I Bought Some Front Row Tickets...

... to a market sell-off that has apparently been cancelled until further notice.

Once again, a string of negative data, including an increase in US Unemployment Claims, decreased housing starts, and even a negative Philly Fed failed to create any meaningful pullback.  But for a second (?) day in a row, 10-Year US Treasury Notes continued to head lower, signaling traders may be heading into hibernation mode.

I don't know just how early I was to the semi-bear camp, but in hindsight, I could have done better by buying VIX ETF calls rather than selling VIX ETF puts and then stocking up on SPY puts.  Thankfully, I recovered quickly this time around and have also hopefully positioned myself correctly for some more upside.  

In addition to PER and SDR calls, I'm really into the Nikkei right now and have quite a bit of calls in European equities too.

Apparently, the BOJ's 2% inflation target will result in the BOJ more or less doubling its monetary base by the end of 2014.  BOJ Policy dictates that about 4 trillion yen - or $40.8 billion USD - per month will be dedicated to purchasing JGBs, leading to expansive growth in the monetary base at the pace of 6 trillion yen - or $58.8 billion USD - per month.  

It sounds like it's much less than what The Chairman is doing, but as a percentage of GDP, BOJ Policy is much more aggressive.  

Still, why not up it, Abe + Karoda?

Next week's BOJ Monetary Policy Statement will hopefully launch my Japanese bank calls into the stratosphere!


-0.94% SBA
-2.76% Roth IRA

-0.28% DJIA
-0.18% Nasdaq
-0.50% S&P 

-0.09% FTSE
-0.02% Eurofirst
-0.39% Nikkei
+1.21% Shanghai
+0.17% SENSEX
+0.17% Hang Seng

+0.83% WTI
+0.24% Brent
-0.64% Gold
+0.49% Copper
-1.38% Corn

-0.80% DJT
+2.03% VIX

-4.01% 10-Year US Treasury Notes