I’ve been nearly forced and against my will, coerced into drinking a “green juice”, every single day for the past two months. It is both very thick and caustic in flavour. I don’t know what is exactly in it. The taste reminds me of a fresh lemon squeezed into a pile of grass and then chopped up lazily in a low powered blender. This, amongst other alternative health remedies, is supposed to provide me with vigor, an elixir of sorts designed to improve my health.
Bear in mind, I did not ask for this, nor do I condone it.
I draw the line at vitamins, nonchalant digestion of pills sought out by health vendors who promise vitality in exchange for obedience. I’d rather die than swallow 5 pill per day, naively being sold on the idea that they work.
On the whole, dying is completely underrated.
In regards to the markets, it appears gold is the standout last week. While all of you cock-gobblers genuflected over the semis — gold made a clean break higher.
As for the overall condition of stocks. The Nasdaq is higher by 7% for the month. If this is 2011 and not 2008, it would not befuddle me to bear witness to another 3% gain next week, followed by a harrowing return to the mean in February.
Be patient. Pick and choose your battles carefully. One day take the green juice and throw it on the ground.
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The market rides on what Crazy Donald does, and nobody can predict that.
Blendtec is by far and away the best blender! Has the motor of a fucking lawnmower. Sorry vitamixFags Blentec wins again.
Athletic Greens?
You poor thing. You’re not a field animal. People went crazy about the whole fiber thing.
Cooked food Please. Meat, veg, tuber, some grain.
I feel the same way about vitamins except for Vitamin D. I can’t get enough Vitamin D.
Oh, some fruit. If I followed the RDA for fruit, I’d have to siege our bathroom.
That looks like the stuff that grows on my pond. Ducks like it, but I’ve never tried any.
Please, stop with the green juice. Enjoy the delights of real food. You are a good cook, don’t compromise that.
The bull case.
IEV FXI VXUS SPY Gold bottomed, breaking out.
CBs talking easy money. Basically a non issue, but talk of QE cheers the markets. Mostly, QE is a publicity stunt, put on to convince the masses that someone is doing something.
In the US, earnings season off to a good start. Aside from the obvious, it means that gazillionaires will have another quarter where they can slam the markets with cash, which is what it’s all about anymore.
PE expansion, you say? Sure, why not? As long as the very wealthy are willing to shovel in the cash the game can continue. It has to since there is more cash than the markets can handle.
A word about gold. Talk of QE convinces some people that the economy just has to implode in general this time, others that hyperinflation will eat us alive. They’re both full of shit, but you don’t need to know what you’re doing to buy gold.
The bear case.
Multiples are too high, the world economy is slowing, earnings will fall because we’re at the end of a credit cycle.
I should probably acknowledge that dumbass mountain of debt argument. Under Ibankcoin reads is listed Pragcap…read it.
I think that we are late cycle but it appears that concentrated wealth can keep things limping for quite a while. I’ll have to be a buyer as long as price action looks good. Gold is likely to keep moving IMO. Volatility plays like UVXY should work well, just buy when the Vix dips into the 16-18 dollar range.
From where I sit the bear ain’t here yet. Maybe he arrived but left quickly, scared off by the PPT. Who knows.
Market manipulation seems likely to me but maybe isn’t real. If real, it’s hard to predict. Your guess is as good as mine
I’m holding mostly 3xers, UPRO, TQQQ, YINN, NUGT, IEF, and just re-entering UVXY as the Vix falls.
The CB “publicity stunt” …or whatever other tools they’ve used …has lowered interest rates making otherwise-uneconomic business investments appear profitable; making it attractive for companies to borrow to buy back stock; making attractive to take on debt to buy other businesses in publicly-trade companies; and causing investors to leave interest-bearing safe-haven investments in favor of more risky stocks ..else they see their money fail to keep pace with inflation. This has been a prop under stocks and when the manipulation no longer works, there will be an adjustment and a CB response may well be inflationary.
Separately, what will happen to labor costs? A major help for stocks is the decreased cost of labor from having hard-working Chicoms do our work for us while we become less of a meritocracy and more subject to the political machinations central planners and their identity politics and militarism ..as promoted by their MSM tools. Trump is not engaging in Bushbama’s extend and pretend regarding China. What if Trump doesn’t cave in on this one?
We have a great big beautiful wall of worry to climb.
Hi Ferd. Good to hear from a fearless IBC commentor.
It appears that the Fed works hard to come to a consensus of what is possible in the market place before it sets policy. So I think that market forces are present to a large extent, which to my way of thinking means that there is too much available credit relative to demand. What really gives me pause about the Fed’s power (though they have quite a bit) is the fall in interest rates at the end of QE2.
In the past our biggest influence as tion component has been through wages, which the Chicoms have pretty well squashed. I agree with you and Trump on China and I have saying for 30 years that we’re the only major country that allows our labor markets to be pillaged, but Trumps approach is amateurish.
I’m neither right wing or left wing but the right wing’s headlong rush into oligarchy worries me a great deal more than the left’s tendency toward more government. I think public opinion will dictate more government anyway since taxation is one of the few tools available to rebalance wealth distribution.
So are you thinking a bull climbing a wall? It seems unlikely but the charts are telling a different story.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a global dead-cat bounce.
In the past our biggest component to influence inflation. I meant to say. Don’t know what the hell happened there.
Beats me if the bull returns, but a fine wall has been constructed. Chinese stocks moving out of their down trend is a positive and if the SPX and Naz take out their 12/12 highs, that’d make somewhat more constructive on funny money pushing us out of the recent down trend. Also note that /NQ will break its down trend if moves above its very recent (1/18) high – that would likely draw in some money.
For now though, we’ve only come about halfway back from the highs in US stocks and I’m thinking we’re topping out of what is a counter trend rally; a process that may yet run for a week or two. I’ve been spending some money shorting US sectors that look weakest to me.
Not short anything at present but sure don’t have a problem with that. NUGT & UVXY for now. I think those are outright money makers but also make a dandy hedge.
Is that green drink from Dr oz? Ditch at least one of the apples and throw in some milk thistle for starters.
Dr. Oz, only in america, scam pays.
I don’t take pills; potions, never. Our diet is so rich it is killing us with kindness, obesity, diabetes, osteoarthritis MI….Look at all those Indians, eating grass, walking in flip flops with PHD diplomas in hand running IT industry.
There will be far less confusion about financial matters if we understand modern concepts of money & stock markets
Money: It is no longer a storehouse of value, just medium of exchange. You sell one asset, receive money , now you have to go into different asset class to preserve the value, as everything is in flux. Choice is yours. And CB are producing just enough of it so as to keep the merry go round.
Financial Markets: A mechanism to soak up the excess created by CB and to take it from those who don’t find urgent need for it to those who can use it now. As it is impossible for CB to regulate who gets how much of the digital currency they generate. Precious metals will never give them that flexibility. For this very reason, a legal, perpetual ponzi is allowed to carry on its needed task.
Unless that green swill is a new type of bourbon, get it the fuck out of my face.
ask the wife to add fresh ginger and some pineapple to it, makes the greens go down a lot easier.
Seems like everyone looking for reversal back lower which makes me want to stay long.
Change your recipe Le Fly!
2 apples
1 lemon
thumb size of ginger
1 cucumber
1/2 head of celery
bunch parsley or cilantro or dill
Juice that shit up!