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.