Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Now They Know How Many Holes It Takes To Fill Jackson Hole

"The fragile wants tranquility, the antifragile grows from disorder, and the robust doesn't care too much."

Nassim Taleb


“The tyrant is a child of Pride
Who drinks from his sickening cup of
Recklessness and vanity,
Until headlong from his high crest
He plummets into the dustbin of hope.”

Sophocles, Oedipus Rex

It was a risk off day, as the markets succumbed to a triple dose of Powell, Xi, and finally the coup de Trump.

There may be a raucous time at the G7 meeting in France starting tomorrow.

The joint communique could be interesting, if they manage to put one out.

The short term trading environment looks to remain rather frisky for the foreseeable future.

Precious Metals option expiration next week.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Waiting for Godot In Jackson Hole

“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.”

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot


"The beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God.   He was given the authority to do what he willed, but only for forty-two months."

Revelation 13:5


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

C. S. Lewis

The markets are waiting to see what Jay Powell is going to be saying at Jackson Hole.

And of course they are holding their collective breath, waiting for the latest tweets and policy stunners from The Chosen One, and self-proclaimed Second Coming of God.

From now on you cannot say that you did not know. 

We're taking a drive this evening to Cliff's Homemade Ice Cream.

So many flavors, so little time.

The markets will always be there.  Our friends and family may not.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Ups and Downs

"The missing step in the standard Keynesian theory [is] the explicit consideration of capitalist finance within a cyclical and speculative context.  As recovery approaches full employment...soothsayers will proclaim that the business cycle has been banished [and] debts can be taken on.  But in truth neither the boom, nor the debt deflation...and certainly not a recovery can go on forever.  Each state nurtures forces that lead to its own destruction."

Hyman Minsky


"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

Today was a road trip day. Bakery store, specialty shops, and a large Japanese supermarket on the Hudson (Mitsuwa).

I did not even know that the NJ crumb bun was a thing.

It's good to be home.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk Off - Jackson Hole on Deck

Mammon, child of Pride

“We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.

If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.”

William Law


"Day by day the money-masters of America become more aware of their danger, they draw together, they grow more class-conscious, more aggressive. The [first world] war has taught them the possibilities of propaganda; it has accustomed them to the idea of enormous campaigns which sway the minds of millions and make them pliable to any purpose.

American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people's will and protecting the people's interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy.  By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery."

Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check


"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction."

Erich Fromm

Greed does not need— it wants.  It is a sickness that consumes, and craves more.  Until it consumes itself.

Visiting in-laws, extended family, and the newborn from the youngest goddaughter makes his debut.

It was a very good day.

Have a pleasant evening.