By stevenplace
of Stocktwits
October 4th, 2011
The $SPY gapped down today.
We’re now officially a “bear market” with equities 20% off their highs.
But you haven’t needed a magic level to see the ugliness of the tape, as $XLF and $SLXhave been pounded, along with the Looney Tunes-like fall of many commodity and emerging market plays.
Trading a market like this requires a different mental framework compared to the liquidity-infused market of late 2009/early 2010. I’ve tried my best to help option traders navigate this market, and below is a list of my posts that will help you as well.
5 Tips to Trade Options in a Bear Market
Cash and agility are king right now, and if you’re trading options you need a few more tactics if you’re going to survive this market. You can start with these 5 tips.
How Bears Can Lose Money
Super-volatile markets aren’t as simple as shorting and walking away. Bear market rallies can be fast and hard, and mean reversion occurs more than you would think. Make sure that 2008 isn’t biasing you too much.
Analyze Patterns With Volatility in Mind
Indian coal rush heads Australia's way
The country is trying to keep its lights turned on and its insatiable demand for energy is forcing it to look abroad for help. Ben Doherty reports from Delhi.
Recently in Delhi, a group of India's top energy experts, businessmen and bureaucrats met in a too-large, brightly-lit hotel conference room to discuss the country's problems.
Standing at the podium, flanked by two massive video screens and lit by the additional glare of a bank of spotlights, the president of the India Energy Forum, P.S. Bami, told delegates, ''We are in an energy crisis.''
''How do we meet this challenge … this is the big question.''
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India's problem is simple but not simply fixed.
There is, simply, not enough power to go around.
Rolling blackouts, power shedding because demand outstrips supply, are commonplace across the country. India often needs 10 per cent more electricity than the country can produce, the Central Electricity Authority says.
Even in the capital, in the garage or backyard of most homes sits a generator, which is used to ride out the inevitable cuts. (During the peak of summer demand, the Herald office backup rumbles into life three or four times a day.)
Across the country, 40 per cent of Indians get electricity for fewer than 12 hours a day.
And still the country needs more.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/indian-coal-rush-heads-australias-way-20111005-1l9hl.html#ixzz1ZxmJebPs
Goldman lowers forecasts for Australia's GDP growth, stocks and dollar
Australia's real gross domestic product will grow just 1.5 per cent in 2011, Goldman Sachs said today, as the bank lowered its outlook on Australia's economy and currency just a day after a downward revision to its global growth forecasts.
“The further deterioration in the economic and financial situation in the Euro area has led us to downgrade our global GDP forecast significantly, from 4.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent in 2012,” Goldman said.
“Over the next few quarters, we now expect a mild recession in Germany and France, and a deeper downturn in the Euro periphery.”
Following a cut of its forecasts for the euro, sterling, US stock prices, bond yields and crude oil, Goldman Sachs followed through with a series of Australian cuts, which also included a cut to its forecast on Australian inflation.
“The further deterioration in the economic and financial situation in the Euro area has led us to downgrade our global GDP forecast significantly, from 4.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent in 2012,” Goldman said.
“Over the next few quarters, we now expect a mild recession in Germany and France, and a deeper downturn in the Euro periphery.”
Following a cut of its forecasts for the euro, sterling, US stock prices, bond yields and crude oil, Goldman Sachs followed through with a series of Australian cuts, which also included a cut to its forecast on Australian inflation.