Can't seem to hold a position, make a decent return, keep from getting whipsawed, find a trend?
No wonder, because this is one of the most volatile markets in the past century.
Our opinion, for what it is worth, is that the volatility is being turbocharged by the injections of Fed liquidity into the Wall Street banks, who have few options for higher returns than Treasuries. So their trading desks are churning the markets to hammer the hedge funds and skin the small specs who are loss sensitive and unsophisticated in their use of leverage and hedging.
The financial sector needs to be reformed badly. The economy will not recover until real wages start advancing again so consumption and savings can resume. Look for the well-heeled elites to fight that every step of the way, and appeal to the worst in our character as part of a campaign to do it.
If you are not an experienced trader now is a good time to sit in cash and add some precious metals on weakness, and above all, learn to live within your means.
"A new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny is established, one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules. Moreover, indebtedness and credit distance countries from their real economy and citizens from their real buying power. Added to this, as if it were needed, is widespread corruption and selfish fiscal evasion which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The will to power and of possession has become limitless." Francis I, 16 May 2013