Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

First of all, Happy Diwali - Festival of Lights to all my readers. Its' climax of series of Indian Festivals which start at end of summer and is considered biggest Indian festival. It's 5 day festival which also marks start of new Hindu calendar year! On eve of such festival which celebrates Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), S&P is within inches of reaching all time high. I am sure it will reach new highs next week on its way to 3100 as seasonal Santa Rally gets underway. So what changed in supposed scary October month? As in Halloween, markets have been playing "tricks" on investors with scare of upcoming recession but at same time "treating" patient investors for just staying invested. 2019 is turning out to be one of best year of returns with S&P returning over 20%. It does not feel that way due to recent drubbing software/cloud stocks took. That brings me to today's topic of Chips & Clouds! Chips: You can read this blog eating Chips and S...

October is known for market moving events since most of the big downward moves (1929, 1987, 2008) have happened in Oct. Why Oct?  It could be Autumn Blues or upcoming time change with Fall Back, Back to school season... There are many potential topics for behavior finance scientists to study and may get some doctorates. This year's October started with its usual volatility in first week due to inflation and not-so-good manufacturing and services sector confidence readings. Second week  gave some positive signals on trade talks bringing back markets. Now let's look at events for remaining part of October.  All of these events again could impact markets! Brexit: Finally the deadline of Oct 31 is almost here and that has forced UK and EU to seriously talk to each other on some kind of deal - including the question of hard vs soft customs border between UK and N. Ireland. It will come down to the wire but my guess is that either deadline will be extended by another 3 mont...