D.R. Barton

Mid-Term Elections Are Over – Now What? by D.R. Barton With all of the talk about the U.S. mid-term elections, I wanted to give my take on my expectations for markets from here. In the just completed elections, the GOP lost control of the House to the Democrats as expected. The big surprise, however, was that the GOP picked up at least 4 seats in the Senate – a 2 standard deviation surprise. The markets have responded positively to this (and in fairness, some of the upside comes from moving […]

A potentially explosive standoff played out in the sands of northern Egypt some 2200 years ago. Chronologically, our story occurs smack in between the 323-year period between the death of Alexander the Great and the birth of Jesus. As we tune in, an invading force in Egypt (at that time a Roman protectorate) is being presented with a “leave or suffer the consequences” ultimatum signed by none other than the Roman Senate. Some historical figures just seem to be on the wrong side at every turn. In today’s story, an

Eight years and three months ago, I wrote an article for this very space about the European debt crisis. Greece was the central problem then and to this day, it remains a sovereign state in debt trouble (though that’s largely been swept under the proverbial rug by a series of “loans” from the European Union). Greece, however, was not alone in its debt trouble. Back then (wow — was it really more than eight years ago?), the acronym PIIGS was all the rage. It was used to label the debt

Greetings from the home of Joyce and Yates – the land of Guinness and Jameson. Yes, the Bartons are spending a few days in delightful Dublin, Ireland before popping over to London for the weekend. We just arrived and the combination of jet lag and a heavy touring schedule necessitates a concise note this week – but it’s a fairly important one. Markets are poised for a break out of consolidation patterns and are heading back to strong directional movement soon. A couple of weeks ago, I showed you this

Everything old is new again. The power of using the market narrative to inform our investing choices is as evident as ever. Today, we’re going to touch on the subject of the market narrative briefly in order to add a twist. In addition, we’ll concentrate on a very bold money-making call on market direction.   Not One Market Narrative But Two   As a reminder, the market narrative is the overarching concept that is the primary market driver. Since the U.S. Presidential election sixteen months ago, the narrative has been the