5 Things To Ponder: To QE Or Not To QE

Over the last few weeks, the markets have seen wild vacillations as stocks plunged and then surged on a massive short-squeeze in the most beaten up sectors of energy and small-mid capitalization companies. While “Ebola” fears filled mainstream headlines the other driver behind the sell-off, and then marked recovery, was a variety of rhetoric surrounding the last vestiges of the current quantitative easing program by the Fed. As I have shown many times in the past, there is a high degree of correlation between the Fed’s liquidity programs and the advance in the markets.

This weekend’s reading list is a compilation of views on whether the Fed will end the current QE program at next weeks FOMC meeting or not. In the past, the extraction of their monetary interventions has led to market declines that were halted only once a new program was started. Are the markets, and the economy, finally strong enough to stand on their own? Or, will the end of the current QE program be the start of a bigger correction?
Here is something to consider if you believe that the Fed will end their monetary purchases next week. The chart below shows the recent sell-off and rebound matched to the Fed’s current monetary interventions.

This post was published at StreetTalkLive on 23 October 2014.