Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Mini-Me - Fed Reform and Quad Witch Option Expiration

 

"A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. it sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it?  And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked up on a word and made a mountain out of a pea--he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure.” 

Fyodor Dostoevsky 

 

“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” 

Garry Kasparov 

 

"Unhappiness comes to each of us because we think ourselves at the center of the world, because we have the miserable conviction the we alone suffer to the point of unbearable intensity."

Jacques Lusseyran

 

“The official philosophies of the totalitarian regimes unanimously brand as nonsensical the idea that there exists a single objective truth valid for everybody. The official philosophies of the totalitarian regimes deny the inherent value of thought.  For them thought is not a light but a weapon: its function, they say, is not to discover reality as it is, but to change and transform it with the purpose of leading us towards what is not.”

Alexandre Koyré 

 

Stocks took a fairly convincing swoon this morning, falling straight down to underlying support.

But mirabile dictu, equities regained most of their losses in the late afternoon and finished with a small loss.

The Dollar rallied up to just short of the 93 handle.

Gold and silver were whacked pretty convincingly along with most of the associated miners.

I was sitting all in cash, in part because I didn't like the feel of the market.  And I still don't.

I did buy a couple of small mining positions in the metals today, on the of chance this is just quad witch shenanigans and not the beginning of something more profoud.

Nice save on the stock indices into the close.  That made me doubt the sincerity of this market.

But you never know.

There will be a quad witch stock option expiration on Friday, the third of this year.

The banks must be restrained, the financial system reformed, and the economy brought back into balance, before there can be any sustained recovery. 

Given the extent of the corruption of the major monopolized industries and the political system by big money I am not optimistic about when meaningful reform will happen. 

Certainly not with the 'self-review' of the Fed's ethics that Chairman Powell has just proposed. 

The best way to manage a scandal in your own house is to lead the investigation of it.

But as Hermann Hesse once wrote, 'When the suffering becomes acute enough, one goes forward.'

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Wash - Rinse - Repeat: The Wealth Transfer Machine

 

"The news reports of the stock trading by Fed Presidents rightfully caused outrage over the 'let them eat cake' attitude as thousands of businesses shut down, millions of workers lost their jobs and families struggled to pay their bills. By Thursday of last week, both Kaplan and Rosengren said they would sell all of their individual stock positions by the end of September. (File that under too little, too late.)

This level of arrogance on the part of two Fed Presidents is part of an overarching level of contempt for the sensibilities of the American people by the Federal Reserve over many decades." 

Pam and Russ Martens, Latest Fed Stock Trading Outrage Just the Tip of the Iceberg

 

"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons." 

Harvey Cox, The Market as God 

 

"Poor people don't contribute to reelection funds, but those who profit from poor people sure do. Therefore, truth be told, most politicians couldn't care less about the plight of the poor. There's so much profit to be made from poor people - think payday loans, high-interest rent-to-own stores, for-profit colleges, and overpriced mobile homes - that politicians and their crony-capitalist donors have a vested interest in keeping them poor."

Joshua Wilkey, My Mother Wasn't White Trash

Stocks reversed their early losses and rallied 'solidly' into the afternoon and the close.

The spokesmodels for Wall Street were ebullient.

Gold and silver declined.

The Dollar was a bit lower.

The VIX declined.

There will be a quad option expiration on Friday.

Wash - rinse - repeat.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Storm Warnings - Quad Witch Stock Option Expiration on Friday

 

“They support freedom for themselves and slavery for everyone else, and they use the freedom of the market to disguise this.  Economic coercion is just a different form of force.”

Robert Peate 

 

“As long as there are crazed or crafty leaders to play on old fears, a mob will turn cruel.” 

Leigh Brackett 

 

“Instead of flooding the entire economy with liquidity, and thereby increasing the danger of inflation, the Fed could support the stock market directly by buying market averages in the futures market, thereby stabilizing the market as a whole.” 

 Robert Heller, Federal Reserve Board, 1989

 

“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages.  They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.” 

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite

Stocks were off again today.

The big cap techs in the NDX futures have now been lower for five straight days.

Gold and silver both rallied back a bit, but still lower after the recent bear raids.

The Dollar finished largely unchanged.

There will be a quad witch option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Slowly We Turn

 

"They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have little self-control.   They will be harsh and hate what is good.  They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love their own pleasures more than God.   They may act religious, but they will reject the grace that could make them righteous." 

2 Timothy 3:2-5

 

 “Above all, don't lie to yourself.  The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.” 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then I will say, ‘I never knew you.  Begone, you who serve lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23

 

Another ranging day in the markets. 

This is a sign that the markets are nearing a trend turn, probably linked to a taper in the abundcane of cash and liquid assets being delivered by the Fed to the Banks.

Gold was up a bit, silver was almost unchanged, after another test of lower support.

There will be more inflation data this week, with an eye to the next FOMC meeting.

There will be a quad witching option expiration on Friday.

Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap. 

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.