Tag: Forex

How to Get (Almost) Free Tick Data

Access to high quality, cost effective market data is a continuing problem for retail traders. I was recently told about the ongoing efforts of the startup brokerage “Alpaca”. The gentleman I spoke with said the API gave access to the tick data of thousands of stocks everyday and without cost. I thought it was too good to be true but recently I took a little bit of time to investigate. In this article I will describe the basic process to accessing the tick data, and some basic code I was exper

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European Sovereign Debt Crisis Redux, What's the Playbook?

I wrote this post originally as a guest feature on RectitudeMarket.com. Check out the website for great investment ideas and original analysis. Now that Greece has officially rejected austerity it’s time to examine our 2011 playbook to get some clues as to what might happen. More importantly depending on your timeframe there should be plenty of strategic and tactical strategies for profit due to the increase in volatility. Let’s compare EUR/USD, Treasury yields, EU yield spreads, and other Dev

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Swiss FX Shock

On January 15, 2015 the Swiss National Bank (SNB) shocked the world with a surprise break away from the Euro peg which caused a cataclysmic revaluation of the relative value of the Euro and Polish Zloty. Some context: During the summer/fall of 2011, in response to the European debt crisis the SNB stunned FX traders ~2.5 years ago when it announced it would peg it's currency to the Euro in an attempt to neutralize the Swiss Franc's (CHF) rapid appreciation due to its safe haven status. The SNB d

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WHO RUNS THE MARKET?

A simple question, often overlooked to the investors' detriment.... In my ongoing pursuit to gain an edge in the market I’ve often thought it critical to analyze who the key players are. But even more broadly and perhaps of greater importance, I’ve often considered who or what forces have the power to “move the markets”. As a casual observer, or "unsophisticated" investor the most common market news you may encounter is pundits discussing stocks and the stock market, earnings reports, the FED an

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