Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Bonfires and Vanities - FOMC Tomorrow

“An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was not a little proud of it. 'But the facts, my dear fellow,' said his friend, 'the facts do not agree with your theory.'

'Don't they?' replied the philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, 'then, tant pis pour les faits' — so much the worse for the facts!”

Charles Mackay


"Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they."

Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam


“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves.  But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune."

Carl Jung


"He prompts you what to say, and then listens to you, and praises you, and encourages you.  He bids you mount aloft.  He shows you how to become as gods.  Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his."

John Henry Newman

Never short a stock or stock index just because it has moved higher.

FOMC tomorrow.

Quad witch option expiration on Friday.

Keep your eyes open. Things are progressing faster than one might have expected.

 

We are well into the hysteria.  And now and then, with a touch of defiant madness, anger, and pride.

Perhaps now is the time to take some profits as one may have them in equities, and redeploy them in safe havens, including cash.

The bubble is frothing.

And so is Trumpolini. 

Neither is likely to end well.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Trickle Down Pipes Are Clogged with Bubbles and Corruption

"Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods.  They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits.  They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations


“Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it.  We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us."

Wendell Berry


“Trickle-down theory - the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”

John Kenneth Galbraith


"Fascism is capitalism plus murder."

Upton Sinclair

Stocks managed to bounce today, although they lacked the conviction to go out near the highs.

The Dollar fell, the VIX was lower.

But gold and silver were rallying. But they have yet to break out of their current consolidation patterns.

The big tickle this week is the quad witch option expiration on Friday.

Quadruple witching refers to the third Friday of every March, June, September and December. On these days, market index futures, market index options, stock options and stock futures expire, usually resulting in increased volatility.

But we may see some pre-shenanigan shenanigans on Wednesday with the FOMC announcement.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Concentrated Risk, Force and Fraud

“The real conflict is the inner conflict.  Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love.  And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”

Maximilian Kolbe


"This is the way in which he conceals from you the kind of work to which he is putting you;  he induces you to imitate him; or he promises you illumination.  He scoffs at times gone by; he scoffs at every institution which reveres them.

He prompts you what to say, and then listens to you, and praises you, and encourages you. He bids you mount aloft. He shows you how to become as gods. Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his."

John Henry Newman


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

Fulton J. Sheen


"And yet the ever-blessed Spirit of God is there, ten times more glorious, more powerful than when He trod the earth in our flesh."

John Henry Newman

Stocks failed to rally again today, as the dip buyers gave way to more selling.

The wiseguys managed to get the SP futures back to nearly unchanged.

But for the big cap Techs of the NDX 100, not so much.

Gold and silver were both off a bit as well, but then came back slowly into the close.

The VIX was off a bit.

Next week there is the double whammy of an FOMC meeting and a stock option expiration.

I am sitting largely in short term cash now, waiting to see which way these 'markets' break.

 

A single event, even one of seemingly moderate consequence, could melt these markets down.   That is how bubbles end.

The fotunate few are flooded with money, but the trickle-down pipes are clogged, with bubbles and soft-corruption.

This is a period of high deception.  Be careful of that to which you give your hearts.

It bears an uncanny resemblance to the dot.com and housing bubbles. They both turned into occasions for force and fraud.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Silver Still Well In the Lead, With Gold and the Nasdaq 100 in Second, SP500 Lagging Near Even

You probably would not know this if you just listened to the reporting on financial television.