I thought we were dangerously on a cliff a few days ago and now we've been pushed off. There could be more trouble as an institution like Citigroup below $5 must be sold by institutions prohibited from owning stocks below that price. Alwaleed, the wealthy Saudi who owned 4% of the stock, said he was upping his ownership to 5% today. Perhaps someone tapped him on the shoulder and told him to do that to prevent more selling. Obviously the Big Three auto companies are no longer in the books of those institutions barred from owning sub $5 stocks. AA is closing in on $5 as well. We're going through a crash if only in slow motion. Everything the government has done has only prolonged the death spiral. Bernanke is dusting off his Depression prevention studies, taking ...

MARKET COMMENT November 11, 2008 As long as we continue to have 2-4% intraday trading ranges as routine the environment will only be safe for day-traders. Today featured another whiplash as stocks fell sharply early, camped lower, reversed course and then reversed again. It’s enough to send investors to the chiropractor. The open lower this morning followed more bad news and sentiment regarding earnings. But volume was relatively light and we remained camped lower. Then with news pending regarding mortgage restructuring from FNM Da Boyz decided to press things early and caused a healthy ramp just before that news. Further there was some floor talk that Blackrock’s holdings of Bear Stearns toxic mortgages wouldn’t be as bad as feared. Want some? But reality settled in and Da Boyz reversed course just as folks were getting excited and invested ...

MARKET COMMENT October 30, 2008 Yep, it was that kind of day. Was there any good news to account for an up day? Absolutely nothing, unless you think the GDP data falling a little less than expected was something to place bets on. Nope, the market is just oversold and this is the end-of-month prop job mutual funds and a few others need. I like it since it reduces oversold levels and risks. It’s what we’ve been expecting and why we’re in cash. What’s next? An election. Despite negative investor sentiment [just my guess so everyone calm down] toward an Obama win which seems likely, a clear win by anyone could launch a further rally and a brief honeymoon period. So desperate are bullish tape painters they ignored San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen’s statement that “…recent economic data is deeply ...

The old expression, “In for a penny, in for a pound” is the government’s chosen path. Once involved in direct market interference and manipulation there’s no turning back. Let’s remember Bernanke studied the Depression and published his views on how that condition can be prevented in the future. Don’t expect him not to put his theories to the test in real time with our money. All us peons can do is stand back and see if it all works. That said they’re engaged in the following: · Buying commercial paper directly to unlock the freeze and ease credit. · Increasing TAF [Treasury Auction Facility] to $900 billion with more to come. · Coordinated global rate cuts. · Rates to Fed primary dealers already featuring a stealth rate cut of 50 BPS via auctions. · Naturally, the ongoing suspicion that authorities will ...