Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silber über Alles - As January Goes...

"As January goes, so goes the rest of the year." 

Yale Hirsch, The Stock Trader's Almanac 

 

“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel.” 

Grover Cleveland (about that other gilded age)

 

"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population.  

Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries.  These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry. 

If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite.  Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012

 

And it is.

So we bid a fond farewell to January. 

Year to Date it looks like stocks are about unchanged to slightly negative. 

Gold popped this morning, but was steadily worn down during the day to finished unchanged. 

But the mighty, mighty silver held on to its gains and finished the month a bit ahead of the pack. 

And that is not counting some of the miners who are finding a boost with the investing public, as it were. 

As a reminder only the Wall Street Banks and insiders are allowed to manipulate prices for their advantage, so take note, all you Redditor upstarts and retail peons.

And that goes double for monetary policy, and the subsequent asset bubbles it may evoke, which is formulated to transfer wealth to the top from everyone else, don't ya know.

RHIP

It looks like a nor'easter will be tearing through the tri-state area on Monday. 

Don't forget to feed God's lesser creatures. and perhaps share a kind word and a good deed with one of those who are created in His image, just like you.

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silver Shines as the Too Often Naked Shorts Run for the Exits

"Democracy is held captive, not just by money, but by ideas — the ideas that money buys." 

William Greider

 

"A multibillion-dollar bailout and Wall Street’s swift, subsequent reinstatement of gargantuan bonuses have inspired a narrative of parasitic bankers and other elites rigging the game for their own benefit. And this, in turn, has led to wider—and not unreasonable—fears that we are living in not merely a plutonomy, but a plutocracy, in which the rich display outsize political influence, narrowly self-interested motives, and a casual indifference to anyone outside their own rarefied economic bubble."

Chrystia Freeland, The Rise of the New Global Elite, January 2011 

 

"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.  Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Henry Wallace, 9 April 1944

 

"Our future could be one in which continued tumult feeds the looting of the financial system, and we talk more and more about exactly how our oligarchs became bandits and how the economy just can’t seem to get into gear.  Recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.  And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time." 

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup, May 2009

 

Silver exploded higher today.

The capping on gold continued.

It too will fail as all long term price manipulation schemes do..

Stocks look wobbly.

I took quite a bit of profit and risks off the table today.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Better Call Powell - Bad Day for Stocks

 

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God.  The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito."

C. S. Lewis

 

"I am so resplendent in my creation that in order not to see me these poor people would have to be blind." 

Charles Péguy, Le Porche du Mystère de la Deuxième Vertu

 

"Our faith is stronger than death, our philosophy is firmer than flesh, and the spread of the Kingdom of God upon the earth is more sublime and more compelling.  

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?" 

Dorothy Day

 

Most stocks that have some connection to reality were hammered lower today. 

This is bubble action. when the selling starts in earnest, almost everything gets sold. 

And despite the elevated perception of risk, as clearly shown by the VIX, the mineres were sold heavily as well. 

Let's see how the rest of the week goes. 

Thanks to my friend Tony S for the 'Better Call Powell' idea.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Mania - Metals Option Expiration, Fed Meeting Decision Tomorrow

 

"Few things are more destructive to Christians than anger.  Anger causes us to lose our self-control and to say and do things we would otherwise never consider.  Anger, if allowed to remain, turns into bitterness that eats away at our hearts.

Anger does not bring about God’s redemptive work; far more often it hinders what God is working to accomplish.  If you feel that you have a righteous anger because of something that has happened, see if you are holding anger in your heart without sin.   Is your anger turning into bitterness?  Is your anger causing you to make excuses for your own ungodly behavior?  Is your anger preventing you from acting in a loving, redemptive, and Christlike way?" 

Henry Blackaby

 

"Those wishing abundant wealth are falling into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful passions which plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all evil, and people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.  But you people of God, avoid all this. Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness." 

1 Timothy 6:9-11

 

We are entering a speculative mania now.  Hysteria and passions are running high with greed and entitlement.

When the reckoning comes, the insiders and moneyed interests will be blaming the small speculators and 'Robin Hood' crowd.  They always do.  

Hate the game and not the players, right? 

But they are at the heart of it, urging on the speculation, and steadily weakening the safeguards and regulations at every turn so that they can extend their outsized misappropriation of the nation's wealth.

In the same manner that they foment political anger and social hatred and oppression and riots, with a towering pride and self-righteousness and self-delusion.

Know who it is that you serve.

Madness.

Do not be so concerned about your money, that you let go so easily of your self.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Volatility de Luxe

 

“Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die of euphoria.”

John Templeton

 

“When an investor focuses on short-term investments, he or she is observing the variability of the portfolio, not the returns – in short, being fooled by randomness."

Nassim Taleb

 

Stocks had quite a ride today from the lows to the highs. 

They did manage to go out on the positive.

There is a metals option expiration on the Comex for the February contract tomorrow. 

There will be a Fed rate decision on Wednesday. 

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Weekend Reading - Iron Sharpens Iron

 

Iron Sharpens Iron
Henry Blackaby

 

The Christian life is a pilgrimage.  At times the road is difficult, and we get lonely. Sometimes we may become discouraged and consider abandoning the journey.  It is at such times that God will place a friend alongside us.  One of God’s most precious gifts to us is friends who encourage us and lovingly challenge us to 'keep going.'

According to Scripture, a friend is one who challenges you to become all that God intends.  Jonathan could have succeeded his father to become the next king of Israel.  But he loved his friend David, and he encouraged him to follow God’s will, even though it meant Jonathan would forfeit his own claim to the throne (1 Sam. 19:1-7).

The mark of biblical friends is that their friendship draws you closer to Christ.  They 'sharpen' you and motivate you to do what is right.  True friends tell you the truth and even risk hurting your feelings because they love you and have your best interests at heart (Prov. 27:6).

Be careful in your choice of friends! Jesus chose His closest friends wisely.  He did not look for perfect friends, but friends whose hearts were set to follow God.  It is equally important to examine the kind of friend you are to others.  As a friend, it is your duty to put the needs of others first (Prov. 17:17). 

Strive to find godly friends who will challenge you to become the person God desires.  When you have found them, be receptive to the way God uses them to help you become spiritually mature.  Strive also to be the kind of friend that helps others become more like Christ.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Bearing Witness - A Culture of Emptiness and Contempt

 

"As observers of totalitarianism such as Victor Klemperer noticed, truth dies in four modes, all of which we have just witnessed.   The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts.  Demeaning the world as it is begins the creation of a fictional counterworld. 

You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case.  What is truth?  Sometimes people ask this question because they wish to do nothing. Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference.  It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society. 

Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.” 

 Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny 

 

"Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all.  The never ending alarms, the never ending phrases, the never ending hanging out of flags, now in triumph, now in mourning—it all produces apathy.  

There is so much lethargy in the German people, and so much immorality, and above all so much stupidity.  I must make notes even now, I must, no matter how dangerous it is.  That is my professional courage."

Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years
 

Stocks were digesting their gains today from the latest leg of their bubble this week.

Gold and silver gave up some of their recent gains as well.

Next Tuesday the 26^th there will be an option expiration on the Comex.

People are fleeing from their confusion, and the burden of thought, into indifference and contempt for others.  It is a loss of grounding in reality.  Much of the fear is from phantoms based in obsessive greed and selfishness.

Madness.   And it serves none but itself. 

May God have mercy on us.

Have a pleasant weekend.