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From the monthly archives:
August 2011
As of around midnight, Tuesday night’s lows have fallen within three ticks of an 1185.75 midpoint support whose breach would be telegraphing more weakness over the near term to at least 1175.50, its ‘d’ sibling. The bounce thus far is ostensibly bullish, but it will have to go a bit further to provide us with the kind of easy entry opportunity that we look for. Specifically, traders should use the 1190.50 peak-let shown in the chart for camouflage, provided the thrust that exceeds it slightly retraces to set up a C-D follow-through with a conventional ‘x’ entry point. All of this is sketched out in the chart, so check it out. Want to learn how to identify and use “camouflage’ trading set-ups yourself in just six hours? Click here for information about the upcoming Hidden Pivot Webinar. _______ UPDATE (10:34 a.m. EDT): A pattern very similar to the one shown in the chart played out overnight, generating a C-D rally that got within two ticks of its 1199.25 target. The ‘buy’ signal came at around 5 a.m. for an entry at 1190.75. In theory, the trade could have produced a gain of as much as $400 per contract if you exited at the target. The futures have moved higher since to a so-far peak at 1206.75, so if you held onto any part of the original position, you’d be reaping further gains. The 1227.25 target given here earlier remains valid.
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Who would have imagined a dead cat could bounce with such ferocity? Anyone who has ever observed a bear market in action, is who! And you had better get used to it, since this is exactly the way bear markets behave. One more thing: Although we “know” the Dow is going many thousands of points lower eventually, that doesn’t mean it will be easy to profit from the wild swings that are gong to take the broad averages to Mindanao depths. For now, however, let’s take stock of this bull phase by sticking with the 1227.25 target given here earlier. We can always take comfort in knowing that the bear, no matter how devious, is incapable of fooling us as long as we stay focused on impulse legs of minor degree going. Click here if you want to learn how to do exactly that without my help. Remember, you’re just six hours from being able to kiss your stock-market guru good-bye. Traders: As we know, the E-Minis could turn lower with a vengeance without having reached the target. Although camouflage shorts from within a point or two of 1227.25 will be easiest, I’ll suggest looking for the turn from here on up if you want to be certain of getting on board.
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Here’s the peerless Mark Steyn, writing about London’s riots in his latest column:
Several readers wrote to taunt me for not having anything to say on the London riots. As it happens, Chapter Five of my book is called “The New Britannia: The Depraved City.” You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western Civilization’s descent into barbarism. Anyone who’s read it will fully understand what’s happening on the streets of London.
The [debt] downgrade and the riots are part of the same story: Big Government debauches not only a nation’s finances but its human capital, too. This is the logical dead end of the Nanny State. When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the British welfare regime in 1942, his goal was the “abolition of want” to be accomplished by “co-operation between the State and the individual.” In attempting to insulate the citizenry from life’s vicissitudes, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. As I write in my book: “Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity.” The United Kingdom has the highest drug use in Europe, the highest incidence of sexually transmitted disease, the highest number of single mothers, the highest abortion rate. Marriage is all but defunct, except for William and Kate, fellow toffs, upscale gays and Muslims. From page 204: “For Americans, the quickest way to understand modern Britain is to look at what LBJ’s Great Society did to the black family and imagine it applied to the general population.”
The complete essay can be found by clicking here.
Google Fires a Shot Across Apple’s Bow
by Rick Ackerman on August 16, 2011 12:01 am GMT · 11 comments
We wish Google all possible success in taking on playground bullies Apple and Microsoft in a battle that has crucial implications for the use of patents to stifle competition. Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of cell phone maker Motorola Mobility, its largest acquisition to date, is a shot across the bow of more established competitors who would seek to throttle the search engine giant’s cell phone development and other promising technologies by suing them to death in patent court. The Wall Street Journal recently detailed how high tech companies have been acquiring every patent they can get their hands on so that they stand a better chance of being predator rather than prey in patent litigation. Lawsuits over patents have become so ubiquitous that they are beginning to supersede innovation itself as the primary means through which high tech companies grow and prosper. In this respect, Google is the new kid on the block in head-to-head competition with firms like Microsoft and Apple that have been around since the 1980s. As a relative newcomer to the technology scene, the company’s war-chest of patents was practically empty until recently. » Read the full article