Popping Bubbles

Bubble Myths – Economics

Nations with More Deregulation Grow Faster

FALSE

The rhetoric – Campaign mantra of the right wing  is to cut regulations and the economy will grow and jobs will be created.

Let’s Pop This Bubble

Stephen Gandel from this week‘s Time magazine (sorry no link to the charts in Time) has an excellent short editorial on this. Using IMF & OEDC data he shows.

• The USA is one of the most business friendly countries (lack of regulations, taxes, time to start a business…) In fact we are rated #4 of 183 countries.

• USA GDP has grown +15% over the last 5 years (ending in 2010 & compounded)

• China is one of the least business friendly countries  - biggest bureaucracy in the world – it takes 311 days longer to build a warehouse there than the rest of the world and the communist party has its hand in every transaction.

• Companies spend 2600 hours a year complying with Brazil’s tax code. Another least friendly business country.

• China’s compounded growth rate for the last 5 years is 160%, Brazil’s 135%

• The list goes on and on -Least business friendly countries – Russia,Indonesia, India, Brazil, Argentina etc all have significantly higher growth rates than business friendly countries like the – USA, UK, South Korea, Canada, Germany.

Deregulation has, at best, a miniscule positive impact on Jobs and Economic growth. Just compare China and Brazil to the USA.

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PhotoEssay from We are the 99%

LINK

He’s not Alone – From CNBC

50% of all US Mortgages Effectively Underwater.

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STOCKS

The Super Computer from Space Odyssey

or

An HFT Super Computer

“What’s behind That Wild Final Hour of Trading” The answer from CNNMoney’s Maureen Farrell is “rebalancing of leveraged ETF’s” Something Paul has warned us about. Let’s expand on this to understand the full dynamics of what’s happening.

• US markets open in big volume, (first 1/2 hr.) focused on events that happened since the close. Currently the Euro Zone is creating the most significant events.

• Trading, volume, in general, dries up during the day

• A little after 1:00PM EST many stock traders (based in NYC) come back from lunch and an afternoon trend starts to establish itself.

• This is when the algorithms of the High Frequency Traders Stars to kick in.

• All the managers of the leveraged ETF’s see they are out of balance.  So do the super computers of the HFT’s. The race is on and the volume explodes sending stocks on meltups or meltdowns.

The Below chart is from Dave Fry’s ETF’s Digest

Yesterday’s Market

He gives more credit to HFT’s reacting to news (Italy) and I give more credit to imbalances. Whose right? You’d have to know all the different algo’s HFT’s use.  Fry also has an HFT Alert

Our #1 technical forecasting tool, the McCellan Oscillator fell to +38.61. 50DMA at +24.61. = NEUTRAL

Some sort of bad news from Europe this AM.

• Expiration – end of 11/11 or 11/19

• This is an event driven trade based on GMCR’s earnings report today.

• If GMCR moves big time in one direction we (I’m in on this trade too) win. Example PCLN close +8.61% higher after its report yesterday.

• Reasoning – There a huge battle between investors on the direction this stock will take. The earnings report (this evening) will give an indication what will happen. The wrong side will be forced to sell or buy to cover potential losses. So it should have a big move. If not we lose.

19 months ago in his 2010 State of the Union Barak Obama made perhaps his biggest mistake.

He did not focus on  the clear and present danger of jobs growth (which would have lowered the deficit) instead he focused on deficit recuction through cutting programs and raising taxes.

Perhaps he thought the other side would compromise in good faith. Perhaps, as some believe, he’s just a tool for the corporate oligarchy and in the end would make sure the folks who finance elections would get what they want.

On the battlefield General Petraeus in Iraq compromised with the terrorist who had fought Americans and brought them over to the other side = a compromise. But is the USA compromise to conservatives is an abortion – Tea Party Patriots – Don’t compromise.

Thanks to Jim J (for finding) and Erin Clouse (editor of the Brookline TAB for posting) this editorial from which the following points are drawn. The Tea Party and all the Republican candidates have take taken oaths NOT to compromise. The Tea Party -

• - It badmouthed the economy and the government at every opportunity, undermining the confidence of consumers, businesses and investors both here and abroad. And yes, the confidence of credit rating agencies.

• - When President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner got close to making a deal for $4 trillion over 10 years, the tea party caucus yanked Boehner’s chain, and he pulled out of the talks. The grand bargain was dead.

• - Tea partiers spread the myth that a default wouldn’t be so bad, further feeding the perception that a powerful political bloc couldn’t be trusted to be responsible with the nation’s finances.

• - The tea party drove the debate — its leaders say so with pride and most pundits agree — to an unsatisfactory and unpopular conclusion: the debt ceiling reluctantly lifted, a last-minute deal nobody likes, a scant $1 trillion in deficit reduction, no reforms to taxes or entitlements, a disgraced and dysfunctional Congress, and a December date for another battle over the same turf.

As most of you realize, progressive are almost always willing to compromise – to look for a win win situation, but a conservative shoots first and asks questions later. Their world is black and white, heaven and hell, you’re either with us or against us and best your either a patriot or the enemy.

Click on picture below for enlargement  of latest (no compromise) brown shirted Republican to enter race

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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!

DOUBLE CHECK ALL DATA, I MAKE MORE THAN GRAMMAR MISTAKES

Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	+1.13%	down
NASDQ	+0.61%	down
S&P 500	+0.53%	down
Russell 2000	+0.23%	-

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Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Shorter Term Outlook.

day/days/week

Gert Frobe from James Bond movie Goldfinger

Over the last two weeks almost every serious investor learned about gold or GLD. Two of the three legged stool that hold up the world economy wobbled over the last two weeks and investors rushed in fear to the shiny sparkle of gold.

The Three Legs

• USA – Total incompetence in congress. The far rights  strident refusal to compromise has set off warning bells from the stock market to Standard and Poors. Every European solution has included a tax cut on the wealthy, but NOT the USA which is dominated by Tea party Ideologues. Consumer confidence in the USA is near an all time low while retail sales is still blissfully chugging along. See chart below show a massive disconnect.

• Never forger our mantra – High Frequency Traders Rule US Equities – These entities make their decision in microseconds and not on long term trends.

• The McClellan Oscillator (MO) fell to-8.20 (-30 somewhat oversold, -60 oversold, -90 OMG oversold). Chart shows we are almost dead center in the middle of oversold and overbought territory. There’s wiggle room for stocks to move either way = Neutral

• Reading The Tea Leaves - Stocks are moving on headlines and that move is exaggerated by all the HFT trading.

From Friday’s Bottom Line - Technically because of the retest of the low and strong momentum higher HFT’s will take markets higher.  Headlines still rule and HFT traders can react instantly and with great volume to headlines.

Investors411 has been on a hot streak with daily calls and let’s see if we can make it 4 in a row  - Momentum carries markets higher today. It’s been relatively easy to get out of massively oversold territory, as we get more and more overbought the going for the HFT’s will get tougher and tougher.

Longer Term Outlook

weeks, month, months

• Repeat - May 20th forecast still stands. The recent Washington debt crisis debacle has focused everyone on cutting the money supply.  Simple math – The less money that’s out there = less jobs = greater chance the “Great Recession” returns. European debt and emerging market’s inflation fears add to this. As predicted the 15+ % drop has come to pass this summer Best read of tea leaves is a 1 in 3 chance for a bear market (20% drop from highs)

• Long Term Outlook Listed Below. Major long term trend (monthly) lines that have been broken. LINK. However, we are close to climbing back to NEUTRAL (see 50 day moving average on monthly chart), The Fed has promised long term low long term interest fates till 2013, and that’s significant for US economy. If the Fed does some type of QE #3 – this could also get us back to CAUTIOUSLY BULLISH LINK

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Look for Paul’s Corner every Tuesday and Thursday

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Current Positions

Below – Investors411  hypothetical portfolio that should outperform the S&P 500.

YOUR Stock List #5 is done and except for some last minute tweaking and waiting for an earnings report. It will be published on Thursday in Paul’s Corner.

NB – With the exception of NLY & GLD (both profitable and remember NLY’s 3 to 4% dividend) Investors411 held no long positions for most of the summer and especially August.

NLY - Annaly Capital Mgt. Ultra high dividend stock – It’s been shaky, but so far NLY has held up reasonably well through current stock market slide. NLY is the only position in Investors411 hypothetical portfolio

I still have a Put position to protect NLY. (strike price $17.00 for 3rd Friday in Sept) Also puts on other dividend stocks.

GLD – (Long Gold ETF) Obviously a MAJOR mistake to sell and take meager +3% profits. Like a millions of other people who see worldwide economic problems ahead – waiting to buy another diptobuy. Also sure looks like GLD had its climax run and could be settling. We’ve had a two day dip and will buy if day 3 of a dip occurs.

Disclaimer - Personally I own  a group of dividend stocks including NLY, SNH, KMP, MO, HTD, T, ABV & AGNC and a few other smaller positions I have puts on most of dividend stocks I own. I buy everything in the hypothetical Investors411 portfolio. I also own some (about 80% of thisposition has been sold) SDS & TZA (ETF’s that double and triple short the market) as hedges.

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Long Term Outlook (for US Economy)

BEARISH

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Long Term Outlook (for US stocks)

CAUTIOUSLY BEARISH*

*Investors411 has 5 different long term valuations - BULLISH, CAUTIOUSLY BULLISH, NEUTRAL, CAUTIOUSLY BEARISH, and BEARISH.

* Everything written in BROWN is a repeat from a previous day

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

ALL TRADING INVOLVES RISK AND POTENTIAL LOSS OF PRINCIPLE

Happy New Year

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The Monster in the Room

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Investors411 believes in Transparency.

If there’s a monster in the room I want YOU to know about it. Governments, Big Business,the ruling Plutocracy, & others try to hide their actions supposedly in your interests. That, of course, is crap. They all want more power/money, usually at the expense of democracy and and your wallets.

So lets continue the Predictions for 2011 by looking at the three major economic blocks and some monsters

• European Union - They bought into the American over leverage crony capitalism and got smacked.  Germany is the gem with an unemployment rate of 7.5%, an exporting based economy, universal health care, and a GDP  better than ours. Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy are the weak links (monsters) in the European Union.  Predictions – Either they all become more like the Germans or some of these countries will leave the European Union. That means huge belt tightening in the weak links – Lots of bumps in the road in 2011 as the debt problems of weaker countries are worked out.
• Emerging Markets – For the most part they did NOT buy into our crony capitlalism. They’re also reaping the benefits of the mega trend of globalization –  booming job growth & GDP’s. The monster here is the problem of heating up too fast and growing too rapidly. There is also corruption and in some cases governments that are far less democratic.  Predictions – The bigger countries know how to play economic hardball. Their GDP is over 3 times ours. Those countries with an abundance of  limited natural resources will do better economically than others.
• USA - Our over leveraged, opaque, crony capitalism created the world wide “Great Recession.” In the early 2000′s we went to war, cut taxes and exploded our debt. We dug a hole. Our unemployment rate is 9.8%. Globalization & politics have created a systemic problem of jobs being outsourced and now consumers abroad are becoming more & more  important to American companies growth. We have tried to fix the problem with stimulus, quantitative easing, and bailouts OUR monster is in the fact that we run an opaque capitalism. Our real GDP is in shambles if you eliminate stimulus, quantitative easing and other factors. Predictions - It looks like we can keep blowing smoke (opaque capitalism) through at least the first 1/2 of 2011.

MIT’s Simon Johnson sums up the situation and future as follows -

“Our leading bankers looted the state, plunged the world into deep recession, and cost us 8 million jobs.  And now many of them stand by with sharpened knives and enhanced bonuses – also most willing to suggest how the salaries and jobs of others can be further cut.  Think about the morality of that one.”

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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!

DOUBLE CHECK ALL DATA, I MAKE MORE THAN GRAMMAR MISTAKES

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Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	-0.14%	down
NASDQ	-0.15%	down
S&P 500	-0.15%	down
Russell 2000	-0.07%	-

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Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Investors411 record – 6 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

• Markets were flat & volume abysmal AGAIN
• PMI, Home sales and weekly jobless figures all came in better than expected yesterday. Perhaps the reason stocks went nowhere is  because there was no POMO buying by the Fed.
• Big cap tech stocks are looking bullish. AAPL & CSCO have moved higher and have weak volume declines in last two days. IBM is on verge of breakout.
• Some details on today’s major events impacting markets from Seeking Alpha.

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Reading The Tea Leaves

A most indecisive week as many major institutional traders/investors are on vacation.

ICI (Investment Company Institute) measures the flow of money in/out of mutual funds.  After 33 weeks of funds flowing out of mutual funds the last couple have sen some inflow A week or two is not a trend, but the turn is= Bullish

Investors411 mantra – The reason stocks went up while money was flowing out of mutual funds was the FED’s quantitative easing boosting stocks. So we could see a money supply surprise for early January.

• The FED POMO program continues through April
• New year bonuses get invested
• Some folks are getting back into the markets

Repeat- AAPL the world’s #1 tech stock is the canary in the coal mine. If the General rolls over watch out.

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Positions

• #1 UWM - (2x small cap stocks ETF) – 1/2 position
• #2 UWM
• EUO - (double short the EURO currency) sold all at 20.51 for -1% loss
• UCO – (double long oil) sold all at 20.18 for -1% loss
• SLV - (Silver ETF) Bought Wednesday at (see comments section of blog.)
• DGP -(2x gold ETF) Bought yesterday at 41.86

Under consideration

UCO -(2x oil prices) Oil prices got over extended and a short term reversal is to be expected. The chart is bullish (series of 3 higher highs and positive slope to 20DMA) over Over the last six months each correction or consolidation seems to have been for about 10 days.

REMX (Rare Earth ETF) – Way too hot to buy now. Like a zillion investors who missed this initial jump we are waiting for a pullback. The story here is compelling. There’s a limited supply of this material and high demand. It takes 7 to 19 years to get a new mine up and running and China has almost a lock on existing supplies

EWZ (Brazil) & LBJ ( 3x Latin America – majority Brazil) Obviously the later is more risky. Both made significant moves higher in last few days. Probably due to move in rare earth metals and the fact that Brazil is rich in other needed natural resources.

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Look for Paul R’s always enlightening remarks on stocks and sectors in the comments section of the blog. See POSITION section of blog for lists of potential stocks & ETF’s including “YOUR Stock List.” (YSL#3)

Note – I have changed a lot of the Chart links to include the 17 Day Moving Average. (green line)

Russian and Stock Bears

START

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Part 1)

Background

If we survive as a species, President Ronald Reagan, will be remembered as a true hero for placing in motion the first START Nuclear Arms reduction treaty between the USA and Russia (the symbol for Russia is a bear) that was eventually signed in 1991. Key to this treaty were Reagan’s words “Trust but Verify.“

Today – Russia’s Economic status is more improved than the vast majority of countries since 1991. Russia has vast natural resources and oil/gas exports account for much of that growth and a trade surplus of $10.4 billion in Sept. Russia fell further in the world wide recession and last quarter under performed other emerging markets when its GDP growth fell from 5.0 to 2.7%. Great source for economic data is Tradingeconomics.com

Two significant problems in Russia

1. Corruption – On the list of the 178 most corrupt countries rated by Transparency International in the world Russia comes in #154. For all Investors411 chides the USA for its growing corruption (we have, for the first time fallen out of the top 20) we still come in a respectable - #22.
2. Terrorism - Russia has had 4 separate major terrorist incidents in 2010 resulting in at least 67 deaths and over 300 serious injuries.

Background and problems in USA

1. The USA has 5113 nuclear warheads Virtually all them dwarf the 2 atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and ended WW2. The smallest weapons today are at least 7 times more powerful than the first rudimentary bomb that leveled Hiroshima Although the # of Russian weapons vary according to source, they are thought to have slightly more. Video of  57,000,000 ton Russian Tsar bomb – compare to 15,000 ton Hiroshima bomb. Tsar Bomb about 4000 times more power.
2. We are, by far, the most militant country on the planet. Only country in 3 declared wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, Terrorism. Who knows how many attacks in other sovereign countries from Pakistan to Yemen.No country even comes close to our 1000 military bases/installations around the world. Multiple sources indicate if you include homeland security, and other appropriations like nuclear weapons that fall outside of listed “defense spending” we create over 50% of the worlds military budget.

tomorrow (part 2)

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!

DOUBLE CHECK ALL DATA, I MAKE MORE THAN GRAMMAR MISTAKES

Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	-0.42%	up
NASDQ	-1.07%	up
S&P	-0.61%	up
Russell 2000	-0.67%	-

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

World Stocks -

USA – Volume up & Stocks down. Benchmark S&P 500 fall to 1181. Just above major support at 1173. Falling through 1173 will probably intensify selling. Lots of economic data released today, but the big report is Friday’s monthly jobs number.

China – FXI (ETF for China) is down over 10% from its high and trending down. But manufacturing numbers (just out) rose.

BAC – US giant shadow bank dramatically broke through  a major support level (down -3.14)on rumors that it was the next target of WikiLeaks.  BAC has an opaque accounting system, so selling here could intensify on the rumor. = Bearish

Europe – Worst month since May and the 50 Euro STOXX Index break below “upward trading channel”

Reading The Tea Leaves -

Look above – There’s lots of red Bearish signs.

• Combination of BDI and FXI (most important emerging market) along with Europe trending down is trouble in the long term.
• Dollar rally hurts
• BAC breakdown and AAPL one day fall (-1.81%) are two leaders that got smacked yesterday

The Bad news . If/When  the S&P major support level (1173) falls, selling usually intensifies.

The Good News – Trend exhaustion  -49 on the MO shows we are technically reaching a point where there are fewer and fewer sellers out there.

There are other indicators I use to show trend exhaustion and one of the best was created by Tom DeMark. His nine day trend analysis is right more than its wrong and some of the more important forecasting tools used above concur with his theories. If you are trading short term and have NOT reviewed his system or one of his books be assured almost every hedge fund manager has. Investors411 tries to “Keep It Simple” but if you trade as oppose to invest this is one system to know.

Positions

• EEM - (Emerging Markets ETF) -
• UWM – (2x small cap stocks ETF) -

We’re at or approaching “buy the dip” territory. I’d love to see another 20 points cut from the MO before I nibbled.  However, I’m afraid the High Frequency Traders that dominate trading are probably going to see “trend exhaustion” like I do. Right now emerging markets are ripe for an oversold rebound, and the dollar is also close to trend exhaustion. This means at least a short term oversold bounce.

Would love to see a clear buy the dip opportunity arise today or later this week, but afraid we might not get the chance.

Look for Paul R’s always enlightening remarks on stocks and sectors in the comments section of the blog. See POSITION section of blog for lists of potential stocks & ETF’s including “YOUR Stock List.” -

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Bulls & Bears

The case for a rising or falling stock (not economics) market

The Bears

• At best unemployment in the USA has stabilized around 9.5%. The stimulus that has caused the reversal will soon run out and employment will grow.
• Housing prices have at best stabilized. 90+% of mortgages are now in some way backed by the US government  (Fannie & Freddie)
• Not only is the middle class in the USA shrinking, most people are saving more than they used to. Money flows are therefore diminishing.
• The European bank stress test was at a best a PR exercise. US banks are not loaning like they used to. They’d rather make more profit in other areas and are still in after shock from the original crisis.
• European Union with the world’s largest GDP, has many shattered economies (PIIGS &  Eastern Europe) and the others are no better off than the USA.
• The US has an exploding military budget $1,003,000,000,000 ($1.03 trillion) last year. If you count all our military expenditures it is over 60% of the world’s military budget.
• Iraq ‘s March elections created a stalemate with no government. The two leading candidates lavishing praising Hezbollah’s founding ayatollah and meeting/praising  Sadr (anti American ayatollah in self imposed exile in Iran) to beg he joins their side in new government.
• Afghanistan – WikiLeaks has just released 90,000 documents showing “devastating portrait of the failing war.”
• China, the leading emerging market has a housing bubble.
• Stocks are overbought according to the MO (see below)

The Bulls

• The dollar is falling and close to breaking out of chart pattern to downside. Lower dollar = higher US stocks because US goods will cost less overseas.
• Oil prices near breakout to new 3 month highs. Higher oil shows greater consumption = bullish, but not if you’re a consumer.
• Shipping prices have rebounded and are moving higher. See BDI below.
• According to International Energy Agency China surpassed the USA in energy consumption in 2009.
• Most US companies that reported better than expected profits cited emerging markets (China specifically) as where they were growing the fastest and creating jobs.
• China will spend $738 billion over the next decade on clean energy. = growth. The USA can’t get a weak climate or energy bill passed congress.
• Unless you want to invest in some European bonds (example Greece) there is almost nowhere to go besides stocks to get more than a couple % growth for your $.
• Black Box/High Frequency Traders dominate the market and they are ONLY concerned about short term results. They can go long or short.
• Weak banking reform means shadow banks can again get over leveraged.= more profits=higher stock prices till another crash.

I’m sure I missed some. To see the positions Investor’s411 is taking see Positions below and also click on POSITIONS at top of blog.

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	+0.99%	down
NASDQ	+1.05%	up
S&P 500	+0.82%	down
Russell 2000	+2.39%	-

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

Mantra -The Black Box/High Frequency Traders control the vast majority of trades.

The NASDQ volume was slightly above average, but the other major indexes had a typical light volume rally that has become the norm for the Black Box traders that control the markets.

News on the earnings week ahead

Significant Indexes-

• McClellan Oscillator (MO) rose dramatically to +79.48 [+60 or above = Overbought = sell. -60 or below = Oversold = buy]. StockCharts has a better version of the McClellan chart ($NYMO) LINK. –  & Investopedia on –  How the MO works. 79.25 = BEARISH
• US Dollar –  The dollar  fell  -0.16% yesterday [Anything over +/- @0.50 is significant.] The dollar/stocks relationship is strong – Dollar up = stocks down and visa versa. The Black Box traders, have used the inverse relationship of the dollar as a key part of their trading system. At bottom of trading range. = Neutral/Bullish
• BDI - The  Baltic Dry Index (Measures cost of shipping – Higher costs good = more being shipped = Bullish. Also, good proxy of China.) BDI was in free fall from a high of @4200 to 1700 . This was a huge -60% drop in 8 weeks is very bearish Often a leading indicator for stocks. Here’s a 3 year chart of BDI for context. The BDI has staged a 6 day +7% rally and is at 1826 = bullish

Reading Tea Leaves-

The McClellan Oscillator at +79.46 shows stocks as being overbought. I’d be just a little more cautious about using short ETF’s too early because of the strong bullsh sentiment right now among Black Box traders. But, its clearly time to think about using those ETF’s that short major indexes. Click on POSITION at top of blog for more info.

The MO has not been above 80 since the big spring rally in April of 2009 – then it reached @ 105. In early Jan. of 2009 it did reach 120.

Positions

The  Positions Section link to latest & former buys and sells  - These are positions I actually own

Updated over weekends Investors411 holds ONE position in SDS at this time

Strategy – From Thursday - The same as before - If/as US major indexes become more overbought the more ETF’s that sort the market will be purchased. Starting out with SH. Then the higher above 60 the MO goes, the more SDS (200% short the S&P 500) and other even 300% short ETF’s will be used the higher the MO goes.  See POSITIONS section at top of blog for more. Therefore what is happening is a series of trades (Short ETF’s) the more overbought the market becomes.

The same entry/exit strategy applies. Considering dropping exit/entry point to 4 instead of 5%. See Friday’s Investors411 for more. The following trades were made Friday.

• SH (ETF that shorts the S&P 500) was sold for 51.26 – a -2% loss. The other 1/2 of SH was sold earlier for a 3% gain
• SDS (ETF the shorts the S&P 500 at 200%) was bought at 32.50 Nibbled with just a 2% of portfolio position.

Reasoning - The majority of technical analysts seem to be bullish, the BDI has reversed its 8 week fall & the dollar is right at its major support level.Therefore they may be room for 3 week bull rally may continue. We could reach a high above 100 on the MO. However the MO chart has not gone over +80 (where it is now) since April of 2009. Translation – There is some greater risk in this trade than if we had long term bearish outlook. However the more overbought thing get the safer the trade.

Longer term investors may want to wait to see of the MO goes up another 20 points before nibbling. Please recognize that right now this looks like it may only be  a trade  and NOT a long term investment

EWZ (Brazil) an ETF Investors411 owned for years is again outperforming and is a buy the dip opportunity.

GLD – (Gold) has come down off its high and any further dip Investors411 will buy.

The Long Term Outlook has been changed to NEUTRAL from Cautiously Bearish As explained/predicted Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 broke through the first of 4 different resistance levels. Another 3% move higher and the remaining 3 levels will fall.

Long Term Outlook – NEUTRAL

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

The Scream

“The Scream” – by Edvard Munch

Understandably, many of you are frustrated with the direction our country is heading in . You’ve watched again as another economic bubble of unregulated capitalism burst. Last year – two bubbles – housing & finance. The collapse of Lehmann Brothers and the financial meltdown showed the world we needed some rules to govern unregulated markets.

It’s obvious that relative to the world and especially Asia (China) that the US star is falling and theirs is rising. You thought finally your fellow American’s would get it.

The health care/public option failure is especially frustrating because some good ideas came close to passing. (See Bob’s comments onside of blog – Why was there no mass organized demonstrations for a public health care plan? and earlier comments) You realize that a 5 to 10% increase in health care each year is going accelerate the already growing gap between the rich and poor in the USA.

Is Bob right? – Perhaps in America the class struggle between the rich and those that have less is over.  The rich (symbolically – shadow bankers) have won a round or two this year. It can get depressing and make you want to scream.

Certainly in China it is hopeful that you see one generation move from slave labor in rice paddies to becoming a computer programmer.  But, admittedly here the flow seems in the opposite direction.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. The bottom line is three other old adages “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” You learn your lesson, adapt and move ahead.  The second adage is “it could be worse “ Yea it could have been a lot worse -  think President Palin. Lastly “think globally and act locally” The key word here is to act on what you believe in. Sometimes that seed you plant takes time to grow

So  scream or don’t, but keep fighting for what you believe in &

Happy Hanukah

Post script – I’m sure Bob will keep on trucking.

KISS & STOCKS

Keep It Simple Stupid

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	+0.28%	down
NASDQ	+0.29%	up
S&P500	+0.70%	up
Russell2000-	+1.57%	-

Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

• Brown = repeat statements
• Green = usually bullish statements
• Red = Usually bearish statements

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Running out of Oxygen – US & most world markets have been moving higher in weak, below average volume .  We’ve move up again over the last 4 days and inched out new closing highs for major US markets (all but the Russell 2000 index).

We are in moderately overbought territory (see below). Translation – we are staring to run out of buyers.

The inverse relationship between the dollar and stocks has broken down somewhat over the last two weeks. But its still there.

FEARLESS WEEKLY FORECAST – Up to flat week . But be careful we are entering overbought territory (see below) and if rally continues I’ll be taking profits rather than adding to stocks.

If you don’t understand a term look in up at Investopedia.com dictionary LINK

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Significant forecasting tools/Indexes for stock markets

(Besides #1 Volume & #2 Reaction to News)

BDI - The Baltic Dry Index measures the flow of goods by price (world trade) .

The BDI a fell a  -49 points Friday and closed at 3530. Over the last week the BDI dropped rapidly and the decline eased on Friday.  Since Mid November highs the BDI (see chart) has established a clear downward trend =   bearish signal

What it means-Since the low of Oct 2008 technically the long term chart is = Bullish. However we are now in a month long correction. Mid term trend = Bearish The BDI is far more useful as a long term indicator of not only world trade, but specifically China and growing emerging markets.

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The Dollar is currently the #1 forecasting tool (now weakening)

$USD - Check out the 6 month chart (to the left) or a multi year chart of the US dollar of the US dollar. Mantra – Dollar up = US stocks down & Dollar down = US stocks up US dollar was fell yesterday -0.23% . Anything close to or over +/- 0.50 is significant  The dollar closed at $76.35 . Technically have broken up through the 50 day moving average resistance level and then failed to break out through the Oct/Nov high around $76,82 resistance level.  In technical terms we have created a “double top.”  The $76.82 level is now a very important line in the sand.

The whole dynamic  here seems to have changed – We now, at least for the short term, have a rising dollar

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$NYMO The NY Stock Exchange McClellan (EOD) Index measures how much the NYSE is oversold or overbought .

There’s been a dramatic change in the last 4 trading sessions. We broke out of the range (see below) and are close to  overbought/sell positions . The index closed at +40.17 This is an  Overbought Position and we are getting close to a +60 dramatically overbought  or sell signal.

From past updates – It’s spilled over a little bit, but the McClellan index has moved between +25 & -25 .  There has been no clear buy or sell signal for over a month.

Oversold conditions (@ -60) = buy, Overbought positions (@+60) = sell The closer we get to +/- 60 the better our chances of making money with a shorter term buy/sell signal

Bottom Line – Time to start thinking about taking profits, especially into any continued rally.

Positions

The  Positions Section (top of blog) to see all the latest buys and sells

(again a little behind on latest moves)

We’ve had, and volume has confirmed, a quantum shift in markets. This may be temporary and it may be long term, but it necessitates major changes in positions. – looking for dollar to hold or add to gains . – This happened or was confirmed yesterday . Will wait to buy some ETF’s and stocks when McClellan Index says we are approaching overbought (@+60)

Recommended ETF’s and Trades

SELLING & BUYING

Your Comments - (See “Monitor’s” comments on side of blog – About a week  ago Investors411 sold its positions in GLD. DGP, AMZN & NVS ) – Not interested in opening any new positions right now Waiting for a clear signal from MCellan Index to commit additional capital or sell existing positions.

Right now, it sure looks like we are reaching overbought positions.  If we rally into the end of this week I’d take some more profits

Start small & Build your position – Buy the dip.

Long Term Outlook = CAUTIOUSLY BULLISH

Investors411 record – 4 1/2 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

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"That Big Sucking Sound"

Some of you might not be old enough to remember Ross Perot’s famous line about globalization (in this specific case it was about a treaty called NAFTA) "That big sucking sound " was jobs getting sucked outside the USA.

Globalization is a multi edged sword. For more on the good, bad and ugly of globalization see Investors411 here Globalization helps developing countries (think China, India , etc.) explode in job growth, but it sucks jobs out of the USA at all but the very top levels of American business.

One of the biggest economic lies you are constantly overwhelmed with is – Cut taxes on private business and this will mean more jobs .  This is a pure Bulls__t . The jobs go overseas . Everything is outsourced and practically all that remains is the tip top upper management.

It’s "Shocking" just how little jobs growth in the USA was created by the private sector over the last decade. Michael Mandel , the Chief economist for BusinessWeek chronicles private sector jobs growth over the last 10 years here

Some rough quotes

Private sector job growth rose by 1.1% in the last decade…the worst decade for private job growth since the Great Depression…a lost decade for the American economy…big job growth in health care (mainly government funded) , education, and government…this growth was funded by growing trade and government deficits…Its just horrible, just horrible… private industry is just not a jobs creator… and manufacturing is in free fall… an unalloyed bad.

Needed to be done according to Mandel – Innovate, help keep manufacturing jobs, take a step back and look at what  globalization means to us.

Take a look at a country like Germany that protects and builds it’s manufacturing/export sector. Germany is seeing the light at the end of the recession tunnel here.

• I nvestors411 can’t emphasize enough what a bad investment the USA is relative to counties like China and India because of globalization. This mega trend will continue until the dynamic of globalization change.
• This economic meltdown is not going to significantly recover in the USA until there are some dramatic changes in both financial institutions (see past Investors411) and how we look at globalization.
  

Many thanks to one of you who spent 30 minutes going over this with me yesterday

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

Index	Percentage %	Volume
Dow	+0.18%	flat
NASDQ	+0.06 %	up
S&P500	-0.17%	flat
Russell2000	-0.94%	-

Investors411 record – 4 1/2 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

(see results for last 1/2 year – click  6/25 & scroll down)

Technicals and Fundamentals

Finally above average volume.  A major battle yesterday between bulls and bears . We hit the 875 support level of the benchmark S&P 500 and there was blood (volume) everywhere .  For a while the bears crashed through the barricade, but the bulls fought their way back and the index closed above 875 .

As predicted at the beginning of the week we are already challenging the major support level.

We did briefly establish a lower low, but the bulls held.  This is significant because of the volume.

Reading of the tea leaves – The longer we stay above 875 the better a chance of a rally has of getting started.

Huge bullish factor – No matter how you think this impacts the USA in the future. The Obama administration is NOT going to let any big banks fail. Also, they keep kicking the can down the road on any major fix of the problems that created the economic meltdown.

Earnings season around the corner.

Significant forecasting tools/Indexes for stock markets

Note - Repeated statements in brown.

The BDI has become the best of these three forecasting tools .

BDI - The Baltic Dry Index measures the flow of goods (world trade) . BDI fell for the 6th day in a row. However the rate of decline decreased slightly. After a 5 month rally the last six weeks have seen a decline where the BDI,technically, has had lower highs and lower lows.   We are currently establishing a lower low for price. WARNING -  The breakdown in trade is very significant to any worldwide recovery . BEARS RULE

The BDI is now the first chart I look at each day. – Globalization has greatly added to the interconnectedness of the world’s economies. It’s a worldwide recession, and if trade prices break down so will individual economies.

$USD - The Dollar was flat yesterday -0.07% The strong inverse correlation between the dollar and stocks has existed for many moons. Dollar up = markets down. Dollar closed at $80.66 and has been trading for  a month between @$81+yesterday= and $79+. So the dollar nearing the top of its consolidation range. Long term Bearish pattern for Dollar ( bullish for stocks ) We bounced off the lows in early June and are now in a consolidation pattern .

WTIC – Oil dropped a huge -4.43% yesterday, and 15% over last week+. (see chart) The 6 day fall has been significant and has NOT been accompanied by a significant rise in the dollar. (dollar works inversely to oil prices) What oil markets seem to be saying is demand is weak out there and the world’s economic picture is less bright than traders thought. The entire move higher for oil prices may have been manipulated. (see above WSJ article)

Therefore, Oil prices are no longer accurately acting as a decent tool in forecasting stock prices. Investors411 will keep an eye oil prices, but no longer use it as a forecasting tool for stocks. In fact, right now falling oil/gasoline prices are good for the overall economy, but bad for related companies (energy & alternative energy)

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Our Positions (For more see Positions section of Investors 411-scroll down)

I plan to buy back all recommended foreign ETF’s – just hopefully at a lower level. Perhaps when  S&P dips to support level @875. Perhaps lower. Wait on Brazil EWZ – too tied to oil prices

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING