Since being elected at the end of last year, Shinzo Abe promised an ambitious economic plan to push the Japanese economy out of the zombie state it has been in for the last two decades. Through a stimulus package and by pressuring the Japanese central bank, Abe is willing to push inflation up to a […]

Now that most 13F filings for the second quarter of the year are available, it is time to take a look at them and check what hedge funds have been up to. Particularly interesting, is to check hedge fund holdings and trades regarding precious metals (in this case special gold) and how it closed the […]

From recession to a QE-boosted market The last five years have truly been difficult for the U.S. economy, especially since it has been struggling to fully recover from the latest recession that cut financial assets’ value in half and pushed unemployment from a healthy rate below 5% to an alarming two-digit number. Even if it […]

Nowadays, Stock options are one of the most powerful instruments modern finance offers us to manage risk. Unlike the common belief, options aren’t risky assets, or at least, they don’t need to be. Depending on the strategy you use, options can range from heavily speculative to highly conservative. The final result depends on your decision. […]

UK: Carney Disappoints and Boosts Pound     After an eventful year of Olympic games and Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the Bank of England (BOE) decided to adopt a policy of forward guidance. Committed to keeping interest rates on hold until the unemployment rate falls from the current rate of 7.8% to at least 7%. The […]

The debate about the next FED’s chairman has been intensifying as time is running out for Barack Obama to nominate the right person to work closely with the White House to solve the several economic problems the US economy still has to face. Five years after the FED cut its interest rates to near zero […]

The latest Employment Situation report disappointed everyone with payrolls increasing at a pace of 161,000 in July, a number that falls short of the expected 187,000 and much weaker than June’s value. At the same time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised down the numbers for June and May for a total net revision […]

The temperature isn’t the only thing that’s rising Down Under. Since bottoming in 2008, the Australian dollar (AUD), the Aussie, has been under a massive uptrend, hitting-breaking record levels in 2011. A rise on benchmark rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and an ambitious easing program for the U.S. dollar all weighted very […]