading (is there a power shift on Wall Street?), the implications for regulations (what action, if any, will the SEC take? should there be position

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE. NYSE Short sellers on the ropes — or are they?  Short sellers clearly have picked the wrong names in January.  The GameStop phenomenon — where buyers deliberately target heavily shorted stocks — is only the most recent development in a long series of failures from short sellers.

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE. NYSE Stock trading volumes are through the roof.  It’s not just equity prices that are hitting new highs in 2021. Trading volumes for stocks and options are at records as well.  “For trading volumes, the new year starts at a consistent, unprecedented strong & record pace,” according to

Traders on floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Source: New York Stock Exchange With the inauguration — and the risk of disruption — now over, what’s next for markets?  The S&P 500 has risen 15% since the election to historic highs on a series of macroeconomic hopes that have driven sentiment, technical levels, and

People pass a sign for JPMorgan Chase at it’s headquarters in Manhattan, New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images Earnings season is upon us, but traders will be far less interested in fourth quarter results than in first quarter and second quarter guidance. The problem is it’s not clear that CEOs will cooperate. Banks

US President-Elect Joe Biden delivers remarks before the holiday at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware on December 22, 2020. Alex Edelman | AFP | Getty Images Stocks and taxes: what’s going to happen?  The Democrats’ control of Congress has shone a new spotlight on Biden’s tax proposals, particularly those that would affect stocks and bonds.  While

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE Despite the chaos at the Capitol, the S&P 500 closed Wednesday at a new high, which baffled some observers. “I think most feel this [the Washington protests] is more of a one-off situation, that this as an isolated event as opposed to some

Source: NYSE photo Art Cashin couldn’t lead the New York Stock Exchange in the singing of “Wait til the Sun Shines Nellie” this year, but he penned this poem for UBS and its clients, and is sharing it with us here.  Happy New Year, Art. Look forward to seeing you on the floor in 2021. Subscribe

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE Electric vehicle maker Tesla is poised to enter the S&P 500 in what will be the largest rebalancing in the history of that index. The new index with Tesla in it begins trading on Monday, but all the trading action happens at the

Every December for the past 13 years Art Cashin and his “friends of fermentation” have gathered at the front bar at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse across from the NYSE to celebrate the holidays, and we’ve used the opportunity to get Art’s take on the year ahead. We weren’t able to meet at Bobby Van’s this year,

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stands on the construction site of the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin, September 3, 2020. Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty Images The addition of Tesla into the S&P 500 at the close this Friday will be one of the biggest trading days in history, but it is

New York Stock Exchange building is seen decorated for Christmas at the Financial District in New York City, United States on November 30, 2020. Anadolu Agency | Getty Images IPOs vs. SPACs:  Who will win in 2021?  2020 was a surprisingly good year for IPOs, but it was an even better year for Special Purpose

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York. NYSE Options trading is the new sports betting. Talk about unintended consequences. The stay-at-home requirement created by Covid-19 has spawned a huge sub-industry in options trading in tandem with an increase in equities trading that shows no signs of letting up.   Trading in equity

CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk reacts following the company’s initial public offering at the NASDAQ market in New York June 29, 2010 Brendan McDermid | Reuters S&P’s action on Tesla showed the growing power of indexers and passive investing. S&P Dow Jones Indices has announced that Tesla will be added to the S&P 500

Traders work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE A big year-end rally? Don’t get too excited yet. December is traditionally an up month: Since 1945, the S&P 500 rose nearly 1.5% in all Decembers and advanced in price 73% of the time, according to Sam Stovall at CFRA Research. But hopes for the

Day traders have terrible track records.  Academics who study stock pickers have long observed that the vast majority of professional money managers – about 85% – underperform their benchmarks over a multi-year period. Now those professionals are turning their sights on retail day traders, warning that the same poor results apply to them as well. 

The Wall Street Bull (The Charging Bull) is seen during Covid-19 pandemic in New York, on May 26, 2020. Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Money is pouring into stocks through exchange-traded funds.  You can thank the potential vaccines. Money is pouring in because U.S. investors who have been reluctant to put money

In my 23 years as on-air stocks correspondent for CNBC, I’ve been asked many questions by strangers, but most of them boil down to some variant of “What do you think is going to happen to the markets?”   Remarkably, almost no one (OK, maybe one in a hundred) ever ask what I would consider

An exterior view of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headquarters in Washington. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters What would a Democrat-controlled Securities and Exchange Commission look like? It’s early, but speculation is already raging on Wall Street.  Who will be the next SEC Commissioner?  Former CFTC chair Gary Gensler, who aggressively implemented Dodd Frank

Is it time for a reconsideration of this monster rally?  With the S&P 500 up 9% in six trading sessions to an all-time intraday high (though not a closing high), many are looking at parts of the market as overbought. Others agree, but say it doesn’t matter in this strange mix of election and vaccine