Gold Daily And Silver Weekly Charts

There is quite a bit of volatility in the precious metals as they sit at this important resistance level ahead of what could be an important active month of December.

There was little delivery report activity, and the usual dribbles of bullion out of the Comex warehouses as noted below.

There is intraday commentary related to gold and silver and you may scroll down to read it.

I am leaving a bit early today to keep an appointment.  

I will catch up on any late news or market changes tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Saving Private Equity

There was an astonishingly high Philly Fed number this morning.

It certainly helped to bring stocks out of their early slump.

I suspect that there was some misapplied seasonality in there somewhere, since the unemployment number and the rest of the bigger picture certainly does not support it.

I decided to say positive things to day or say nothing at all, so I will leave it at that.  Except that I reiterate my long standing belief that this experience of serial bubbles and widespread financial fraud will lead to new thinking in economics, and a change in the current financial system and Federal Reserve structure.

I can only hope that it will be for the better, and they will not have to knock more than two zeroes off the Dollar when they finally reform the system.

Have a pleasant evening.

Roger Babson's Ten Commandments For Investing

Some friends and I were discussing Roger Babson earlier today.  Several of us have a feeling that the markets may be approaching a critical juncture, and we were wondering how that might express itself, given today's Fed and government activism as opposed to the more ad hoc to stabilizing markets in Babson's day.

As you may recall he was an MIT trained engineer who became a famous stock market analyst and financial theorist. I have acknowledged in the past that my own particular style of charting was in part inspired by his approaches to force and resistance. He never really codified his techniques, so they are not all that well understood. But he used them to some great personal advantage.

I see in reviewing some of these fossilized chart remains that I used to put a great deal more energy into them when I was more actively trading.  On my old site I used to update charts several times per day and look at ten minute intervals, which may be appropriate to futures trading in size.

As a point of interest Babson helped in the creation of a 'business engineering' course at MIT, a first for an American University. Babson founded Babson College among other things.  I have written about Babson several times when discussing the events of 1929, but also about 'The Boulders of Dogtown' which are typical of the man.

But Babson is most well known for his prediction on 5 September 1929, "sooner or later, a crash is coming, and it may be terrific."

Roger Babson had ten commandments he followed in investing and encouraged his readers to do the same.  I was reminded of them when I looked up the exact date of his crash forecast that triggered 'the Babson Break.'

It pleased me that I had arrived at several of those commandments through personal experience but that lesson always involved the loss of capital, alas.  One hears these things, and they are sayings.  And then you encounter them in practice, and you learn them.  And so it is with most sound principles and advice.  And quite often whole peoples must relearn the principles of the past.

They are all valuable, but I have placed asterisks behind those that have served me most well, and some which bear the most vivid memories. lol

One thing Babson does not overtly mention is to follow the money, and understand who stands to gain what from any deal or transaction, but I think it is implied.  I would also urge one to never confuse reliable performance with luck, unless you aspire to be soundly lashed by the tails of probability.

One thing that did strike me oddly in reviewing this is to ask, 'is anyone except for a few old codgers like me investing anymore?'  It almost seems archaic to say, when everything is just a bet and most everyone is just a player.  It must have seemed that way to Babson as well, in the Autumn of 1929.

These were:

• 1. Keep speculation and investments separate. **
• 2. Don't be fooled by a name. **
• 3. Be wary of new promotions.
• 4. Give due consideration to your market ability.
• 5. Don't buy without proper facts. **
• 6. Safeguard purchases through diversification. **
• 7. Don't try to diversify by buying different securities of the same company.
• 8. Small companies should be carefully scrutinized. ***
• 9. Buy adequate security, not super abundance.
• 10. Choose your dealer and buy outright (i.e., don't buy on margin.) **

Sarah Lacy and the Darker Side of Über Corporatism

This is a stunning video, with some serious implications. I urge you to watch it. It involves abusing corporate power to smear and intimidate critics.

It was a bit humorous to watch the talking heads discomfort with some of the implications and statements.  The West coast anchors tend to be more business focused and laid back than their New York based cousins who are more deeply into the Wall Street culture.

I am not familiar with Sarah Lacy's work as a journalist and editor, but as a debater she is on point and brilliant.

I am not completely unfamiliar with the attempted use of power to suppress people's views. Outside of professional circles it is petulant and childish, given to snarky emails, snide backstabbing, and cliquish exclusion. You know, the kinds of things one often finds within University departments, corporate bureaucracies, and the blogosphere. lol.

But too often where serious power and money is involved it is real, it is a threat, and it cannot be tolerated if there is to be any aspiration to a free and open society. And we are fools if we allow such power to grow and its abuse to be tolerated, for the misguided fears for our security, much less some short term easy money.