For swing/position traders maybe a buy in the low $3's to high $2.90's and a stop at or just below the 52 wk low.
I've been (day) trading it off of the Euro/dollar and intraday momentum in gold.
I was pleasantly surprised at the action today as a day trade, but in this sideways chop I'm cautious on entries and take profits early on upward momentum.
No clue in this environment where we go, esp. at or near the 200 dma. I am prepared to go long or short but the overhead and debt/currency issues still have me psychologically leaning short.
Edit: Trading in this environment is quite a test. It reminds me of my scuba instructor who told me if I could dive the Puget Sound I could dive anywhere.
After this year I either got good at technicals and intramarket analysis or good at hand sitting.
I think you are just about on target Mokat. The liquidity crisis in Europe is what we went through in 2007/2008. So there are essentially two movers driving dollar strength (which dictates prices of anything priced in dollars).
While I don't want a war, one of the primary drivers of weak dollar/strong commodities like gold was 9/11 and the resulting war and the printing to fund it.
Even a little skirmish like a reaction to an attempt to close the Straights of Hormuz would drive oil and gold skyward.
I do think Dave's diversification is a good idea. I'm doing the same.
I'm not worried about gold (yet) as most of my purchases were back in 04/05 and I'm still doing good with PM's by any measure. I'm still predominantly in cash so if gold tanks and the dollar goes higher it's really a bar bell type of strategy.
While the Fed may have shot a lot of bullets, they still can do a lot of damage to the USD. At the start of this debacle de jour the Fed repeatedly said and acted upon the danger of deflation. They want something close to 2% inflation and I think they will do whatever they can to get it and prevent runaway deflation. The Europeans have decided on the Germanic route and we will see how far down that rabbit hole they go before they take the pill that makes them larger or the one that makes them small.
The Euro is still weak, the USD still holding. Glad to see some buying in the miners and a ST intraday bottom in PM's but it's peaked for today so far and we are still in that thin holiday trading.
I made some decent cash this AM but nothing found to hold onto yet.
Technically we are still below the 200. Good luck everyone and here's to a much better new year!
Bill, If you don't feel better soon please seek the help of a doctor.
I live in a shellfish producing area and shell fish or food poisoning is nothing to goof around with. Last time I got food poisoning was from eating Copper River Salmon at my *former* favorite restaurant.
"If you have debt, you care a great deal what money is."
As someone that doesn't have debt, I can tell you money and the value of money is even more important, since you then don't have a contracted slice of time locking currency into a nominal notion of value.
In that case gold and a lot of other hard goods, commodities, real estate and yes, cash can be vital stores of value. Demand also dictates the value of money.
You are only thinking in terms of debt contractually frozen in time as the measure of money. Homes, auto's and credit cards (which float a bit depending on how long you carry CC debt and the interest rate).
Money is more than how debt is satisfied. For example, yes, you can pay the $100,000 mortgage off if you hold 1000 $100 dollar bills, but in the meantime the *actual* value of those dollars may drive the value of the home the mortgage secures down to $50,000 while you are contracted for $100,000.
In that case the home, as a proxy for dollars does you in.
LOL! But Dave, those gold eagles are U.S. $50 coins and legal tender!
Or we can move to Utah.
In the end, all methods of exchange are money and are valued at whatever the market will bear. At one time beads were a currency. Nowadays its pieces of paper or plastic cards and imaginary numbers with variable value backed by a FICO score and a law that in times of crisis mean about nothing.
Before 2007 or so homes were a currency of sorts. It's all about the C word.
Do we have confidence we will be able to use whatever vehicle to trade dissimilar goods and services.
"Of course this only happens when sovereign debt creation is no longer possible. The US is clearly not there right now (we're creating debt quite rapidly) but the eurozone IS there today, and we're getting a view of what deflation will look like if and when it actually happens here."
Actually, we are seeing Eurozone stress and fleeing to USD which creates demand even in the face of increasing M3 and sovereign debt in the U.S.
The reason is because 1. the USD is the reserve currency. 2. The central banks cooperate during crises. 3. In cooperating the central banks have (temporarily) avoided an acute crisis in Euro banks, derivatives and collateral held by all banks European, U.S. and international. This is why our markets are frozen like deer in the headlights. The big shoe to fall is if the Eurozone can't come to some agreement, the banks take losses, OUR banks then take more losses, derivatives are triggered, and then there is no safe currency haven.....except PM's or another currency not suffering from devaluation. Is there one?
Or, let's say the Eurozone by some miracle resolves it's debt issues. what will the next focus be? Yep. The U.S. debt that literally eclipses all world debt. and the apparent inability of our Congress to resolve our debt issue by any other means than how they always have....the printing press and helicopter.
The only variable I can see is timeline.
"Interesting you say gold is a currency not backed by debt. In one sense, it is. The price of gold is backed by margin debt for gold futures trades. 20:1 debt to equity, actually. Why else would people complain when gold contract margins were increased? Increased margin causes forced deleveraging in leveraged gold trades. Unwind the leverage, and the price of gold drops."
Gold is a traded commodity like all others. It is bought to (hopefully) capture an uptrend and sold to capture that uptrend in profit which is then converted into cash like all trade vehicles. If stocks were up big and a trader needed funds to cover margins, then the stocks would be sold and converted to cash.
I don't understand why we get all hung up on it. In a crisis we could as easily be using food to trade, some form of energy like wood or oil, or beans, sugar, rice, lead, brass or powder or any number of useful commodities.
In that case, many things become 'money', none of which are backed or related to debt.
Hopefully we never get there.
"When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this infallible sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." -Jonathan Swift
BAC 'bowtied' on March 5th or so and has been in a primary downtrend since.
A 'bowtie' being when the fast MA's cross the slower MA's to the downside.
A great short.....
The signal of a possible transition (for longer term trades) will be when they flip back up again and are on top of the slower MA's. This is visible on a daily 12 mo chart or a weekly chart. The weekly chart shows the real distance between the price bars and each MA, which is significant. Additionally, the 200 DMA is angled down which also speaks to the weakness in BAC and appears to be getting steeper.
It does appear to be losing some of the downward momentum (angle of decline of price bars) but I suppose that could level off at zero!
Those with shorter time frames might want to trade some of those fake outs from the low fives to near seven.
I think though, that sometimes we demonize those who react to the currency fraud. If it weren't for the currency, derivative and debt fraud perpetrated by the bankers and their political co-conspirators, our currency would be a store of value and there would be no vacuum for communism or even unions to fill.
Communism merely fills the vacuum left by the corruption of those who manipulate the system. Unions exist only because so-called capitalists (those in cahoots with bankers and government frauds) create the need for them.
We know that the international public and private debts will be eliminated in one of several ways. 1. They get paid. (harumph!) 2. They are defaulted upon.
3. They are paid back in devalued currency (AKA here as wooden nickles).
Workers and labor didn't create this problem, bankers did. If currency was a store of value and fair interest or returns made any sense, there would be far less private debt and only that debt that was productive would exist. People could take time to save and earn interest and pay cash, knowing their currency wouldn't constantly be losing value. But in a system where currency is always losing value, people are forced by common sense to spend it now before it disappears. Savers are penalized. Similarly, workers are forced to seek a means of stemming that tide, since any wages and pension money they put aside also loses value as does a static pay scale, so they unionize in order to maintain their standard of living. This is not to say that all is wonderful about unions, but they didn't create the vacuum, they fill it with a purpose because of the fraud perpetrated by the bankers and their political stooges.
Rather than blaming communism and unions, we should instead re-focus our scorn on those responsible for designing and abusing what should be a sound money policy of a value holding currency. By solving one problem we could solve numerous others with little effort. This is also not to say there isn't a need for a more level field of play. Those in developing nations should have a living wage and environment that is commensurate with the developed nations. Nations should then concentrate on their natural advantages and resources and not on victimizing their people.
In writing this I'm merely saying we should seek to resolve the cause of our problems and not blame the natural reactions resulting from those causes.
When we see Tea Parties (the real tea party, not the movement hijacked by the wealthy crooks), OWS movements, Unions, and Communism, we need to realize they are reactions to a crime against the people. When we address the crime, we eliminate or reduce the need for 'police'.
Although not a descriptive account of the process of stock trading, Penso presented the history of speculation in stocks and acquainted the reader with the sophisticated financial instruments used. The dialogue format allowed the reader to understand the respective perspectives of the various market participants and the intricacies of speculation and trading.
Penso also came up with four basic rules of the share market that are still of the greatest relevance today:
The first rule in speculation is: Never advise anyone to buy or sell shares. Where guessing correctly is a form of witchcraft, counsel cannot be put on airs.
The second rule: Accept both your profits and regrets. It is best to seize what comes to hand when it comes, and not expect that your good fortune and the favorable circumstances will last.
The third rule: Profit in the share market is goblin treasure: at one moment, it is carbuncles, the next it is coal; one moment diamonds, and the next pebbles. Sometimes, they are the tears that Aurora leaves on the sweet morning's grass, at other times, they are just tears.
The fourth rule: He who wishes to become rich from this game must have both money and patience.
In his honour, the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) awards since 2000 the annual De La Vega Prize to "young European researchers who distinguish themselves by outstanding research on the securities markets in Europe".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I suppose it could be suggested that 'Western finance' is, like a lot of so-called new ideas, nothing 'new'.
I've read Reminiscences and re-read it every once in awhile. I'll bet De La Vega and Livermore would have gotten along swimmingly. Rule 4 sounds a lot like Livermore.
Kaimu used the words "vital lies" and some readers take that word at it's hardest meaning, which would imply intent.
I read 'vital lies' and I read "self deception". We deceive ourselves all the time and this has been proven by science. We block out the memories of tragedies and tragic events and horrors of war. We deceive ourselves into thinking others believe like we do and have the same motivations and morals, then we are shocked when presented with evidence to the contrary.
I deceive myself into believing many here would act righteously and would be better managers of others money and moral bankers and feduciary's but the fact is, some would succumb to their human nature and would take advantage.
We would like to believe that those who represent us are patriots and would act as we would. The proof of this is the fact that Congress has a 9% approval rating but the vast majority of voters think THEIR congressman is a good person and they get re-elected. Apparently we think everyone else's congressman is crooked but not ours. We deceive ourselves.
So when we read Kaimu's "vital lies", let's be honest with ourselves. Let's not mis-interpret what he is saying. Those of us who claim to live by the word of "our creator" are not God(s) we are men and women, we are human and fallible. We have "faith" in a higher power we can't prove or see. Some may believe this is a form of delusion. That is why we have "faith" and not proof.
How many people believe their husband or wife is totally honest and faithful? How's that delusion working in a country with 60% plus divorce rates?
The list of "vital lies"; those we purposely or mistakenly tell ourselves, is an evolved survival trait that allows us to thrive in the face of some truly horrible events that transpire in a unfriendly universe where the ability to adapt and carry on is paramount.
On this Christmas I pray (see I do it too) we all have the strength to treat each other with honor and kindness and do our best to act as Christ-like as possible.
May we all do our part to eliminate the need to use "vital lies" to survive.
I think that is the message of the season. Be kind to one another, we are all doing the best we can to survive.
Okayyyy. I seriously edited this post as per the rules.
"The Company's principal asset is its international claim in relation to its investment in the Las Cristinas gold project located in Bolivar State, Venezuela."
What I read when I see this is: Crystallex has zero assets.
In the past Kaimu has pointed out that the S&P 500 is really the S&P 5 without government handouts. With the elections coming up in 2012 and the deficit looming, I thought I would point out this story and get Caraistas thinking about the "investment" ramifications should Obama not be re-elected.
This story reveals a virtual cluster **** of defense "experts" that sit on each others boards, have contracts with one another, advise various candidates and sit in positions where they will benefit win or lose. Some of the companies named would likely benefit greatly as would, judging by some of the numbers thrown around, any instruments that hedged currency devaluation were one of these candidates to win. All those budget cuts and so-called austerity measures would be channeled into the pockets of the people in this story. I would imagine Eisenhower is preparing to turn over in his grave.
Read this story and then go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie over the holiday. Life imitates art or vice versa. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-23/republica...
Pending a win by one of these military industrialists, make sure you have these companies on your watch lists. Regardless of political persuasion, this is the type of lobbying, nepotism and insider deals that are bankrupting this great country, and this is only a very small portion of it.
Athan,
If posters can provide information or links assured that the *ideas* and *opinions* contained within the blogs will be openly and civilly discussed, then there is value. This is not to say everyone must agree or there would be no point in "perspective and discussion".
If posters cannot blog information and their own ideas and opinions without personal attacks masquerading as discussion, then there is little to no value to be found in the blog. We see proof of this daily in reports from Washington D.C. where uncivil argument is the rule.
I would hope this blog not become a microcosm of Washington.
Additionally, what one person decides is of value may not be to another. Perhaps at times like those it might be wise for those who disagree yet have nothing of substance to constructively add, to not comment at all. If someone has further information or additional comments then hopefully they can be made in a constructive manner and left at that.
Value shouldn't be determined by a few simply because they agree with one another and can bury another blogger with insults.
The value is in open and parliamentary discussion where ideas are freely discussed. Then people are free to decide on the value of information provided as they see fit. There are times when only one person will think information is valuable and the entire group disagree, yet that one person may end up being correct. Thus respect, even in the face of disagreement, would seem to be key to "perspective and Discussion".
Les,
The problem is in deciphering what information a person may be interested in, which is dependent on the type of trader or investor a person is and their particular time frame.
For example, a macro view of the European crisis in a news driven market as we find ourselves in now could be useful to almost everyone, but others might not find it useful. A technical view is going to be useful to those using classical technical analysis based on support or resistance levels in a specific time frame, but not to those with longer or shorter time frames or who use another form of TA. The value of news and information is as varied as the types of trading and investing. Who is to say what is useful to everyone or in the core interest?
For example, I tend to ignore news. It simply doesn't fit my method. On the opposite spectrum is Vad who trades on the reactions to news. Even though I don't directly use that news, there may be some piece of it that I find useful or informative. However, if I find a bit of information I think might help someone here or be useful in understanding some issue, I post the link here as I did today on the European situation. I used to comment a lot more but lately I may not comment to avoid a possible conflict. I will cop to posting info and links on the babies of illegal immigrants today and I probably shouldn't have. I will not do that in the future. I also tried to ask some participants to get along on Dec. 12th and that got me in trouble when I didn't intend it to. It did lead me to put a few people on ignore to avoid any further problems. For me that's better than the alternative.
I don't know if it's the information or if people are just stressed out with the economy and fatigue from directionless sideways markets. In the past there were times when some traders used blow ups here as a useful sentiment signal. Information is sometimes not where you expect it.
I guess 'useful information' and 'focus', like many things, is in the eye of the beholder.
Even if I never post anything again, I will still log on in the morning to read Bill or Geoff's analysis and to read the WIR.
As always, Thank you to Bill, Geoff and Athan for your work on the blog.
Edit: I neglected to Thank Stephen "Kaimu" Wellman, and Jeff "Dr. Cosa" Borsato, both of whom have been here about as long or longer than I have and who's contributions have been invaluable to me.
For swing/position traders maybe a buy in the low $3's to high $2.90's and a stop at or just below the 52 wk low.
I've been (day) trading it off of the Euro/dollar and intraday momentum in gold.
I was pleasantly surprised at the action today as a day trade, but in this sideways chop I'm cautious on entries and take profits early on upward momentum.
No clue in this environment where we go, esp. at or near the 200 dma. I am prepared to go long or short but the overhead and debt/currency issues still have me psychologically leaning short.
Edit: Trading in this environment is quite a test. It reminds me of my scuba instructor who told me if I could dive the Puget Sound I could dive anywhere.
After this year I either got good at technicals and intramarket analysis or good at hand sitting.
I think you are just about on target Mokat. The liquidity crisis in Europe is what we went through in 2007/2008. So there are essentially two movers driving dollar strength (which dictates prices of anything priced in dollars).
While I don't want a war, one of the primary drivers of weak dollar/strong commodities like gold was 9/11 and the resulting war and the printing to fund it.
Even a little skirmish like a reaction to an attempt to close the Straights of Hormuz would drive oil and gold skyward.
I do think Dave's diversification is a good idea. I'm doing the same.
I'm not worried about gold (yet) as most of my purchases were back in 04/05 and I'm still doing good with PM's by any measure. I'm still predominantly in cash so if gold tanks and the dollar goes higher it's really a bar bell type of strategy.
As they say, don't fight the Fed.
While the Fed may have shot a lot of bullets, they still can do a lot of damage to the USD. At the start of this debacle de jour the Fed repeatedly said and acted upon the danger of deflation. They want something close to 2% inflation and I think they will do whatever they can to get it and prevent runaway deflation. The Europeans have decided on the Germanic route and we will see how far down that rabbit hole they go before they take the pill that makes them larger or the one that makes them small.
The Euro is still weak, the USD still holding. Glad to see some buying in the miners and a ST intraday bottom in PM's but it's peaked for today so far and we are still in that thin holiday trading.
I made some decent cash this AM but nothing found to hold onto yet.
Technically we are still below the 200. Good luck everyone and here's to a much better new year!
Bill, If you don't feel better soon please seek the help of a doctor.
I live in a shellfish producing area and shell fish or food poisoning is nothing to goof around with. Last time I got food poisoning was from eating Copper River Salmon at my *former* favorite restaurant.
"If you have debt, you care a great deal what money is."
As someone that doesn't have debt, I can tell you money and the value of money is even more important, since you then don't have a contracted slice of time locking currency into a nominal notion of value.
In that case gold and a lot of other hard goods, commodities, real estate and yes, cash can be vital stores of value. Demand also dictates the value of money.
You are only thinking in terms of debt contractually frozen in time as the measure of money. Homes, auto's and credit cards (which float a bit depending on how long you carry CC debt and the interest rate).
Money is more than how debt is satisfied. For example, yes, you can pay the $100,000 mortgage off if you hold 1000 $100 dollar bills, but in the meantime the *actual* value of those dollars may drive the value of the home the mortgage secures down to $50,000 while you are contracted for $100,000.
In that case the home, as a proxy for dollars does you in.
LOL! But Dave, those gold eagles are U.S. $50 coins and legal tender!
Or we can move to Utah.
In the end, all methods of exchange are money and are valued at whatever the market will bear. At one time beads were a currency. Nowadays its pieces of paper or plastic cards and imaginary numbers with variable value backed by a FICO score and a law that in times of crisis mean about nothing.
Before 2007 or so homes were a currency of sorts. It's all about the C word.
Do we have confidence we will be able to use whatever vehicle to trade dissimilar goods and services.
"Of course this only happens when sovereign debt creation is no longer possible. The US is clearly not there right now (we're creating debt quite rapidly) but the eurozone IS there today, and we're getting a view of what deflation will look like if and when it actually happens here."
Actually, we are seeing Eurozone stress and fleeing to USD which creates demand even in the face of increasing M3 and sovereign debt in the U.S.
The reason is because 1. the USD is the reserve currency. 2. The central banks cooperate during crises. 3. In cooperating the central banks have (temporarily) avoided an acute crisis in Euro banks, derivatives and collateral held by all banks European, U.S. and international. This is why our markets are frozen like deer in the headlights. The big shoe to fall is if the Eurozone can't come to some agreement, the banks take losses, OUR banks then take more losses, derivatives are triggered, and then there is no safe currency haven.....except PM's or another currency not suffering from devaluation. Is there one?
Or, let's say the Eurozone by some miracle resolves it's debt issues. what will the next focus be? Yep. The U.S. debt that literally eclipses all world debt. and the apparent inability of our Congress to resolve our debt issue by any other means than how they always have....the printing press and helicopter.
The only variable I can see is timeline.
"Interesting you say gold is a currency not backed by debt. In one sense, it is. The price of gold is backed by margin debt for gold futures trades. 20:1 debt to equity, actually. Why else would people complain when gold contract margins were increased? Increased margin causes forced deleveraging in leveraged gold trades. Unwind the leverage, and the price of gold drops."
Gold is a traded commodity like all others. It is bought to (hopefully) capture an uptrend and sold to capture that uptrend in profit which is then converted into cash like all trade vehicles. If stocks were up big and a trader needed funds to cover margins, then the stocks would be sold and converted to cash.
I don't understand why we get all hung up on it. In a crisis we could as easily be using food to trade, some form of energy like wood or oil, or beans, sugar, rice, lead, brass or powder or any number of useful commodities.
In that case, many things become 'money', none of which are backed or related to debt.
Hopefully we never get there.
"When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this infallible sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." -Jonathan Swift
http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=...
BAC 'bowtied' on March 5th or so and has been in a primary downtrend since.
A 'bowtie' being when the fast MA's cross the slower MA's to the downside.
A great short.....
The signal of a possible transition (for longer term trades) will be when they flip back up again and are on top of the slower MA's. This is visible on a daily 12 mo chart or a weekly chart. The weekly chart shows the real distance between the price bars and each MA, which is significant. Additionally, the 200 DMA is angled down which also speaks to the weakness in BAC and appears to be getting steeper.
It does appear to be losing some of the downward momentum (angle of decline of price bars) but I suppose that could level off at zero!
Those with shorter time frames might want to trade some of those fake outs from the low fives to near seven.
Agree with Luggie but don't want to jinx myself as I've done well in these.
Still a strong upward trend in these co's and the underlying.
Loving the new KSM.
I think though, that sometimes we demonize those who react to the currency fraud. If it weren't for the currency, derivative and debt fraud perpetrated by the bankers and their political co-conspirators, our currency would be a store of value and there would be no vacuum for communism or even unions to fill.
Communism merely fills the vacuum left by the corruption of those who manipulate the system. Unions exist only because so-called capitalists (those in cahoots with bankers and government frauds) create the need for them.
We know that the international public and private debts will be eliminated in one of several ways. 1. They get paid. (harumph!) 2. They are defaulted upon.
3. They are paid back in devalued currency (AKA here as wooden nickles).
Workers and labor didn't create this problem, bankers did. If currency was a store of value and fair interest or returns made any sense, there would be far less private debt and only that debt that was productive would exist. People could take time to save and earn interest and pay cash, knowing their currency wouldn't constantly be losing value. But in a system where currency is always losing value, people are forced by common sense to spend it now before it disappears. Savers are penalized. Similarly, workers are forced to seek a means of stemming that tide, since any wages and pension money they put aside also loses value as does a static pay scale, so they unionize in order to maintain their standard of living. This is not to say that all is wonderful about unions, but they didn't create the vacuum, they fill it with a purpose because of the fraud perpetrated by the bankers and their political stooges.
Rather than blaming communism and unions, we should instead re-focus our scorn on those responsible for designing and abusing what should be a sound money policy of a value holding currency. By solving one problem we could solve numerous others with little effort. This is also not to say there isn't a need for a more level field of play. Those in developing nations should have a living wage and environment that is commensurate with the developed nations. Nations should then concentrate on their natural advantages and resources and not on victimizing their people.
In writing this I'm merely saying we should seek to resolve the cause of our problems and not blame the natural reactions resulting from those causes.
When we see Tea Parties (the real tea party, not the movement hijacked by the wealthy crooks), OWS movements, Unions, and Communism, we need to realize they are reactions to a crime against the people. When we address the crime, we eliminate or reduce the need for 'police'.
Confusion of Confusions (1688)
Although not a descriptive account of the process of stock trading, Penso presented the history of speculation in stocks and acquainted the reader with the sophisticated financial instruments used. The dialogue format allowed the reader to understand the respective perspectives of the various market participants and the intricacies of speculation and trading.
Penso also came up with four basic rules of the share market that are still of the greatest relevance today:
The first rule in speculation is: Never advise anyone to buy or sell shares. Where guessing correctly is a form of witchcraft, counsel cannot be put on airs.
The second rule: Accept both your profits and regrets. It is best to seize what comes to hand when it comes, and not expect that your good fortune and the favorable circumstances will last.
The third rule: Profit in the share market is goblin treasure: at one moment, it is carbuncles, the next it is coal; one moment diamonds, and the next pebbles. Sometimes, they are the tears that Aurora leaves on the sweet morning's grass, at other times, they are just tears.
The fourth rule: He who wishes to become rich from this game must have both money and patience.
In his honour, the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) awards since 2000 the annual De La Vega Prize to "young European researchers who distinguish themselves by outstanding research on the securities markets in Europe".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I suppose it could be suggested that 'Western finance' is, like a lot of so-called new ideas, nothing 'new'.
I've read Reminiscences and re-read it every once in awhile. I'll bet De La Vega and Livermore would have gotten along swimmingly. Rule 4 sounds a lot like Livermore.
Kaimu used the words "vital lies" and some readers take that word at it's hardest meaning, which would imply intent.
I read 'vital lies' and I read "self deception". We deceive ourselves all the time and this has been proven by science. We block out the memories of tragedies and tragic events and horrors of war. We deceive ourselves into thinking others believe like we do and have the same motivations and morals, then we are shocked when presented with evidence to the contrary.
I deceive myself into believing many here would act righteously and would be better managers of others money and moral bankers and feduciary's but the fact is, some would succumb to their human nature and would take advantage.
We would like to believe that those who represent us are patriots and would act as we would. The proof of this is the fact that Congress has a 9% approval rating but the vast majority of voters think THEIR congressman is a good person and they get re-elected. Apparently we think everyone else's congressman is crooked but not ours. We deceive ourselves.
So when we read Kaimu's "vital lies", let's be honest with ourselves. Let's not mis-interpret what he is saying. Those of us who claim to live by the word of "our creator" are not God(s) we are men and women, we are human and fallible. We have "faith" in a higher power we can't prove or see. Some may believe this is a form of delusion. That is why we have "faith" and not proof.
How many people believe their husband or wife is totally honest and faithful? How's that delusion working in a country with 60% plus divorce rates?
The list of "vital lies"; those we purposely or mistakenly tell ourselves, is an evolved survival trait that allows us to thrive in the face of some truly horrible events that transpire in a unfriendly universe where the ability to adapt and carry on is paramount.
On this Christmas I pray (see I do it too) we all have the strength to treat each other with honor and kindness and do our best to act as Christ-like as possible.
May we all do our part to eliminate the need to use "vital lies" to survive.
I think that is the message of the season. Be kind to one another, we are all doing the best we can to survive.
Okayyyy. I seriously edited this post as per the rules.
"The Company's principal asset is its international claim in relation to its investment in the Las Cristinas gold project located in Bolivar State, Venezuela."
What I read when I see this is: Crystallex has zero assets.
In the past Kaimu has pointed out that the S&P 500 is really the S&P 5 without government handouts. With the elections coming up in 2012 and the deficit looming, I thought I would point out this story and get Caraistas thinking about the "investment" ramifications should Obama not be re-elected.
This story reveals a virtual cluster **** of defense "experts" that sit on each others boards, have contracts with one another, advise various candidates and sit in positions where they will benefit win or lose. Some of the companies named would likely benefit greatly as would, judging by some of the numbers thrown around, any instruments that hedged currency devaluation were one of these candidates to win. All those budget cuts and so-called austerity measures would be channeled into the pockets of the people in this story. I would imagine Eisenhower is preparing to turn over in his grave.
Read this story and then go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie over the holiday. Life imitates art or vice versa.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-23/republica...
Pending a win by one of these military industrialists, make sure you have these companies on your watch lists. Regardless of political persuasion, this is the type of lobbying, nepotism and insider deals that are bankrupting this great country, and this is only a very small portion of it.
Glad to hear that Bill.
Patrick's post close reports are sorely missed as is he.
My sincere Thanks and Best Wishes to Patrick and all of the Cara Community crew.
Athan,
If posters can provide information or links assured that the *ideas* and *opinions* contained within the blogs will be openly and civilly discussed, then there is value. This is not to say everyone must agree or there would be no point in "perspective and discussion".
If posters cannot blog information and their own ideas and opinions without personal attacks masquerading as discussion, then there is little to no value to be found in the blog. We see proof of this daily in reports from Washington D.C. where uncivil argument is the rule.
I would hope this blog not become a microcosm of Washington.
Additionally, what one person decides is of value may not be to another. Perhaps at times like those it might be wise for those who disagree yet have nothing of substance to constructively add, to not comment at all. If someone has further information or additional comments then hopefully they can be made in a constructive manner and left at that.
Value shouldn't be determined by a few simply because they agree with one another and can bury another blogger with insults.
The value is in open and parliamentary discussion where ideas are freely discussed. Then people are free to decide on the value of information provided as they see fit. There are times when only one person will think information is valuable and the entire group disagree, yet that one person may end up being correct. Thus respect, even in the face of disagreement, would seem to be key to "perspective and Discussion".
Les,
The problem is in deciphering what information a person may be interested in, which is dependent on the type of trader or investor a person is and their particular time frame.
For example, a macro view of the European crisis in a news driven market as we find ourselves in now could be useful to almost everyone, but others might not find it useful. A technical view is going to be useful to those using classical technical analysis based on support or resistance levels in a specific time frame, but not to those with longer or shorter time frames or who use another form of TA. The value of news and information is as varied as the types of trading and investing. Who is to say what is useful to everyone or in the core interest?
For example, I tend to ignore news. It simply doesn't fit my method. On the opposite spectrum is Vad who trades on the reactions to news. Even though I don't directly use that news, there may be some piece of it that I find useful or informative. However, if I find a bit of information I think might help someone here or be useful in understanding some issue, I post the link here as I did today on the European situation. I used to comment a lot more but lately I may not comment to avoid a possible conflict. I will cop to posting info and links on the babies of illegal immigrants today and I probably shouldn't have. I will not do that in the future. I also tried to ask some participants to get along on Dec. 12th and that got me in trouble when I didn't intend it to. It did lead me to put a few people on ignore to avoid any further problems. For me that's better than the alternative.
I don't know if it's the information or if people are just stressed out with the economy and fatigue from directionless sideways markets. In the past there were times when some traders used blow ups here as a useful sentiment signal. Information is sometimes not where you expect it.
I guess 'useful information' and 'focus', like many things, is in the eye of the beholder.
Even if I never post anything again, I will still log on in the morning to read Bill or Geoff's analysis and to read the WIR.
As always, Thank you to Bill, Geoff and Athan for your work on the blog.
Edit: I neglected to Thank Stephen "Kaimu" Wellman, and Jeff "Dr. Cosa" Borsato, both of whom have been here about as long or longer than I have and who's contributions have been invaluable to me.