Here’s a funny YouTube that puts the Occupy Wall Street movement in perspective. Click here.
From the monthly archives:
November 2011
Did yesterday’s savaging of gold and silver leave you feeling glum? Click here for something that will cheer you from our friend Chuck Cohen, a New York-based financial consultant. Chuck is about to roll out a new line of services, but if you’d like to tune regularly to his wise thoughts on the precious metals world and the markets now, drop him an e-mail at this address: ikiecohen@msn.com. Note: If you had trouble opening the link above, try this one. Chrome, Firefox and Explorer are all so busy these days beating each other’s brains in that they all stink. I’ve end-run their stupid little game with a text version of Chuck’s essay that should open in any browser. There is also a link posted in the chat room that works to open the original Microcrap Word version.
The dollar’s rally continues apace. A last-ditch flight to “safety” ahead of Europe’s collapse? Whatever the reason, a Hidden Pivot target above 81.00(!) is starting to look compelling. Check out the update to my Dollar Index tout for further details. Please note that I’ve also updated my trading advisory for Apple, a key bellwether.
Try bottom-fishing at 1194.50, the clear-as-day Hidden Pivot target of the pattern shown. You could use a stop-loss as tight as three ticks, but camouflage is the preferred tactic for two reasons: 1) the pattern is sufficiently clear to attract the attention of the riff-raff; and 2) the support lies just 2.00 points above a key structural low recorded on October 20. Incidentally, although a breach of the pivot and the low would have bearish implications going forward, you could still take the long side following an apparent breakdown, since it could produce a nice whipsaw to the upside. Click here if you’d like to learn how to do these trading tricks yourself.
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Amidst Wednesday’s night’s quietness, there were interesting things to do. Most immiedately, there was a “live” trade in the E-Mini S&Ps that promised a happy outcome for those who paid attention to Wednesday’s touts.
Traders who followed my advice would have gotten long at exactly 10:11 p.m. EST Wednesday night, since the futures bottomed at 1225.75, a single tick from the entry point I’d advised. (It would have been a tick or two higher than the original number, since we were using a rising trendline to position our bid. It was also noted in the chat room that a conventional ABCD pattern caught the 1225.75 low to the exact tick.) Assuming four contracts were acquired, cash out half of them now with the futures trading at 1232.75. That would give the remaining two contracts a profit-adjusted cost basis of 1219.00. Set a 1230.00 stop-loss, but plan on exiting one of the two contracts at 1234.50 if it’s reached. We’ll swing for the fence on that last contract, letting it run with no stop-loss. _______ UPDATE (1:56 a.m. EST): We exited the third contract at around 10:33 p.m. That leaves us with a single contract (or 25% of the original position if you did more than four contracts) and a paper-profit-adjusted cost basis of 1210.25. To eliminate the open-ended risk of loss, I’ll recommend using an impulsive stop-loss, meaning we’ll exit the last contract if a bearish impulse leg is generated on the hourly chart. At the moment, with the futures trading 1236.25, it would take an uncorrected plunge to 1224.25 on the hourly chart to stop us out. That would breach two prior lows — an internal as 1225.75 recorded tonight at around 8:30; and a second at 1224.50 recorded on November 10. _______ UPDATE (10:59 a.m. EST): We exited on the stop at 1224.00 for a theoretical gain of slightly less than $700 per contract. Because the downdraft exceeded the 1225.75 Hidden Pivot midpoint of a pattern begun Wednesday from 1257.75, the rally from this morning’s low is probably going nowhere — except lower. Click here if you’d like to learn how to do this parlor trick all by yourself.
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A World on the Brink
by Rick Ackerman on November 18, 2011 1:59 am GMT · 65 comments
[How much longer can Europe and the U.S. postpone the global financial system’s collapse? We doubt that the chicanery that has sustained it so far will see us into the New Year. In the essay below, Rick’s Picks contributor Erich Simon sees an epiphany coming that could reshape the face of modernity. RA]
There is a beginning and end to everything, and I find it interesting that Italy and Greece, two of the oldest, are “winding down” as expressed by their financial dredge. Meanwhile, the countries to the north, whose social thrust is mediated by harsher environments, continue to service existing loans into managed growth and a semblance of balance. The debt game is all about growth into a finite environment. We are witnessing countries at the margin of both demographic and cultural surge beginning to falter. Perhaps this is indictment that nothing can last forever because the universe doesn’t allow for that; like immortality, it would never allow for “turnover” or “progress.” How many Michelangelos before it’s time to move on?
No one has a better sense today that the human race has collectively extorted its environment than the countries facing debt-based Armageddon. Quality of life is diminishing right in front of our eyes. The EU is fracturing like the Hatfields and McCoys. While humans are quintessential adapters to change, which is the only thing certain about the universe, the change is ramping into the span of one generation, so that we are all, young and old, witness to a larger social awareness. A deep seated sense of loss comes from our recognition that the world of yesterday was preferable to that of today. That toying around in your living room behind a game console is a mockery of the physical adventures enjoyed by our recent past. That the journey is over, the walls are closing in on both rich and poor, and we either take the next step — perhaps a repudiation of the origins of our animal selves, certainly the reigning in of such to accommodate overcrowded conditions — or go down in the flames of a Shakespearean overlay that has merry-go-rounded us all into the final act. » Read the full article