So now, when you thought that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) was king of the hill, think twice. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) both racked up perfect trading quarters, according to the Wall Street Journal.

JPMorgan had 12 days where it made more than $200 million each day. Bank of America had at least 25 days where it made more the $100 million from trading in the third quarter.

Continue reading JPMorgan and Bank of America Report Perfect Trading Quarters

JPMorgan and Bank of America Report Perfect Trading Quarters originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Investing Ideas in an Unstable Market

Investing Ideas in an Unstable Market originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Have Exchanges Reached the Limits of Automated Trading?

Have Exchanges Reached the Limits of Automated Trading? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 May 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Goldman Sachs (GS) has topped its previous record of $100 million dollar trading days. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank made at least $100 million in net trading revenue on 131 days last year. Its previous record, set in 2008, was for 90 days of $100 million plus revenue.

Last year, during 263 trading days, Goldman lost money on only 19 days. Otherwise, it hit the jackpot pretty much every other day.

Continue reading Goldman Sachs Sets New Record for $100 Million Trading Days

Goldman Sachs Sets New Record for $100 Million Trading Days originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As we move gradually closer to a stable economy where retail investors are again ready to enter the markets, we see a lot written about which stocks, sectors, and investment types are smart bets for future growth.

Money Magazine recently ran a piece in their Investor's Guide 2010 series entitled "10 Stocks That Can Keep Running," which offers three areas in which the markets are likely to be solid in the coming years. This author's opinion is they were mostly right. But there needs to be a little more explanation for the average retail investor.

Continue reading Why Money Magazine Got It Right (Mostly)

Why Money Magazine Got It Right (Mostly) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Why are corn futures down so much? It seems that two factors converged to drive the price down by 49 cents to $3.76 per bushel this week: The first is supply and the second is reduced shipment.

On the supply side, the Department of Agriculture issued its report of crop production on January 12. The nation's harvest was estimated to be 13.151 billion bushels, up 8.8% from a year ago. And that's not all, global supplies will add to the pricing pressure as global supplies of corn, wheat, rice and soybeans are expected to be up 8.3%, to the highest level since 2002.

Prices could drop even further after the Brazil and Argentina harvests, due to start next month.

Continue reading Corn Futures Got Hammered This Week

Corn Futures Got Hammered This Week originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cisco posts strong Q1 earnings

Cisco posts strong Q1 earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to Bloomberg, the institution removed the software giant from its conviction buy list. There's concern that the first quarter won't be overwhelmingly positive. Understandably, Wall Street got a little nervous and decided to book some profits. Microsoft has had a decent run as of late.

Continue reading Microsoft downgrade: Trading opportunity?

Microsoft downgrade: Trading opportunity? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Interested in buying some General Motors stock?

Interested in buying some General Motors stock? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Are you looking for Nirvana when you invest? Forget about it. It doesn't exist.

Let's start with two big losers that relied on financial data and ended up on the trash heap. First we have Long Term Capital. Founded by John Meriwether, Robert C. Merton, and Myron Scholes. They formed the largest hedge fund in the U.S. in the 1990s with an estimated 4.6 billion in capital. Merton and Scholes had won the Nobel Prize in economics for developing a pricing model for options called the "Black Scholes Model." Since both men had won the Nobel Prize, this should have been Nirvana. Now comes along the Russian financial crisis and Long Term Capital was on the wrong side of history. They took such a beating that the Federal Reserve had to help bail them out for a time until they went bust in 2000.

Continue reading How to avoid falling into the data mining trap

How to avoid falling into the data mining trap originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Goldman Sachs & Co. Inc. (NYSE GS) is a powerhouse when it comes to making money from trading. Goldman is now a bank and receives all the benefits that come with its new banking status.

As for Goldman's trading profits, the firm had 46 separate days in the second quarter in which trading revenues were $100,000, setting a new record. This compares with 34 $100 million days in the first quarter.

Continue reading Goldman Sachs sets record for $100 million trading days

Goldman Sachs sets record for $100 million trading days originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

From TheStreet.com Network

• Coming Week: Earnings Fireworks on Tap
• Oil Update: Downward Spiral Continues

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Dirty manipulation

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Dirty manipulation originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

But, I had been looking at various trading ideas and wanted to capture a shorter-term gain for a trading account. The market has been so tough this year. When the recent rally in the indexes started, I didn't want to become part of the group that was desperate to get in on the action, only to expose my portfolio to more risk than necessary. Believe me, when you're afraid of missing a rally, you just might end up with some bad timing.

Continue reading My Activision Blizzard trade

My Activision Blizzard trade originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Options and trading specialist Bernie Schaeffer selects stocks based on a combination of fundamental, technical and sentiment-based metrics.

His research leads to long trading positions for his Schaeffer's Master Portfolio and short trading plays for his Schaeffer's Short Selling services.

Here's a long at four of his latest trading ideas -- long positions in Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) as well as short position in Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Continue reading The long & short of Bernie Schaeffer's trades

The long & short of Bernie Schaeffer's trades originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Smita Sadana.

A trade doesn't simply have an initiation and finale - the most important part of a trade is its evolution and constant re-assessment if the original thesis that the trade was initiated with, still holds true.

On that note, let's look at First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR). I started a short position in it on 6/1 when instead of participating in the market advance, it lagged (due to a LA Times story that FSLR's acquisition of "strategic land rights" is under scrutiny). Recall, it came on the heels of a cautious mention in Barron's on May 26th. So, both times, FSLR reacted negatively to negative news and volume picked up on both those instances.

Today, Pacific Crest Securities reiterated its buy rating on FSLR and called the recent weakness a "buying opportunity."

I

Continue reading Evolution of a trade in First Solar

Evolution of a trade in First Solar originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've been pretty stunned by the rise in price. Usually, the stock is a sleepy thing that doesn't do much. Well, that's probably not entirely true, but if you've held the company in your portfolio as long as I've held it in mine, you know that it seems that way at least. I own Coke for the long-term because I love its dividend-paying characteristics. And I love its brand equity. I'm wondering, though, if Coke might make a good trade at the moment. Or, maybe I should start adding to my position before it takes too sharp a rise.

Continue reading Coca-Cola: A bubbly trade?

Coca-Cola: A bubbly trade? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every few months, it seems, we get an article or two that says Disney (NYSE: DIS) might be a buy. TheStreet.com issued an upgrade on the stock based on several metrics. SmartMoney believes Disney might be a great company for the summertime.

When it comes to Disney, every investor has to be careful. Take every analytical article with a grain of salt. Why? Because even though the fundamentals might be good on the company from a valuation standpoint, Disney's stock has disappointed investors many times in the past. As a long-term shareholder, I know what I'm talking about. And many other pundits have made the same observation: Disney always seems to be cheap to someone at any given time.

Continue reading Should you be trading Disney?

Should you be trading Disney? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 26 May 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Has the economy caused an NBA team to throw in the towel?

Has the economy caused an NBA team to throw in the towel? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So, I bought a stock this past week. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). I was pretty happy about the purchase. Well, strike that. I was sort of happy about the purchase. I don't have to tell you why I hastily added that qualifier. The current recession, quite frankly, is unlike any genus of recession we've seen before. A new taxonomical category needs to be reserved for it, and subsequently studied, so that we may learn to recognize the damn beast the next time it begins to rear its ugly Cloverfield-like head on the financial landscape. Ergo, it's scary to put money down on anything.

But Microsoft seems to be holding up fairly well as of late. And I'm glad that its bad earnings report is out of the way. I bought some shares at $19.30. I'm a little down right now, but I'm hoping that I can get maybe a dollar move out of this position (I might even settle for a little less than that, actually). Yes, I do think Microsoft is most likely a good longer-term bet, but I frankly was looking for the safest trading vehicle I could find. I'm more than certain I didn't find such an ideal concept, but here's my thinking: Microsoft's stock has a decent yield, the company generates a ton of cash, the shares have bounced off their lows, and I figure there's a possibility that I can get an opportunity to sell on a nice intraday move when market sentiment is, at least temporarily, giddy and bullish. Hey, even in a recession as raging as Bill O'Reilly's temper, you get those days.

Continue reading Was I right to buy Microsoft?

Was I right to buy Microsoft? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

E Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC), which competes with TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) and Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW), is doing splendidly today. As I write this, the stock is up well over 15%. But I would not touch this one with a ten-foot pole, as they say.

According to this article, E*Trade reported a quarterly loss on Tuesday of $0.50 per share. While that was a lot better than the $3.98 per-share loss reported in last year's Q4, it wasn't enough to beat expectations. Wall Street was hoping for a loss of $0.24 per share. E*Trade said in its press release that daily average revenue trades increased 18% and that 97,000 new accounts were captured. While both of those stats are impressive to a certain degree, an investor must keep in mind that E*Trade is a complicated story. The company really screwed itself by exposing its shareholders to so much financial risk; sure, that might be hindsight now, but it nevertheless is true. And with all the loan provisions and all the issues with the company's involvement with applying for the government's TARP initiative, etc., I can tell you that I absolutely would not want to play around with this stock.

Continue reading E*Trade misses in Q4, but stock rises anyway

E*Trade misses in Q4, but stock rises anyway originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.