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Greece, Debt and YOU
You may or may not know Greece is having a problem with its financial debt. (NYT article) This small country, thousands of miles away is the tip of the iceberg of unsolved problems that directly relate to YOUR financial well being. Let’s put this in Bullet points
- A major reason Greece is in such trouble is because, like AIG and so many homeowner mortgages, Credit Default Swaps were placed on their debt. They still are being place on them today by shadow banks and hedge funds (Aside – hedge funds – are the equivalent of “economic hit men” and are perhaps even worse than shadow banks – more later) So there are a whole crew of hit men or CDS traders who will make money or are investing to see Greece fail and default on their debt.
- If Greece goes down, a lot of other European countries, who are in an almost similar situation, could follow. The list includes Ireland, Portugal, Spain, England and former Russian satellite countries. “Economic hit men” (Harvard/Oxford prof Niall Fergeson’s term for hedge funds) are the vultures circling here waiting to make money off the kill.
- California, Michigan Rhode Island and many US states are likewise in the same boat. Without the Stimulus package they could have gone under already.
- So is the USA – Except we have printed, & borrowed over S10 trillion to temporarily fix our problems.
This recovery, so far, is based on smoke and mirrors – Not transparency and rules that keep economic hit men like the traders at from AIG, or hedge funds from bringing the financial world to its knees.
Investing bottom Line - For years it was easy to recognize that globalization economically favored both emerging market growth and the privileged/wealthy class in the USA. Investors411 was very successful and careful in choosing investments outside the USA. That potential still exists. However, an unregulated shadow financial system full of roving economic hit men exits. So, we have to move more cautiously, because the chances of economic bubbles growing and bursting is still INCREASING.
Therefore, using technical shorter term oscillators like the McClellan makes more sense right now. It, no longer your parents buy and hold forever market.
Coming next – Economic Hit Men – Hedge Funds
Bloom Box (con’t)
About the most discouraging news, when you separate the hype is that the Bloom Box has not yet been built as an “in home power plant.” The technology may not be revolutionary, but who cares as long as it works and can be put into production sooner rather than later.
KISS & Stocks (Keep It Simple Stupid)
If you don’t understand a term look in up at Investopedia.com dictionary
AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!
| Index | Percentage | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Dow | -0.51% | up |
| NASDQ | -0.08% | up |
| S&P 500 | -0,21% | up |
| Russell 2000- | +0.00% | - |
Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500 and almost all major US indexes
Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis
See Positions , Strategy , and Overview for changes made over weekend.
The day started out as a disaster for US equities and recovered a lot of those losses. Even though we closed down in higher volume bulls had something to be happy about because of the recovery. It seems like this market is looking for an excuse to rally. It’s fundamentally hard to understand why, but some pretty bad news recently including weekly jobless data, Greece (see above) increased housing problems, & double dip inflation fears yesterday, doesn’t seem to be able to sink stocks. Markets holding their own or have slight losses on bad news is a bullish sign.
Therefore, best read of the tea leaves is that we will hit +60 on the McClellan before we hit 0.
Significant Indexes
- McClellan Index fell to +28.62 We are somewhat oversold, but have a ways to go to +60 Oversold territory.
In answer to an email question – how did I come to determine +/- 60 as overbought or oversold? The McClellan Oscillator on the NYSE is one of dozens of indicators that show the market oversold or overbought. I like it because it is relatively simple. Most stocks follow the trend of the entire markets. (say @ 80+%). This is especially true for, the ETF’s which are market baskets of stocks.
Click on the chart of he index above and adjust it to 2 or 3 years. Note every time chart went over +/- 60. What I did then was also put up a chart of S&P 500 adjusted to the same time and compared the two. It’s not a perfect correlation, but if you go long (buy) when the McClellan dips to -60 or below you or sell (or go short) when it reaches +60 you would have done better. There are some weaknesses in just using the +/- 60 system that I’ll go over at a later date.
Positions
The Positions Section = latest buys and sells – (Revised positions last weekend) – These are positions I actually own
Will be lightening up when/if positions reach oversold 0n McClellan Oscillator.
As stated on Tuesday –
I’ve also set what’s called a stop/sell orders on at @ 2% above what it was bought for
- recently bought (added to) EWZ
- 1/2 of MOO, a longer term position.
- The remainder of THY
Came very close yesterday to reaching stop/sell or selling TYH. This AM I raised stop/sell order to about 3% above what they were bought at. Will also, preferably, sell these positions if/when stocks are overbought.
IMAX – doing fine – really hope this will be a long term hold – and there will be other dips to buy into on the way up.
Other stocks on YOUR watch list – the earliest I would nibble is when the McClellan Index falls below 0 (zero)
Not adding to any major positions until markets become oversold again.
Long Term Outlook = NEUTRAL
AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING
