The MBA reports a record 14.4 percent of mortgage loans were either one payment delinquent or in the foreclosure process in Q3 2009. This is an increase from 13.2% in Q2 2009. From the MBA: Delinquencies Continue to Climb in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey The delinquency rate for mortga ... Read more

In reference to this morning's note, I have just flip flopped back into ZSL (most likely for a short term) while I could get it for close to what I sold it for yesterday. This goes along with all the other shorts and helps me hold gold stock positions strongly. Signed, Your Whipsawed letter writ ... Read more

We economists have a reputation for being dry and boring. That's why Ben Stein's scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off works so well — and why this guy is such a novelty. Given our dismal reputation, I am happy to report that some economists' recent defenses of the efficient-markets hypothesis are lau ... Read more

Here is a chart originally done a few weeks ago, that updates on a chart list. The status has only degraded since then for risk vs. reward watchers. addthis_url = location.href; addthis_title = document.title; addthis_pub = 'izzybsofit'; ... Read the full post ... Read more

Like the previous day, moderate morning weakness was followed by equally subdued afternoon buying interest. However, this time the major indices were unable to recover back into positive territory. The S&P and Dow held up the best, as each index slipped just 0.1% A bit of selling pressure amongst ... Read more

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims :In the week ending Nov. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 505,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure of 505,000. [Revised from 502,000] The 4-week moving average was 514,000, a decrease of 6,50 ... Read more

This is a recurring theme: a bank fails, the Inspector General reviews the failure and discovers that the field examiners saw problems starting around 2002, and ... nothing happened for years. We saw this with the Federal Reserve and the failure of Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast , and with the ... Read more

Here is another previous chart that has been updating. The big spike to the SMA 200 gave me a chance to get out of some VIX calls that were looking at front month status, but I still hold some others, with higher hopes. Although time is becoming an issue there as well. I had mentioned that the ... Read more

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