IX Investor Show, a new paradigm? The return of the Amaranth trader! S&P to new all time highs? And more…..

Welcome to the weekly update. We were at the IX Investor show last Friday and Saturday which was staged at the ExCel Centre in London’s docklands. There were numerous presentations there from traders and exhibitors on topics as diverse as ‘Mastering Forex Trading Strategies’ to ‘10 Steps to Successful Spread Trading.’ Attendees had the chance to meet with brokerage firms, charting software providers, stock market educators and fund managers over the course of the two days.

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What are the financials telling us? Where next for the dollar? Taking responsibility, chart of the week and more…

The main financial market indices have been performing well recently with the FTSE and Germany’s DAX hitting new 6 year highs. The U.S indices have also been performing well despite not breaking above their respective February highs as yet. However, one important sector continues to warn us that all may not be well. The financials sector has failed to keep up with the rest of the markets as concerns over a credit contraction-led slowdown remain in investors minds. Traditionally, the financials sector is important in maintaining the underlying health of the markets and these can often lead market moves.

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It’s newsletter week! How much were US property prices overvalued? Fear Vs greed based traders, UK interest rate decision on Thursday, and more…

Subscribers please note that the newsletter will be out by Friday. We don’t often comment on housing markets in these updates, preferring to stick to our favoured field of the more liquid asset classes. However, there has been so much news surrounding the sub-prime lending market in the U.S that we feel it deserves some attention. In February, existing home sales rose above analyst expectations which could be seen as a good thing despite the fact that home prices across America are down 1.3% from a year ago. So does this mean we have seen a bottom and that the market is beginning to recover? Anything’s possible, but we doubt we have seen any meaningful low just yet.

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