The Battle of Good Versus Evil Continues

Food for thought. Who is the evil party in this whole crisis story? Is it the people who want Europe to declare insolvency and restructure? Or, is the people who wish to “extend and pretend” through artificially propping up failed governments and institutions, which in turn hurt the people through caused inflation and harsh austerity?

The knee-jerk opinion is to declare Bernanke an evil genius, one who is interested in slaughtering poor people via starvation. However, if Ben allows the financial system to collapse, how does that help Joe Shmoe, working at the bus depot making 45k per annum? Without intervention, deflation on a massive scale will hit, which will drive prices down. On the surface, this sounds fantastic. But what will happen to margins? Everything will be CRUSHED, including stocks.

Corporations will lay off workers and the reduction of cost of goods will become a moot point, since no one will be able to afford them anyway.

The big winners will be the people who saved for a rainy day. You know that $750k house you’ve been eying? You’ll be able to buy it at $550k with a 3.5% 30 year mortgage.

On the flip-side, if we continue the path of quantitative easing, commodities will rise and our shitty banks will still withhold capital, since they are effectively insolvent and useless. Couple that with fucktarded government OVER-regulation, the price of housing isn’t going anywhere but flat to down in the foreseeable future. Stocks will outperform and 8-10% unemployment will be “the new normal.”

My point: this is not an easy problem to deal with.

While talking shit on the internet, everyone seems to be an expert. It’s easy to second guess the actions of community organizers partaking in 4 wars and a great recession. But his job sucks dick, no? I do not envy anyone in power. However, I do wish to profit from their mistakes.

It is as clear as America’s collective cholesterol levels: policy makers are committed to an reflationary response. As much as you pine for Germany to walk away from the presses and invade Greece for sport, it isn’t going to happen. The path of least resistance, especially for professional politicians who harbor not one iota of nationalistic pride, is to “extend and pretend.” If that’s the case, ask yourself, what asset class will be the big winner in such an egregious scenario?

Once you figure it out and come to grips with reality, like I have, you will be able to invest freely, without a care in the world–for time, in every sense of the word, is on your side.

French, Spanish, Italian and Belgium 10 yr yields are rising again today. Yet, the market reaction is “meh”, as traders go about their days as if nothing was wrong. Theoretically, a total collapse in Europe “should not” affect the US too greatly, if it weren’t for our fucking banks. Then again, we’ll get lit up by the irrefutable laws of 6 degrees of separation. If Europe collapses, so will demand for Chinese shit in Europe. Once China gets hit, so will everyone.

Despite what the war hawks in the GOP say about America, the 21st century belongs to China, until we fucking attack them and enslave their people in FOXCONN factories. Oh wait, we already do that. Nevermind.

The dollar is climbing, TLT is ripping, crack spreads are collapsing and Marc Cuban is talking shit about hackers (CHINESE BURRITOS)  who are publicly traded and how the stock market is for idiots. In many respects, Marc is correct. If you are reading this post, you probably are a big fan of stocks, as am I. The market is my passion. I suppose deep down I enjoy  the torture and the drama, like some sort of kitchen bitch. But don’t put all of your money in stocks. I have less than 50% of my liquid net worth in stocks. As a matter of fact, much to my tax attorneys chagrin, I do not contribute to my 401k or an IRA. The way I see it, I want my money liquid, just in case I need to take my shit and go. I do not like the idea of locking my money up, just to benefit from some stupid tax write-offs.

No thanks.

Out of all my positions today, GSVC , EXK and OMX look best.

The Turkey Gods have spoken to me and they demand delivery of bear sauce by the close of trading on Friday.

I tell you this with a heavy heart for my bear friends will soon perish under the weight of clawhammers.

The Italian crisis that was destined to destroy humanity (lol) has been averted through magic. The magicians have decided it’s better to create an illusion of safety and security instead of dying at the bottom of a collapsed mountain.

As for me, I’ll be heavily profiteering through my enormous silver and gold positions, now constituting more than 40% of total assets. I have just 10% cash left and find myself at the beaks of the Gods. I don’t have faith in much, as I’ve concluded long ago fairy tales are better suited for bedtime or men who root for paid athletes. However, I do not fuck with the Saucerors of Stuffing, especially when the world has everything to lose and nothing to gain from inaction.

My YTD gains stand at 15% and I intend to press them into the face of Santa’s big stupid sleigh.

On this joyous day (iBC’s 4th birthday), I will share some of the details of my beginning into the disgusting world of blogging.

Before FlyonWallStreet, I used to mess around with political commentary and news. I was naive to the world and thought the republican party was God’s private club. It just so happens, the republicans are fucktards, just like the democrats.

Moving on.

I had moderate success doing it, even landing a top story headline on Drudge. My commentary once became the centerpiece of Michael Savage’s monologue and during the 2004 Presidential elections my web traffic was double of what iBankCoin gets on a daily basis.

The only problem: it was interfering with my business of managing money. I was so caught up in the bullshit, my business suffered. Well, by most standards, my business was great. But I knew it could do better.

So one day I decided to quit blogging. That was that. My wife was happy and so were my friends. Nothing is more annoying than some ideologue sharing “political wisdom.”

About a year later, I had an itch to start a new site. A fellow coworker of mine was a fairly successful financial website operator and it got my wheels turning. If I blogged about stocks, my productivity wouldn’t suffer and I could write again, something that was ingrained in my genes (I am related to a world famous writer, who happens to be dead now).

It was settled. I was going to launch another website and talk shit to the world.

My first site was idiotic. I designed it myself and I didn’t know anything about web design or programming. Aside from Jeremy the IT guy, no one knows about my first financial site. I posted my picks and linked to some news. There was no real commentary, aside from Briefing.com style notes.

At the time, Jim Cramer was a huge hit with Mad Money. It was a new type of show and everyone was sucking his dick. So, I started a blog that summarized Jim’s picks and commentary. Needless to say, within a few short months, it took off. Then, I launched FOWS blog with my business partner. The idea behind the site was to copy and paste our instant messages to one another, as we traded.

This platform was met with moderate interest from people who wanted to read the true, unvarnished, thoughts of real Wall Street money managers. The only problem with that idea was my partner. He was a fucking lunatic and didn’t want to “waste time” posting bullshit on some “stupid fucking blog.” Shortly after he quit the blog, I broke up our partnership.

Okay, so the Cramer site was still running and people loved it. The FOWS blog was all but dead. However, I knew it would be revamped soon, allowing me to discuss stocks and write. How did I know this? Well, I knew Cramer’s people would freak the fuck out one day and demand that I stop writing about him. I was not only right; I was exactly right.

His lawyers sent me a cease and desist letter, demanding that I stop posting Jim’s shit. I posted a copy of the email to the site and informed my readers I was shutting it down, but would continue blogging at FOWS.

Surprisingly, about 75% of my Cramer readers made the switch and I was off to a running start, garnering about 500 page views per day. Now we do 50-60,000.

The rapid success of FOWS is a whole ‘nother story. I will talk about it next year, on iBC’s 5th birthday.

Tomorrow is the 4th birthday for iBankCoin. For those of you who are new here, the journey originated from the time when I was blogging on some bullshit blogspot site.

Here was the introduction video crafted by Spydercrusher aka “Danny.”

It all started when “Jeremy the IT guy”, and Co-founder of iBankCoin, emailed me for some good book tips. Jeremy was in college and was interested in learning more about stocks. After a few months of back and forth and firing him from guest blogging on FOWS for posting gangster rap bullshit (that was my thing back then, hiring bloggers for the weekends and firing them on Sunday night), I proposed we mock TheStreet.com with a site that looked just like theirs, only orange.

After some back and forth, Jeremy agreed.

As far as compensation went, he was given a choice: 1. get paid by the hour for work done on iBC. 2. get paid nothing, but get a significant share of the newly formed company. He chose the latter and it was a wise decision.

But we’re just getting started here, as the site expands into different aspects of content delivery, specifically seen in The Blogger Network and The Financial News Network.

Through the years, the site has undergone numerous design changes and content as well. We started off with just me, Woodshedder and Danny. Then Ragin’ Cajun came onboard. Shortly after him, Jakegint decided to convert himself from prolific commenter to tabbed blogger. We held elections to replace departing blogger “Gunners” and Alphadawg won. However, truth be told, we were forced to hack that poll for him due to the insidious manipulation of our polling system by none other BEAS.

Other bloggers who have donned the iBC armor include: Chart Addict, Coach Coffee, Henry Fool, Chuck Bennett, Gio and The Analyst Bomber. I may have missed one or two.

I brought Scott Bleier onboard after having lunch with him at The Four Seasons. I remember seeing Scott on the teevee when I was a young punk in the brokerage business. When we bumped into each other on Twitter, I knew he had to write for the site.

ChessnWine won his tab by defeating Caine Thaler in an election. Both Chess and Caine defeated all other contestants on iBC. The final vote was held inside The PPT and Chess won.

Caine won The King of the Peanut Gallery award more than anyone else in iBC history, due to his supreme command of the English language. Eventually, I offered Caine a tab because I knew he had earned one.

Cronkite used to blog under another name “GW.” And he used to post news under a different format. But it wasn’t successful, so I canceled it. After I launched The Financial News Network, it made perfect sense to put him in charge of it. He has done a terrific job.

Running a site is not easy. There are always #TECHISSUES and people are dicks. Personalities clash and I am not an easy person to deal with. Plus, so many of you out there are assholes. To date, we’ve banned over 1,100 fuckfaces who have disrespected the house that is iBankCoin. I ban people because they are dishonorable. Remember, iBC is my home. When you walk into my home by commenting, you are my guest. Should you choose to disrespect me in my home, I am going to pick you up by the collar and kick you out.

At any rate, I am very happy with the progress of the site, with traffic up 10 fold since 2007. We are on the cusp of launching a new site soon, which has nothing to do with content, however. Jeremy has come along way in developing his skills. He is an incredible programmer. Oh, I’d also like to thank Gappingandyapping for helping us with our servers. We could not have moved over to the cloud without him. He is a true friend of the site and is cordially invited to next years annual iBC dinner.

In closing, I intend to destroy all of the other financial sites out there. I know who you fucking are and your content is shit. Your advice is garbage and your grammar is atrocious.

Be well.

Did you know? Aside from the original staff of Woodshedder and Danny, iBC had another blogger named Mr. Bilderberg. He lasted only two weeks. His name was HOWARD LINDZON.

I started a position in OMX and added to both LULU and EXK.

If you are short and crying in a shower now, cheer up. The market is a Brazen Bull and everyone gets beat down. The Italian yield story is over. The ECB has intervened and CRUSHED the bears, sending yields back down to 6.44%. This is hard for you to accept, mainly because it seems to plausible that the world should end now. Unfortunately, it is not.

The Turkey Gods have spoken and they favour higher equity prices, going into the celebratory day.

Gold and Silver is my theme. But in addition to that, I am very much interested in names like LULU, BZH and of course refiners.

If you don’t have the decency inside of you to know right from wrong, I will be your moral compass.

Most young people are so self enamored they are unable to understand what life is all about. Sometimes these young people grow old on the outside; but on the inside, they are still children.

Anyone defending Joe Paterno, the 84 year old cocksucker who didn’t want to inconvenience himself with child rape a decade ago, should be arrested and executed with the degenerate bastard who abused those kids. There are no free passes. This is not a parking violation or some accidental burglary by one of your best friends. I have zero tolerance with abuses against women, children, the disabled and the elderly. The very basic function of being a strong person is to defend others who aren’t able to.

I am sick of all of the weakness that permeates this society. I see men destroying their families because they wanted to bang a hooker or have an affair with a hamburger. The core problem with people is they lack honor and dignity. They sit around the fucking teevee all day watching sports, wasting their lives without ever enjoying the finer things in life.

Instead of watching some loser sitcom, read Don Quioxte. Are you interested in expanding your dog brains beyond Mad Magazine? Go read Tolstoy.

I didn’t enjoy today’s rally because silver traded lower. However, I timed my NFLX sale perfectly and saved myself almost 5 points by doing so. With half of the NFLX proceeds, I bought LULU, down about .75 from purchase. Compared to what I saved in NFLX, I did good.

With the rest of the NFLX money, I intend to buy more DK and EXK next week.

Frantic price action, coupled with obscene amounts of unprecedented news flow, will kill off many investors. It’s very hard to keep a moving average when stocks are moving in 7% daily increments. Although I am guilty of moving in and out of contrary positions, such as today’s failed attempt at ERY, I always keep those trades small.

The market is a form of gambling, if used to trade frequently. Like gambling, people tend to get caught up in the emotions and the digits, forgetting there is real money at stake. Just because the money is in an account, dressed with cool fonts and fancy looking graphs, don’t lose focus of what you are trying to accomplish.

Get rich?

Maybe. But I think trying to get rich in stocks is an easy way to crush yourself. Unless you are 99 years old and have been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, you have time to see your money grow over time.

I know this site is all about gunning for the markets, while killing people with clawhammers. But, that’s for me. You wouldn’t suggest a newly licensed driver participate in a NASCAR race, would you?

Before you crap all over your profit and loss sheets, figure out what your theme is. After you figure it out, initiate a plan to buy or sell said stocks with the understanding that you will be wrong on your initial purchases. Once you’ve taken the hubris out of executions, you won’t get pissed off when your new buy drops a buck for no reason. If you have a strategy to buy or sell, stick to it and adhere to those disciplines.

As for me, I have a theme: long silver/gold/refiners, with a blend of high beta gambling stocks. I just replaced NFLX with LULU, after booking 8 points in the former. I am not worried about EXK/AG/RGLD dropping because I intend to buy more if and when they dip.

Even though GSVC was looking mighty fine (southern accent) at $17, it looks even better at $14. I was never going to sell it at $17, so it’s pointless to get mad at shit like that. I intend to see it through, watching the development of their holdings in Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and others.

Lastly, I hope you have other streams of income. If not, try to get one. The stock market is on especially tenuous grounds and it can disappear one morning, Merlin style. You will wake up and turn on CNBC and Steve Liesman will tell you “in an unprecedented move, the Federal government has halted all trading in equities and bonds, indefinitely.” And that will be that. Poof, no more bullshit Italian yields because there will be no such thing.

At that point, “The Fly” will wander off into junkyards and finance local militias to secure grain.

I bought LULU and DK.

And, I ditched ERY.