Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Artificial Intelligence - Quadruple Stock Option Expiration Tomorrow

"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation


“There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits [clickbait] and consumption is good for the political establishment.”

Noam Chomsky


“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


“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

As previously noted there will be a significant stock market option expiration tomorrow.

The Dollar rallied, and gold and silver were slugged. I wonder how much of that was due to the punters and assorted small specs crowding into mining company calls, and the quadruple stock expiration tomorrow.

Stocks failed to penetrate overhead resistance and gave some of their recent gains back into the close.

Shenanigans are the custom, in a nation whose primary business is fraud.

Have a pleasant evening.

Thomas Frank: Amerikanische Kultur For Germans

"The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel."

Horace Walpole


"It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, Sc. 1

We in the US must certainly present a puzzle to the German mind.   Although there is a growing body of puzzling evidence in the developed nations of the West. We have cast off the moorings of tradition, and set sail into the vast uncharted but terrifyingly familiar seas once again.

Madness has both a simplicity and an intricacy, interwoven into a fabric that is both opaque and yet revealing.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Plus c'est la Même Chose - Stock Option Expiration on Friday

“It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.”

Nassim Taleb


“Many politicians are tantalizing storytellers, as they mix facts with fiction, grab our emotion and tell things, they want us to believe. Their factoids are unremittingly reiterated, take a life on their own and in the end become the very truth… until the bubble bursts."

Erik Pevernagie


“He is an emancipated thinker, who is not afraid to write foolish things.”

Anton Chekhov

Yes, but what about the emancipated thinker who has emancipated themselves from the facts, and freed their words from the constraints of reality?  Their foolishness should therefore know few bound, and prove to be rather sensational.

There seems to be quite a bit of that going around these days, especially among the elite, and all the best people.   But as Schopenhauer noted, those who write foolishly, presumably for fools, will be assured of a large audience.   And so it pays, and thrives, don't you know?

The US stock bulls were snorting out of their pens this morning, with their noses pointed up towards that stubborn overhead resistance, with a mind towards breaking through and over it.

And for a time today they did.   But alas, their efforts fell a bit short as their enthusiasm subsided into judicious profit taking by the robotic speculators and their manservants on Wall Street.

But tomorrow is another day.   There will be an option expiration on Friday for US stocks that is of some significance.

The Dollar slumped a bit lower still, but gold and silver rallied a bit higher, with gold pushing up against an overheard resistance of its own.

 The US joined the rest of the world in grounding the Boeing 737 Max series. This had a significant impact on Boeing, a few suppliers, and some airlines like SouthWest whose fleets are heavily weighted towards that vehicle.

 The UK Parliament is falling all over itself in dealing with the Brexit situation.  The deadline continues drawing closer.

I watched the movie about the Brexit vote starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and thought it was rather good, although I have no idea how true to history that it was.

The young man is on his way to London now, to spend his Spring break with his lady love who is finishing her studies there.

I asked him to keep me apprised of his impressions of the mood on the ground.  Although as I remember, I was there with the queen when John Major staged his coup against the Lady Thatcher. And one noted it little enough except on the evening television and in the newspaper headlines.

Brexit may prove to become a more comprehensive experience.

And there is little doubt that we here on this side of the pond  are in store for a comprehensive experience or two, consequence-wise, of our own.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Repentance, Forgiveness, Thankfulness

"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
   And delivers them out of their trials.
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
   And saves those who have a repentant spirit."

Psalm 34


"For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you."

Mark 6:15

Stocks attempted to continue their big rally from yesterday, but faded into the close.

Gold and silver got some motion higher as the Dollar continued to slump lower.

British PM Theresa May lost another Brexit deal vote by a wide margin in Parliament.

Stock option expiry for March on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.