Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Conmen and their Puppetmasters - Stock Option Expiration

 

"So let us begin anew— remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.   Let us never negotiate out of fear.  But let us never fear to negotiate."

John F Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

"The man who has never learned to obey knows not how to command, and the man who has never disciplined himself knows not how to be merciful.  It is always the selfish who are unkind to others, and those who are hardest on themselves are the kindest to others, as the teacher who knows the least is always the most intolerant to his pupils."

Fulton J. Sheen, Victory Over Vice, 2016

"Psychopaths love chaos and hate rules, so they're comfortable in the fast-moving modern corporation. Dr. Paul Babiak, an industrial-organizational psychologist based near New York City, is in the process of writing a book with Bob Hare called When Psychopaths Go to Work: Cons, Bullies and the Puppetmaster. The subtitle refers to the three broad classes of psychopaths Babiak has encountered in the workplace."

Robert Hercz, Psychopaths Among Us

“The manipulator’s power lies in their ability to exploit vulnerability and manipulate emotions.”

Robert Hare, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, 1993

"We are poor indeed if this Nation cannot afford to lift from every recess of American life the dread fear of the unemployed that they are not needed in the world.  We cannot afford to accumulate a deficit in the books of human fortitude.  In the place of the palace of privilege we seek to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity. 

Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.  Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

There is a mysterious cycle in human events.  To some generations much is given.  Of other generations much is expected.  This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nomination Acceptance, Philadelphia, June 27, 1936


It was risk on all the way today, as equities caught their footing and then rose almost relentlessly higher.

If there is anything to spoil the bullish scenario it is the very narrow nature of the advance, with a handful of story stocks providing most of the gains by far.

This has been going on for a while.  And historically these things can run on for a while, until something happens to upset the scenario, to disrupt the flow of what is essentially a long con.

As a reminder, there will be a quadruple witch stock option expiration on this Friday.

Gold and silver pulled back a bit along with the Dollar, a sure sign of a risk on impulsive move.

I have been puzzling over the domestic political situation in the US for some time now.  It certainly is of consequence to the world at large.

Biden doesn't really seem to be in control of things, in setting policy.  He appears more and more of a figurehead.  He gets propped up for the occasion and performs his piece, with mixed results.

I think the leading figures on the American political scene have a similar position, but are performing their functions more effectively.

Is former president Jimmy Carter right, in saying that the US is now an oligarchy, or perhaps more precisely a plutocracy?

Who are the true puppetmasters?   The ones who are the most difficult to see.

It's something to think about.  One wonders if anyone outside of the political duopoly can gain any effective influence on the power that is controlling things these days. 

This upcoming election is either going to be rather interesting, or merely pathetic.  It all depends on the wild cards.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rising Above the Madness

 

"Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.  Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul."

Robert F. Kennedy, Remarks to Cleveland City Club, 5 April 1968

"With the tools of democracy, democracy was murdered and lawlessness made ‘legal.’  Raw power ruled, and its only real goal was to destroy all other powers besides itself.”

Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, April 2010

"A society that is in its higher circles and on its middle levels widely believed to be a network of smart rackets does not produce men with an inner moral sense; a society that is merely expedient does not produce men of conscience.  A society that narrows the meaning of 'success' to the big money and in its terms condemns failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value, will produce the sharp operator and the shady deal. 

Blessed are the cynical, for only they have what it takes to succeed. America - a conservative country without any conservative ideology-appears now before the world a naked and arbitrary power, as, in the name of realism, its men of decision enforce their often crackpot definitions upon world reality."

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, Oxford Press, 1956

"If at the start this cancerous growth in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept under control. As it grew larger, however, and finally in an ultimate spurt of growth attained ruling power, the tumor broke open, as it were, and infected the whole body."

The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942

"The impulse to freedom and democracy always seems weak and hopeless when matched against the forces of oppression, because aggressive oppression is always more single-minded, having already crushed internal dissent and perspective, and is generally better organized and equipped.

As in most human things, their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness, and it is their inability to master and evolve that strength, to reform and achieve sustainability, that brings them crashing down, every time. Their strength is their weakness, in its overreach and self-absorption."

Jesse, Prague Spring, 8 June 2012 

 

There are times when a retreat from the troubles of the day seems to be our best choice.

And yet we are not called to become cynical, or to be indifferent, to the corrosive contagion of lawlessness and the despair of our neighbor.

Stocks continued to diverge, with a narrow tech rally reaching for a high note.

Gold and silver rallied sharply after their recent smackdowns.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

VIX continues to be gamed and has lost some of its value as an indicator, except in its extremes.

A correction, and a fairly stiff one, is just one geopolitical event away.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Preparing for the Unthinkable

 

"The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilised and innocent people.  The silence under the terror was only its consequence.  

The coldness of the societal mindset, the isolated competitor, was the precondition, as indifference to the fate of others, for the fact that only very few people reacted.  The torturers know this, and they put it to test ever anew.

One must come to know the mechanisms that render people capable of such deeds, must reveal these mechanisms to them, and strive, by awakening a general awareness of those mechanisms, to prevent people from becoming so again.  

It is not the victims who are guilty, not even in the sophistic and caricatured sense in which still today many like to construe it.  Only those who unreflectingly vented their hate and aggression upon them are guilty.  One must labor against this lack of reflection, must dissuade people from striking outward without reflecting upon themselves.  The only education that has any sense at all is an education toward critical self-reflection."

Theodor Adorno, Education After Auschwitz, 18 April 1966

"The present war crisis is something we have made entirely for and by ourselves. There is in reality not the slightest logical reason for war, and yet the whole world is plunging headlong into frightful destruction, and doing so with the purpose of avoiding war and preserving peace! This is a true war-madness, an illness of the mind and the spirit that is spreading with a furious and subtle contagion all over the world."

Thomas Merton, The Root of War, The Catholic Worker, October 1961

"The process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

The Project For a New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses, 1997

"Jesus looked at them and said, 'One of you who eats with Me will betray Me.'  How was it possible to share such an intimate and profound moment with the Savior and then rush so quickly toward betrayal and spiritual failure?  During the intense pressures of Gethsemane and the cross, the disciples did things they never thought they would do.  They had no idea how cruel and hateful the world around them would be to their Lord.  But only Jesus knew the full extent of the temptation they would face. In the pressure of the moment the heart does surprising things.

How quickly the surroundings of your life can shift from the security and tranquility of an upper room to the harsh reality of Gethsemane and the cross.   Guard your heart.  Listen now to the Lord’s gentle warning: the failure that was possible with His first disciples is also possible with you.  You, too, are capable of forsaking Jesus, just as the first disciples did."

Henry Blackaby, The Unthinkable, 1998

“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”

C. S. Lewis

Stocks came in weak today, and fell in the morning.

But surprise, they took it back to unchanged by the close.

One can only wonder.

Gold and silver were hit by selling, probably to clear out any buyers who stuck a toe back in after the recent low for the NFP and the Fed.

The old 'gut punch' just to test resolve and shake out the weak hands.

Why do you think a few big players pay for all that order flow from the retail brokers?   Although not individually, the big players know what the segments of the market are buying, and pretty much in real time these days.

They hide their own plays and positions in dark pools.  Nice.

VIX flopped back down into the fog.

Most of us seem to be in a general fog these days. 

Time to wake up.

"The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about." 

 Fulton J. Sheen

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Hiding Out - The Ghosts of a Lawless Past Are Rising From the Grave

 

"Rome has grown so much from its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its greatness."

Titus Livius, Praefatio, Ab Urbe Condita

"Where does the truth lie?   Should one go off and build a little house with flowers outside the windows and a garden outside the door and extol and thank God and turn one’s back on the world and its filth?  Isn’t seclusion a form of treachery, of desertion?  I am weak and small, but I want to do what is right."

Hans Scholl, Letters and Diaries, 1941

"The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, 'Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, and a sword will pierce your own soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Luke 2:33-35

Little Lamb who made thee
      Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
      Little Lamb who made thee
      Dost thou know who made thee

      Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
      Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
      Little Lamb God bless thee.
      Little Lamb God bless thee.

William Blake, Little Lamb, 1789

The Consumer Price Index came in light today, and so equities soared.

The Dollar dumped.

VIX fell.

Gold and silver rallied, but were pressed back during the day, but still finished slightly higher.

The Fed was dampening rate cut hopes in their forecasts.

The extent of the corruption of our politicians by organized money has always been there, but has never been more visible than it is today.  Lawlessness is now becoming more common. 

Reality is whatever we say it is.

Many take this as permission to lie, and start acting badly themselves.  As the license to lose one's way, to wander from the light, hiding out in a self-defining moment, and to react to each phenomena in a disjointed, self-absorbed manner. 

Am I serving a splendid glory, or becoming a creature of unspeakable horror?  It's a matter of taste, the dictum of the moment. Mass murderer or saint?  Whatever self-expression suits the needs of the moment.  

Who can say?  Who will judge, in this time of lawlessness, illusions, and the lies that sustain them.

It's the modern thing to do.  It's...

“a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history.”

T.S. Eliot, Ulysses, Order, and Myth, The Dial, 1923

Play it how you want to play it.  But don't expect me to join in.

The old is passing away— the ghosts of a lawless past are rising from the grave.

I'm not from around here.  I'm just passing through.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In Fulfillment of All That Has Been Written

 

“If we go as far as we can into the darkness, regardless of the consequences, I believe a midnight truth will free us from our bondage to violence and bring us to the light of peace.”

James W. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable

"The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments.  Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.  This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live as he lived."

1 John 2:3-6

"Watch therefore and pray always, that you may escape all these things that will come to pass, and be among those standing with the Son of Man.”

Luke 21:36

"Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly.  But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid.  He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets.  Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness."

Vermont C. Royster, In Hoc Anno Domini, December 24, 1949

“Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen”.

John Milton, Satan Summons His Legions, Paradise Lost

"Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not return to the city. For this is the time of chastisement in fulfilment of all that has been written."

Luke 21:21-22

Stocks rallied hard into the close.

Gold drifted slightly higher, while silver was smacked back down again.

The VIX is off in the weeds.

FOMC tomorrow.

CPI data in the morning.

Whipsaw watch.

Have a pleasant evening.