apppro

Dispelling Myths About the Stock Market and Precious Metals

I assume you all remember this line:

"I welcome any enterprise that increases my stake in it!"

www.youtube.com/watch?...

Dispelling Myths About the Stock Market and Precious Metals

Unfortunately, the connection between the stock market and other parts of our society, mainly the elusive ‘Main St.’, has become a far more important connection. When we allowed a few short sellers to bring down our financial institutions, the confidence in our system almost destroyed the rest of us. This handful of narcissistic, Generation Me shorties have developed trading strategies that do nothing more then enrich their own pockets and create nothing in return. “Creative destruction”, ala Gordon Gecko era, that at least created something out of the mire they caused. The David Einhorn’s of today’s world do nothing for the greater good or for any good… except their own that is. When he was allowed to naked short Lehman’s into the toilet, we should have learned our lesson, but we didn’t. Now he is shorting the dollar into the toilet, just so that his large gold position increases in value.
This time when he brings it all down he will bring us ALL down with it and not just a few brokerage houses.

Are Oil and Natural Gas Cheap or Expensive?

So is it expensive or cheap? I really can't gleem your answer.

What I do read into it is that if NG is SO expensive to process, not as clean and plentiful as thought, and SO hard to get to, then why the heck is it trading SO cheap?

Credit Crisis Continues as Companies, Banks Hoard Cash

Banks are hoarding cash! Do you blame them?

If someone were constantly telling me I was going broke and would soon be insolvent and that every loan I have was worthless and that every mortgage I had would not get paid – I too would do everything I could to avoid the pundit bashing and the pending Armageddon.

You can’t have it both ways. You wanted all the leverage needed to back all those loans to be withdrawn basically overnight, then you demanded that the banks basically have DOLLAR for DOLLAR backstops on all the loans and accounts they did have, BUT now you want them to loan out the very money that you DEMANDED them to keep.

WHAT HYPOCRISY!

What's the Fair Value for the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

Unfortunately there are many who feel that the gambling we have allowed to prosper in our markets is a legitimate way of adding liquidity into the market. BULL--IT!!!! The ones that think that all that trading and market manipulation is good for companies and our Nation as a whole, can only be the ones that fight tooth and nail every time someone wants to limit their insanity. Some even claim it's 'trickle down' economics. Really should rename that to 'pissing away' economics!

Just go 2 comments above and you'll see the real insanity. TAX these short-term option traders/traitors up the ying-yang and maybe they'll stop.


On Nov 02 12:54 PM logicalman wrote:

> jim bob jones.....a lot have done exactly what you are saying, and
> most of them have lost their shirts....decide for yourself whether
> you are an INVESTOR or GAMBLER..if the former, do your homework and
> with an average iq. you will do well, if the latter, go to VEGAS,
> your chances will be much better there!!!

Why Does Comcast Want NBC?

We can only pray and hope that Comcast does buy NBC and then TAKES CNBC OFF THE AIR!!!

Economic Data Showing Signs of Negative Trends

Today's, 11/02 deplorable market action is just a further confirmation that the short-term trader/traitor mentality we have fostered over the past 10 years MUST END. These swings will destroy us in the end. No one can function like this for very long.

What's the Fair Value for the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

Thank you for proving my point!


On Nov 01 09:59 PM Jim Bob Jones wrote:

> So, let's all hold long term and give Wall street another chance
> to drain our piggy? I do'nt think so! Trade short term , follow the
> trend and protect your wealth unlike the so called knowledgeable
> banks and brokers.

CIT Group: Taxpayers' Investment Is Virtually Worthless

Thank you Goldman, Pimco, & Ichann.

Economic Data Showing Signs of Negative Trends

This system did not collapse because of the over valued real estate market. You are right it was (and in some areas still is) over valued, but that didn't bring the financial system down. We've been thru these housing boom and busts before and never did they lead to this depth of financial destruction and despair. Taking down Ambac then Bear then WAMU then Lehmans is what destroyed us. These companies could have survived the real estate debacle, but they could not survive the destruction of the confidence they needed to go on. Real estate may have been the reason things had issues, BUT they were not the CAUSE of this financial mess.
And as far as the over leverage part of your argument - YES I AGREE, but that leverage did NOT have to be taken out of the system overnight as demanded by those very short sellers whom you seem to glorify.
Place the blame where it belongs - not where you want it to be.


On Nov 01 02:17 PM bobdark wrote:

> You blame shorts for the market correction? You think it is realistic
> that people can borrow beyond their means to repay? You think it
> is realistic that real estate prices should go up 20% every year?
> If anybody should be angry it should be the savers who are now watching
> their hard-earned savings get flushed down the government toilet
> by the huge tax burden in order to bail out people who were rediculously
> irresponsible and presumed that they were entitled to wealth through
> speculation instead of the old-fashioned way of working and saving.
>
>
> The bottom line is that this crisis was caused by overleverage and
> rediculous real estate speculation, whether it was pointed out by
> shorts or scholars or not, the system had to collapse. Just be glad
> the shorts were there to buffer the downside, otherwise it would
> have been much worse. In fact, next time around, it will be much
> worse, because America still has not learned the lesson, that it
> is wrong to lie and cheat your way to achieve a lifestyle that is
> beyond a level of income required to sustain it and that eventually
> there are consequences. Some day, there won't be any money left to
> bail out all the irresponsible people unless the government simply
> decides to nationalize everything and eliminate the middle class.
>

What's the Fair Value for the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

<<So why would any reasonable investor want the government to have further sway in their financial well being?>>

Our government screws everything up, that is for sure. However, we must deter or even stop all this short term trading and the mentality behind it. It produces NOTHING and saps the financial strength out of our economy. Without regulating anything, except hopefully our behavior, decreasing tax rates to promote long term investing and vice versa - we can only think that it would help reduce the insanity. The IRS got Capone, let them go after the other traders/traitors.

On Nov 01 09:44 AM Walt17 wrote:

> I do not agree with that!
>
> Your suggestion implies that you want the government to control how
> we invest. Our government has not given me any reason to believe
> that letting them dictate my trading strategies would be to my best
> interest.
>
> Whether you’re a Republican or Democratic - What must end is the
> notion that government can make everything better. They have repeatedly
> demonstrated an inability to do that. So why would any reasonable
> investor want the government to have further sway in their financial
> well being?
>

Economic Data Showing Signs of Negative Trends

A lot of micros make up a macro. :-)


On Nov 01 12:10 PM thotdoc wrote:

> I love it. A macro economics discussion ends up in a conversation
> about what is going on in one Macy's. No wonder many people have
> difficulty making decisions about how to invest.

Economic Data Showing Signs of Negative Trends

Old Trader,

Can only speak for what I see, but according to the media and their own figures, storewide sales are up. I have to admit that people are coming in for sales, but that is to be expected and Macy's knows it. We have trained the U.S. consumer to wait for a sale, so like Pavlov's dogs they buy only as soon as someone rings the sales bell.

We forced everyone to take out a lot of leverage out of our system and we fired a lot of people in the process. Those that are lucky enough to still be at work want to spend and shop. We allowed a few pundits and short sellers to screw the rest. As soon as we realize this and allow business to get back to business, we'll all be better off. Remember: all that leverage that those shorts and scholars wanted us to eliminate - only became bad when all those shorts and scholars shoved down our throats that it was bad. (Boy am I going to get yelled at for that comment!)


On Nov 01 09:55 AM Old Trader wrote:

> apppro,
>
> I'm glad to hear things are going well at your particular location,
> but a couple of questions.
>
> First, I wonder how representative your location is? For example,
> here in Chicago, Macy's acquisition of Marshall Fields has not gone
> very well.
>
> Second, what SORT of merchandise is flying off of the shelves? What
> I've heard from various retail analysts is that the consumer is being
> VERY selective in where/how they're spending their dollars. "Value
> priced" items are doing relatively well....the rest, not so much.
>
>
> Thanks for providing a "worm's eye" view!
>
> On Nov 01 09:44 AM apppro wrote:

Economic Data Showing Signs of Negative Trends

On this all I can say is that I freelance at Macy's for a group of vendors overseeing their merchandise. (Just can't get retail out of my blood!) THE STORE IS A MADHOUSE ALMOST EVERYDAY! Their sales are consistently up and the merchandise is flying off the shelves. I even go into the stockrooms and shelves are lean & tight.

Bad holiday season - not from this store's perspective. But if we keep telling everyone not to shop because Armageddon 2 is coming - what do you think will happen?


On Nov 01 08:58 AM Old Trader wrote:

> Steve,
>
> As always, a nice summation of data that really matters. As you point
> out, adding insult to injury, everything I've heard/read to date,
> points to a bleak holiday retail season, with the most optimistic
> reports calling for it to be "flat".

Economic Data Showing Signs of Negative Trends

Steve you always give very complete and complex data to support your thesis. I can only comment by adding this quote from my recent blog:
<<You may ask, “Why should I care? I’m not in the market or I own mutual funds, why should this matter to me?” It matters because you may be one of those lucky people who still has a job, or one of those still trying to find one... all these swings and angst are not healthy. They make everyone so full of fear and uncertainty that no one can muster up the desire to spend, invest, invent, inspire, etc. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that CEO’s of big companies are any different. I told you before, you keep bashing someone over the head over and over; sooner or later they will break! This is especially true of small businesses, the major driver of employment in the U.S. Would YOU spend thousands or go into debt to start a new business if every 5-minutes someone else is telling you that everything will crash in the next 10-minutes? I don’t think so!>>

It is really impossible to rationalize or even justify today's market with facts. As a mathematician by heart and a compulsive anal personality - I do love facts, but leaving out emotions makes all the facts in the world meaningless. Fear & greed are far greater powers then facts. We allowed a few to scare the crap out of ourselves over a year ago, through their abuse of M2M and total lack of SEC regulation. We allowed them to destroy our confidence in our markets - and in ourselves. If we don't change our own view of the markets and our society in general will we not survive. We must take this short-term mentality we have fostered and smash it into oblivion. A nation is not built over 3 weekends, but we sure allowed a few to almost destroy it over that same period of time.