Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Madness Serves None But Itself

 

"This is a time of shame and sorrow.  It is not a day for politics.  I have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.   It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown.  They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed.  No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed.  And yet it goes on and on...

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, City Club of Cleveland, 5 April 1968

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.  Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.  Through violence you may murder the liar, but cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.  Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.  In fact, violence merely increases hate.  So it goes.  Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.  Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that."

Martin Luther King, Where Do We Go From Here, 1967

"The shreds of individuality cannot be sewed together with a bayonet; nor can democracy be restored according to the Biblical injunction of an 'eye for an eye' which, in the end, would make everybody blind. Any attempt to introduce democracy or to check totalitarianism must constantly emphasize the rehabilitation of personality.  Freedom and responsibility help.  Rigid authority hinders."

Louis Fischer, Gandhi and Stalin, 1947

"The stoking of fear and hate ends in the blood of innocents, always.   Over time it spares no one.   Have we learned nothing?  Have we sunk so low that we no longer fear the reproach of civilized people, or the judgement even of God?  We seem to have no shame, no sense of history, no compunction about lying and wallowing in lies, and relatively little enough decency left in our public life.  It is all about power and money.   People are just tools, objects, and collateral damage.

When you unleash the madness, the unspeakable, you do not control it— it controls you."

Jesse, Political Power and the Virus of Fear, 10 October 2018

 

Stop killing the innocent.  

And for the great worldly powers, stop using the innocent of other nations to advance your desire for global domination.  No matter how you wish to rationalize and disguise it, even to yourself.

Truly, the madness serves none but itself.

Stocks slumped hard today in the market's bipolar provisions for risk.

Friday is an option expiration.

Gold and silver rallied, sharply in the morning, but giving some back after Europe went to bed.

The Dollar rallied in a related flight to safety.

VIX rose.

Google blogger remains scrambled.

The wash and rinse will likely continue until the war or some other exogenous issues weigh in on traders again.

It struck me today how similar some of the biggest Wall Street players are to the Mafia in their management, rewards, and recruiting styles.   Payoffs of course, but done elegantly.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Non Serviam

 

"I urge you, brothers and sisters, to beware of those who cause arguments and put obstacles in your way with things that are contrary to the teachings you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord, but their own vain appetites and inclinations. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people."

Romans 16:17-18

"God has no pleasure in afflicting us, but He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home."

Andrew Murray

"The more a thing may disappoint them, the more it may be proven false, the more readily it is debunked and shown to be a falsehood, or even evil, the more strongly some will embrace it, as if by sacrificing their own integrity, and perhaps even their souls, for something so unworthy will silence the criticisms and redeem it.  

For to admit that the Reich was a lie, and a mistake, that they were fanatical fools, and Hitler an incompetent creature of evil would be to admit that one was wrong, a failure, and worse, had become an accomplice to an unimaginable evil. And even worse, for these fanatics, it would diminish their pride, which was at the foundation of the most fervent supporters of such flamboyant excess.

That, and a desire to become beasts, to lose themselves in their mindless fanaticism, and escape the pain of being men. And so they struck out, and killed everything that held up a mirror to their darkened souls, and showed them their pride was based on a lie. Pride is the mother of all sin. This is the descent into hell. This is the unwillingness to let go of the lie, for the sake of pride and its power, and cling to evil as it draws one into the abyss."

Jesse, Seth the Arbiter of Chaos, 15 May 2018

"Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’   

The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’ But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:19-31


I am going to keep the comments brief, because Google blogger has decided to go walkabout, and is making it very difficult to update.

Sometimes they make 'improvements' and blow things up.   It is near impossible to let them know, but apparently some have figured it out because it generally gets fixed in a day or so.

Stocks were wobbly today.

Gold and silver showed some resilience.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Plagues of Moral Hazard - Stock Option Expiration

 

“Against such foolishness we are defenseless.   Reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the foolish person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.  In all this the foolish person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.  Never again will we try to persuade the foolish person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1951

“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

"Everyone knows that plagues have a way of recurring throughout history, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in the ones that crash down on us out of the sky.  There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise. When war breaks out people say it's stupid and won't last long.  Stupidity has a knack of getting in the way, which we would see if not wrapped up in ourselves. In this our townsfolk were like everybody else— they did not believe in plagues."

Albert Camus, The Plague

And apparently our Banks and trading firms don't believe in risk anymore, either.

Stocks rallied on the usual nonsense including the worse than expected Empire State report.

The Dollar fell.

The VIX fell.

Gold and silver declined.

Why does the tension on the tape feel like we are setting up for a wash and rinse? 

Oh yeah, this is an option expiration week.

The war in the Mideast is escalating, slowly but surely.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Time to Come Home

 

"Repentance and forgiveness are the two great gifts of God, freely given. But there is the third and greatest gift, which is thankfulness. For with thankfulness our sinful pride is vanquished, our hearts are opened, and love enters. And a light comes into our lives."

Jesse, Love and Thankfulness, 15 November 2018

"We pray for the big things, and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small, and yet really not so small, blessings.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“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

"The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity— greedy, dishonest, adulterous— or even like this tax collector over there."

Luke 18:11

"All sin, indeed, when repented of, He will put away; but pride hardens the heart against repentance, and sensuality debases it to a brutal nature."

John Henry Newman

"Almighty God lets the sinner go his own way, for He has given to man free-will, and does not want a forced obedience, but an obedience springing from love. In his forgetfulness of God, the sinner squanders his fortune, the natural and supernatural gifts which he has received, using his natural gifts, his health, his physical powers, and his reason, to offend God.  The sinner, having forsaken the service of his God, falls under the dominance of Satan, and becomes the slave of his lowest passions, which are signified by the swine which the prodigal was forced to feed.  But the more he obeys his passions, the more dissatisfied he becomes.  No pleasure of the senses can give him happiness, and he feels an emptiness and spiritual hunger in his heart which he is powerless to satisfy.  He knows no rest; he only knows that he is miserable, and hateful to himself."

Friedrich Justus Knecht

"The Lord requires you to act justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8


We are commanded by God to love His creation and our neighbors, both the worthy and the unworthy, in this attractive but deceitful world.

Not for any profit, or admiration, or even gratitude which is often enough lacking in this fallen world, but because it is His will, and we are His— in repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. 

He has chosen us, and called us by name.  Nothing else can claim us. Only we can harden our hearts and choose to say no.

And in the end, that is the only real tragedy.

It's time to leave the world of empty illusions, and cast your pride aside.

Time to come home. 

The highly optimistic rally of the week ended with profit-taking today.

What a surprise.

Stocks were lower.

VIX rose sharply as traders rediscovered the concept of risk.

Gold and silver rallied sharply as the very heavy-handed price suppression of the week of the Non-farm Payrolls report has helped to fuel a strong rebound.

Wash - rinse - repeat.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East may weigh heavily on markets as they re-open on Monday.

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

Have a pleasant weekend.