Stocks and Precious Metal Charts - In Times of Plague - Gold and Silver Bolt Higher

 

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.  

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.   As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles. 

Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.

Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself, without grace." 

Simone Weil 

 

"The dawn will come.  Disappointment, sorrow, and despair are born at midnight, but morning follows.  Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” 

Martin Luther King

 

Gold and silver rocketed higher today breaking out of their short term chart patterns. 

They have a little way to go before knocking it out of the park on the charts. 

But they are much closer today than yesterday. 

Physical in Hong Kong remains in short supply.

One of the components of this precious metals rally was the dump of the Dollar, by almost a buck. 

Stocks were also in rally mode. 

So it wasn't so much a risk on event, as it was a flight from the dollar into different assets, with much less regard for risk. 

I have included an update on the performance of various assets yeart-to-date below.

As Simone Weil notes above,  'As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles.'

People rarely from peacefulness and benevolence to killing in one step. 

The intervening steps are insults, marginalization, dehumanization, unequal treatment, sanctioned injustice, financial predation, and physical abuse. 

And it rarely stops with the initial target group. 

Lets see a return to at least some sort of civility and the rule of law and sound regulation can be advanced.   

Most likely it will be one person at a time.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Calm Descends Over a Churning Sea of Trolls and Purveyors of Clickbait

 

"Do all without constant arguing and complaining, so that you may be blameless and righteous as children of God, unlike those of this contentious and perverse generation, among whom you may shine like lights to the world, as you hold firmly to the word of life." 

Phil 2:14-16 

 

And it is. 

I bought into gold today on the weakness in the early risk on exuberance. 

Let's see how things progress.   

Weigh that which you hear or read, and weigh them carefully, to see if they are born of love and the spirit, or from hate and selfishness.

For this is surely a contentious and perverse generation, and a time of general goofiness.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Let the Games Begin

 

“The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy—then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.” 

Hunter S. Thompson 

 

“A country that tolerates evil means—evil manners, standards of ethics—for a generation, will be so poisoned that it never will have any good end.” 

Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here 

 

"Tell the world that you're going with truth.  You're going with justice, you're going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship.  And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.  But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil." 

Martin Luther King

 

Stocks had a risk on day today, that faded into the close. 

The Dollar was markedly lower. 

Gold and silver were nominally higher. 

VIX dropped. 

Today is the national election day in the US. 

Let's see how things go, and how the markets react tomorrow.

Life is a school of probabilities, and consequences.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Chill Wind Blows

 

"People can become so morally weak that they lose their free will.  We are not dealing with a small matter but a apocalyptic life and death struggle that has already begun.  Yet in the midst of it, there are many, who still go on living their lives as though nothing had changed.  

I am convinced that it is still best that I speak the truth, even though it costs me my life.  If we hope to reach our goal some day, then we, too, must become heroes of the faith.  Discipleship to Christ requires heroism.  May God accept my life in atonement not only for my sins, but for the sins of others as well.”

Franz Jägerstätter, Executed in Brandenburg Prison, August  9, 1943

 

“Although I know well, Margaret, that because of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by God, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness.  His grace had strengthened me until now, and made me content to lose goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience.

And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind me troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world.  Nothing can come but what God wills.  And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be for the best.” 

Thomas More, From the Tower of London to Margaret Roper 

 

"The fact that the foolish person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him.  He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.  Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison  

 

Stocks were showing some volatility again today, and managed to hold on to some gains into the close. 

Gold and silver moved higher. 

The Dollar was largely unchanged. 

Continue to expect volatility driven by the coronavirus and the US national elections. 

It's gotten quite chilly here.  The garden has all been harvested and taken down.  The compost pile is full and cooking away.

I was out cutting up large tree branches earlier that had come down in the storms and winds that blew through here.   Now Dolly and I are snuggled down under a warm blanket.

With the clocks turned back now, it gets dark here around 5 PM or so.

 Have a pleasant evening.