Window Dressing...

How bout that! The window dressing effect was completely nonexistent today. I'm a little surprised. Apparently fund managers were more interested in locking in a little profit towards the end of the quarter as opposed to dressing up their portfolios.

I rarely try to buck the trend -- but I admit I had a "long bias" this afternoon and made several stabs at it. Unfortunately I ended up pissing away a nice morning gain.

dog

 

I was a little surprised as well. Perhaps the Russell rebalancing had an effect.

 

What needed to be "dressed up"? Most fund managers had a wonderful quarter!

 

So naive...

Fund Managers are notorious for playing catch-up -- hence the term "window dressing!"

 

I thought you were talking about peeping windows...

 

Also, the SEC and Nasdaq are looking at phony markups more closely lately.

Probably more to do with the lack of gaming than any other factor.

 

From the chat log today:

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nitro (Jun 30, 2003 2:05:19 PM)
eastside

nitro (Jun 30, 2003 2:05:51 PM)
if the Russell Rebal plays out like the last time, this thing is going to do a 180 in about an hour

eastside (Jun 30, 2003 2:06:20 PM)
you are right

eastside (Jun 30, 2003 2:06:39 PM)
it is all played out

nitro (Jun 30, 2003 2:06:44 PM)
yes
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nitro (Jun 30, 2003 3:19:13 PM)
eastside

nitro (Jun 30, 2003 3:19:17 PM)
is this funny or what?

eastside (Jun 30, 2003 3:19:30 PM)
yes, you called it right on

nitro (Jun 30, 2003 3:19:37 PM)


nitro (Jun 30, 2003 3:19:38 PM)
LOL

eastside (Jun 30, 2003 3:19:40 PM)
just like last year

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nitro

 

good call -- I thought that since this year had a relatively low number of Russell additions (288) compared with a 10 yr ave of 495 -- that the effect would be largely muted. In addition, since the market has been on such a tear this year, I expected the lagging funds to scramble a bit to add the high-fliers to their portfolios before the end of the Q (I suspect this DID happen, but obviously earlier in the month).

... "thinking" too much cost me a bit of change yesterday.

I took preventive measures to prevent this from happening again today -- I'm hungover like a big dog this morning (plan on keeping "thinking" to a minimum, while focusing solely on "trading.")

dog

 

Window dressing hasn't been in effect for quite a while but people still look for it for some reason.

 

is a very real phenomenon. That's why people look for it.

But of course, some prefer to follow astrological cycles and other esoteric indicators -- but hey, whatever works!