09 November 2016

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Pop Go the Weasels


The swing in the stock futures markets from last night to the close today was huge, almost unprecedented in recent memory.

I suspect that stocks have marked their range in this, and after the giddy euphoria of the short squeeze and confidence building exercise has worn off we might see them start to discount the risks a little more astutely.

But that is an observation for another, future day.

Have a pleasant evening.


Credibility Trap: Deny and Defy


In the overnight action, prices have marked out where they will be going.

As for today, those powerful few who use public and private resources to twiddle the markets in the short term, and quite a few other data metrics as well, are giving their brethren who were caught offsides by last night's election a chance to square up and get ready.  That's what they do.

They bought the SP 500 futures for stocks, and sold paper gold and silver for the metals.

And they wished to send all the rest of us a message—  vote all you like, but we are still in control.

Being an insider means never having to say you are sorry, or mistaken.   You do not have to, being a true ubermensch and a member of the right sort, from the right schools and with the right connections in the masterful power elite.

You cannot be wrong, ipso facto, because you rule by virtue a claim to a natural worthiness and superiority.  To admit error is to deny yourself as you wish others to perceive you to be.  And you become ever more deeply mired in frauds of every kind.

That is the credibility trap.

However, let us not mistake this bravado from the Wall Street globalisation project and the system of calculated inequality for what it really is.

They were wrong on the election,  they are wrong on money, and they have been wrong on the economy for far too long.

They have been  compounding their errors as they go, almost compulsively down a selfishly dangerous path, because it benefits them and their patrons financially, and they do not know what else to do without admitting that they were wrong.

We have seen worse, even in my short lifetime, and certainly in that of our parents and grandparents.

This is the point where you find your 'inner man,' to borrow a time worn phrase, and carry on because it is your obligation and your calling to do so.

And for those with a comedic or cynical bent, the next four years will most likely be a treasure trove of material on the borders of absurdity.

That is my take on this.  And being just a man, with all that implies, I could be wrong.



And It Is— Shazam!


"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

W. B. Yeats


"For they sow the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind."

Hosea 8:7

Hillary has conceded by phone, and The Donald has accepted.

Let the recriminations from the political establishment begin.

Blame Bernie, blame Assange, blame the Russians, blame the electorate, blame everyone except for themselves, because they can do no wrong. It is what entitles them to rule.

That is the credibility trap.







08 November 2016

NY Times Forecasts a 80% 93% Chance of Trump Win - Son of Brexit?


"People are upset.  They're angry at the system and they see Trump — not so much that they agree with him — but they see him as the human Molotov cocktail that they get to toss into the system like Brexit and blow it up, to send a message."

Michael Moore


"When Democrats sold out their own rank and file in the past it constituted betrayal, but at least it sometimes got them elected. Specifically, the strategy succeeded back in the 1990s when Republicans were market purists and working people truly had 'nowhere else to go'.    As our modern Clintonists of 2016 move instinctively to dismiss the concerns of working people, however, they should keep this in mind: those people may have finally found somewhere else to go."

Thomas Frank, Hillary Clinton Needs to Wake Up, 28 July 2016


"We've seen the hubris. And now we're seeing the scandals."

David Gergen

This forecast from the NY Times is just one group's reading of the situation, and it is far too early to call the race, as America's own 'Brexit Moment', but the showing by Trump has to be casting a chill on the American political establishment.

And perhaps some doubt on the polling that has been appearing throughout this political season.

There are a few remaining states that will be absolutely pivotal to the forecasters, especially Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

If Wisconsin goes Republican for president, it will be for the first time in 32 years.

So let's see what happens.  It still is too early to call.

If you want a laugh, tune in to MSNBC or CNN and listen to the shock and dismay amongst the commentators.

The credibility trap is on full display.  Those who have been living in the echo chamber of the insular establishment seem to be getting a very cold slap in the face from reality.

I wonder if the Democratic insiders are capable of learning something from this one, especially with regard to the 'they have nowhere else to go' attitude towards their traditional base, before they threw them overboard from the free trade express, and adopted the 'one dollar, one vote' philosophy.

Or will it just be 'blame Wikileaks, blame the Russians, blame Bernie Sanders, and excoriate the voting public for their ignorance in failing to recognize our natural right to rule.'

As they have said several times tonight, 'The smart people were wrong again.'   As opposed to the dopes who make up the rest of the country and need their guidance.

It is wonderful to see how the very serious people can look at this farce of a recovery, and still not get it.   They are like British aristocrats stomping around their far flung colonies in days gone by saying, 'Why are the natives so angry?  What do they want?  What would they do without us?'

The Dow futures are down roughly 700 points.

Gold has rocketed higher to $1323, and silver is bumping its head against $19.

So let's see what happens.

Link to live NY Times forecast page here.






Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Twilight of the Gods


"Now the serpent was more subtle and cunning than any beast which the Lord had made.   And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed commanded, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat the fruits of any other of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest it may cause you to lose your life.’”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die if you take it and eat it.  For God himself knows that on the day that you grasp it and eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you yourselves will be like gods, knowing the depths of both good and evil.”

Genesis 3:1-4


"For some time now, our whole European culture has been moving with a tortured tension that is growing from decade to decade, as toward a catastrophe: restlessly, violently, headlong, like a river that wants to reach the end, that no longer thinks, that is afraid to think.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, 1901





SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts


Markets paused today.

Have a pleasant evening.