Author: Scott Hoffman

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The “risk on” markets were lower overnight as China came back from the New Year holiday in a selling mood – there was no easing talk from the PBOC. The Greek government may be balking at the degree of oversight...

Markets continue to be supported by stories that Greece is near an agreement to reformat their debt. After two good days for “risk on” assets we’re due for some correction but I thought yesterday’s...

Yesterday afternoon I was talking to another trader about the gold futures. We were talking strategy for it today in light of today’s FOMC meeting. I told him I wanted to buy it today. Yesterday was a down day, a Sell...

Greek debt talks continue, no results, but there’s more contention from some key players. The IMF wants the ECB to take a haircut on its Greek holding, but the central bank is not keen to do that; the IIF negotiator also...

Greek debt talks have reached a stalemate as private investors are unwilling to take as large a haircut as the Greeks are seeking. This is weighing on the financial services sector. Traders are also looking at Portugal again,...

It’s the Chinese New Year; this is taking some of the liquidity out the markets. Talks about Greek debt restructuring have failed to reach a deal. Traders aren’t worried about this yet although it had been hoped they...

One of the most common questions I get asked is what trading sessions I use, both for charting and for trading. When things were solely pit traded it was easy; there was only one set of trading hours. Electronic trading makes...

Talks go on over a Greek debt solution. I don’t think anything worse than a “puppies and rainbows” solution is priced in but the markets appear to remain optimistic. The EU finance ministers meet next Monday...

Good news on the EU front – Spanish and French debt auctions saw good demand and there are newswire stories that Greek debt talks are nearing a deal. The US saw good earnings numbers from B of A and Morgan Stanley. On the...