Voice of Reason

How to Handle a Snap-Back Rally (If We Get One)

You know the saying when the Fat Lady sings? Well somebody threw her under the bus. Didn't hurt her, but the bus will never be the same. Its Christmas in October. I'm going shopping for bargains and sent my Etrade account 50K this afternoon. Hint: When there's blood in the street the smart money almost always makes a killing.

Not Everyone Is In Trouble

There are many people and institutions to blame. Begin with the little monkey named Bush that has zero creditability and did what he does best, sit on his hands and mumble nonsense like everything is fine. Wink. Wink.. Then you have egg head Ben Bernanke that generates as much confidence in what he's saying as a bowl of cold oatmeal left on the kitchen counter overnight that has been behind the curve from day one and hasn't caught up let alone get ahead of the curve yet. Lets not forget Henry Paulson that seems unable to put five words together without stuttering. Where the hell do we find such idiots and give them so much power and responsibility only to see them fall flat on their faces over and over? Take the handful of fifth graders on the show called Are you smarter than a fifth grader and put them in charge. I doubt they could have done worse. In fact I know they would have done way better.

Speaking of idiots, Congress is front and center. Lets see, some couldn't vote for the original plan because it cost too much so 4 days later they approve a plan that costs over 100 billion MORE!

Then how about the executives at major banks and AIG? One guy smugly confirming, yeah, I got 1 million for consulting correcting the Congressman asking, no, not in a year, each month!

You want to know what's really wrong? Its the crazy "system". Where is it written that it's OK for investment banks, which by the way we don't have any more of, to leverage 20, 25, 30 even 40 to 1?

What kind of crap is it for so-called rating agencies to down grade companies' bond ratings, which drives their stocks lower, which in turn lowers the price more which makes it harder to raise capital which further delutes the current stockholder's equity. What kind of a circus is this?

What moron invented mark to market accounting?

Why did they get rid of the up tick rule?

Why are hedge funds allowed to engage in naked short selling which pushes companies to lose billions in value?

In case you haven't figured it out yet the real problem is confidence.

You can't trust what the president says, or Congress. The Bozos in charge at the Federal Reserve and Treasurary dept couldn't find their rear ends with both hands behind their back. Oh... and guess what, the fat cats on Wall Street and Main Street game the system and no matter what happens walk away with bags full og cash after wrecking companies in business for a 100 years while you see your investments race towards zero.

All that said, you know who the biggest idiots of all is?

Sorry, that would be Joe Average Investor, that's who. Just like in every Bear Market Joe at the very end panics and sells everything. Then Joe Six Pack sits on the sidelines as the market screams back up 20% or more, then gets back in missing most of the move back up.

People never learn.

Jim Cramer's 10 Predictions for 2008

How many successful hedge funds any of you losers run?

How many of you have your own tv show on CNBC?

That's what I thought.

The White Elephant That Could Destroy Your Portfolio, Part I

I'll bite, why did you draw a line at 1694 and not 1752 or 1812 or some other point?

The White Elephant That Could Destroy Your Portfolio, Part I

I'm not a fan of Uncle Ben Bernanke or the Federal Reserve, but just once I'd like to see any of the posters flapping their gums be put in charge for a yeat... just to see how badly they can screw things up.

Talk is cheap.

Seeking E*Trade's 'Magic Moment'

I have a big bowl of popcorn and I am enjoying the multiple hissy fits. No wonder you guys can't make any money... you're too busy calling each other names. LOL!

Foreclosures Prove Loan Modification Isn't Working

Another chicken little the sky in falling fairytale. The author is also fast and lose with his "facts" Saying "recession deepens" when we're not even officially in a recession at all yet is proof this guy is just another fear monger. I wonder what his motative is. Actaully I can make an educated guess.

E*Trade's Annual Shareholder Meeting Should Pressure the Shorts

E-Trade has been an attractive buy out prospect for years. All the other players have been lusting after it. The only thing that stopped them was they thought they could woo customers away in groves, hasn't happened. Most E-Trade customers tend to be loyal. Now that the banking disaster is starting to resolve, seems like clear sailing ahead from my viewpoint.

I suspect E-Trade will be North of $10 by this time next year if not sooner. I'm not selling, already made a nice profit, don't even have a protective stop at this point.

The Fed Cuts One Last Time

How much money you can make isn't based on spelling. Neither is being truthful about the gray beards on the FRB who have trouble finding their rear ends with both hands behind their backs. You may care to write that down or at least unbunch your shorts, you seem pretty up-tight billddrummer. Get caught short again?

Sell in May and Go Away?

It being 5/1 I guess some of the boys didn't get the memo they were suppose to sell considering the market is up strong today. <snicker>

If only I would have bought more Master Card a few days ago. ;-)

A couple months ago the "experts" were suggesting a lot of people would sell a big portion of their MC since it had gone so high so fast and switch to Visa's IPO when it came out. It has been on fire the last couple days. Other "experts" were saying wait for Vista to come down, don't buy it on right after the IPO. The experts were WRONG as usual. Just wondering, what makes these jokers experts?

Keep On Watching for Signs of a Market Bottom

You shouldn't be looking for a "bottom" look for value. There are all kinds of really good stocks that have been beaten down that will do well over the next 12-18 months.

Sell in May and Go Away?

People were saying the same thing in late 1982... just before the start of the greatest bull market ever. I didn't listen. I invested $3K and now 25 years later that's grown to over well lets just say $XXXXXX.

So where will you put your money the next three years, under your mattress, in a tin can planted in in he backyard or get a CD paying 1.8%? There's ALWAYS a bull market somewhere.

Fed Cuts Rates, Signals Pause; Dollar Down

The Fed actions are like some guy trying to do brain delicate brain surgery through a glove box.

chemistry.wlu.edu/Digi...

I would love to be a fly on the wall to see the goings on behind close doors. Actually I don't have to imagine, I've attended all manner of meetings in my career and just about every one of them was useless.

One of the problems is just about every indicator they look at is trailing or what has already happened. That's like looking out your window seeing cars floating by and then concluding, oh it must have rained pretty hard.

The Fed has a bad track record of doing too little too late. Greenspan though he'll stand on a stack of bible and pretend it wasn't his fault pushed rates too low. Uncle Ben waiting to long to do anything, then seemed to act in panic.

My biggest problem with the Fed isn't so much what they do, rather their curious habit of deliberately speaking in a odd language of their own creation in some feeble effort to try to impress us that they know what they're doing. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Another problem is while the Fed shouldn't get involved with politics at the same time they aren't accountable to anybody either. Every Fed Chairman has has a ego bigger than Detroit which causes them to suffer the illusion they are infallable. Greenspan is the classic example. Worse, the idiots on Wall Street fell over his other to see who could be first to kiss his wrinkled butt. Disgusting!

Sell in May and Go Away?

Heck, any day now some "analyst" will make a stock market forcast based on sun spot activity over the past 50 years. Maybe someone else will preach Elliott Wave Theory. Oh, oh, what about one of those black box software packages all over the financial channels, that are virtually guaranteed to make you rich?

Two words: SNAKE OIL. Bah humbug on all "theories", chart reading secrets, so-called experts and all the other crap heard here.

You want to get rich? Do your homework.

The Fed Cuts One Last Time

May I ask where you for that matter any of the gloom and doom "columnists" that have some need to share their view with us mere peons got your degree in tea leaf reading? I hope from a acredited school and not some diploma mill with a web page.

The FRB said what they said. While still border line double speak pig latin perfected by Greenspan what they will do next time now two months off in the future is simply too distant to forcast. Period.

While I agree the days of agressive cutting are past, suggesting they for sure won't cut another quarter or half point over the next couple meetings is AS ALWAYS uncertain and for sure will be influenced by events THAT HAVE NOT HAPPENED YET. Keep that in mind folks. Actually I'm hoping the get down to 1%, then using my quarter million dollar credit line would be sweet.