[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4FGvMdhG80&feature=related 450 300]

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Today was an interesting day, as I sat and ate samiches whilst ordering my sons around as they attempted to clear my ice-bound driveway, and  thereby freeing me to do my “early” Christmas shopping.  

A roommate of mine with four sons came up with an adage one day with which I have come to heartily concur.  It states,  “Four boys equals one man.”  He now lives in Rochester and had addressed the adage specifically to snow shoveling.  Very appropos, therefore, for me today.  

Since only two of my sons are old enough to tackle hard work tasks like ice clearing, in effect I had one half a man working out there today.  The fact that I had to take over, thereby endangering my back, but also assuring that I’d get to the malls before midnight tonight, is a testament to my friend’s adage.  Truly, young teenage males are good for almost nothing save extraordinary food consumption at unprecedented rates. 

Please let me know if you need a guest for your seven course holiday meals.

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With regaurd (sic) to the stocks (sic) market, I have heaped praises on Le Magistrate’s choice of CMI for over a year now.   It has been a paragon of automotive (and trucking) ascendency in this lamely recovering economy, and even today it shows little signs of pausing.  Nevertheless, we must be on our guard to pick up anything we can on a retrace, hence the following chart:

Another auto sector darling that has made even more auspicious returns in the same period that CMI has is the head of the Collective, the Borg Warner (BWA).   Note how they have assimilated capital returns in an ever efficient, if soulless Locutus-like way over the same period as CMI….

I like this action almost as much as I like UPS looking to broach new all time highs.  But we must be patient, and let the trade “come in” a bit, as le Magistrate would say.  You can note my target levels, if you so choose.

Also, I think the PM’s have made an valiant effort to maintain here, which usually means there are buyers dying to get in.   With that in mind, I bit the bullet and went to a 60% position on EXK, with a 5 k purchase today in the low $6.90’s.

The dollar is down as I type this, so perhaps my faithfulness shall be rewarded.  Until tomorrow then, stay assimilated, Borg Collective plebs.

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It wasn’t just Rick Pitino’s formerly unblemished Cardinal Birds team that went down today to the scrappy Drexel Dragons of Philly, it was a plethora of formerly high flyers. One great example is the LED players CREE and VECO, which got swung from their armpits into a molten lake of lava today.

Like my Cards, these high fliers were tired, and yes, a little bit cocky with their recent gains. Only the grace of God saved me from getting left standing by the record players on these two. I was trimming recent runners, and had only a bit left of these two, so I decided to take profits on the rest over the last week, the last of which I sold yesterday, as reported in The PPT.

I think what happened to CREE….

And to it’s close sister VECO….

… all goes to show that the momo is starting to come out of the markets.   I again implore you to continue trimming back risk assets such as these “tip of the iceberg” plays.

Best to you.

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For now, at least.    It looks the dollar has bottomed for now, and as a result, I will likely be dumping the rest of my AGQ tomorrow.  I will also continue to sell down my overweight positions in EXK, SLW and yes, GSS (which I am overweight for stupid reasons).  Some ANV will go, as well as some IAG and EGO too.  Not a tonne, but I will be raising cashe (sic) munny (sic).

I will also likely sell some other things tomorrow which look overbought despite their not being in the precious metal category.  I shall tell the good gentlepeople of The PPT about that before I make those moves known here in Pikerdome.

What won’t I be selling?   That I will let you know… lucky dogges.   I will not be selling any UPS.

I will not be selling any UL.

I will not be selling any MON.

And I will NOT be selling any TBT.    In fact, I may even add to the latter.

Best to you all, and Merry Kwaanza, Fonzies.

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 Many of you may know of Hannukha Harry from his comic forays on the old Saturday Night Live.  Well, a similar number of you may not realize that Harry– in true legend– actually wore a formal stove-pipe hat (see above) when doling out socks and toothbrushes and other sensible gifts to the good Jewish chillens over the eight nights of Hannukha. 

I can confirm this, as I saw Harry himself with mine own goyum eyes coming through the garage door entrance (sensibly) of my friend Benjamin Zimmerman’s house one early December evening in sixth grade, when I’d stayed over — at his parents’ invitation– on the third night of the Festival of Lights.  

It was 7:30 and we’d just laid out the traditional borscht and bagels after Jeopardy, when we saw his trademark stovepipe peeking through the door.    Hannukha Harry only comes at sensible times, as he needs to be in bed before ten.   None of this fakakta post-midnight chimney drop-ins for him, he told us.   That, he explained, is for the meshugganah Sinter Klaus — a distant relative and definitely not glatt kosher. 

One of the gifts Harry bestowed upon us that night was The Tale of Sound Money.  Sure, he was easy with the gelt, but aside from the traditional chocolate coins, he told us never to trust a fully fiat currency system, as it would always let us down.   At the time, he told us, the U.S. dollar had devalued from it’s 1913 (pre-Federal Reserve) value by almost 87% (it’s now closer to 95%), and much of that drop was achieved in the decade since Richard Nixon had given up on gold convertability altogether in the 1971 Bretton Woods abdication.   

Harry told us it was only a matter of time before politicians and their allies in the central banks got so greedy that they’d wreck a fiat currency system designed — with the best of intentions — to promote sound economic trade.   There was just too much conflict of interest for any one central bank or sponsor country to trust another, and worse was that temptation more for the “currency of record”  that was held as the “reserve” in a fake money system. 

No, only an anchored “no cheater” metric could ensure a balance of trade that would not bankrupt the citizenry of the developed world, he admonished, with furrowed mono-brow.

And to emphasize the point of the lesson, Hannukah Harry left us with a Canadian Maple Leaf gold coin a piece (he explained he was originally from Toronto), and then drove out of sight in his ’79 Toyota Corrolla (sensible to the end).

So today, in remembrance of that evening with Hannukah Harry, and on this first night of Hannukah, I have discarded my formal iBC Approved Lincolnesque stovepipe top hat, and replaced it with the traditional Hannukah stovepipe instead (above).  

Happy Hannukah to all of you, and most especially to my Tribal readers and friends.

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As for the market, I think you can see what’s happened to the dollar, and consequently, our vindicated precious metal markets.   Notice also that things in the PM world have started to get a little tired and labored even as the dollar drops?  That’s why I’m not really adding to my precious metal hordes at this late hour, despite the temptation to do so.

In fact, I may even use this short burst to trim some of my laggards like IAG and GSS, and even sell some calls on my workhorses like SLW and ANV.   In the meantime, I make hay whilst the sun shines (and the dollar drops) on such long term holds as ENTR and TC.   I even added to TC ($12.80) and rare earth metal nut-stock AVARF ($3.69)today, as I recorded in The PPT.

These are all late game plays, and I will be trimming in the week ahead almost definitely.  There’s only so much we can expect out of the magnificent moves we’ve experienced in the last months, and I will squeeze what I can out of my bounty.  I will also endeavour, however,  not to get stupid and over-greedy.

Best to you all, Light Festivalists.

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My elation at Representative Mark Kirk’s taking President O’Bama’s seat in the Irish Districts of Chicago, Illinois away from the Democrat “Gangstah Bankah” Alexi Giannoulias, is somewhat tempered by the news that Senate Leader Harry Reid and the SEIU have managed to steal the elections once again in Nevada.

I have no further comment, save to say that we’ve much work to do, now that this piece of scum — who stood in the well of the Senate and said the Iraq War was “lost” while we had troops under fire — is back in his seat.

We must march on, that is all.

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UPDATE: Republicans have “officially” taken the 39 seats necessary to take control of the House…  with an overall projection total of about 60 seats, according to Fox Snooze.

Three times three!  

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEyCei4UB_Y 450 300]

… Miss America

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So, you want to trust Dr. Ben and his dollar action today?

‘Cause, I’m gonna tell you… that was some weird stuff today, kids.   Weird action.   Like as in “head-fake action.”

Maybe even “trying to break the buck action.”   Yeah, we all remember how Soros made his first billion, right? 

You think anyone else took notice?

So, I ask again.. you feeling lucky, punks? 

A couple of baubles for your thoughts.  This first I do not own yet, and it’s in the speculative (ie, “non-producing”) gold mining sector:

This second is also not recommended, even though I did buy it today, mostly out of a sandy chagrin caught in the back of my esophagus, borne of my missing the recent moves in REE, which I didn’t buy last week, when I should have.  This is a lesser “rare earth” variant thereof, which I took a very small starter position in today, as per my announcement in The PPT.

Keep in mind this one is overbought, and possibly more important, it rhymes with “barf.”

Best to you all.

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