ARCHIVED COMMENTARY
Has WSJ Gone
Off Deep End?
For edition of September 14, 2006
The Wall Street Journal’s respectability is fading fast. Consider this story, from yesterday’s front page: “Fashion Dictates // Well-Dressed Men // Will Show More Leg,” in which a Journal reporter labored to convince us, with barely a trace of the usual Column Four irony, that “Shorts With Sports Coats Are a Trend That’s Back.” Maybe on Fire Island and in certain louche precincts of San Francisco they are, but if this latest abomination from the fashion industry shows up in my neighborhood, I’m moving the family to Wyoming.
Mind you, I’ve never had a problem with fashion designers dressing pretty girls like guys, accessorizing them with bowlers, whimsical neckties, tuxedo jackets and such. But dressing men like little boys is quite another matter, and for the Wall Street Journal to take such travesty seriously suggests something may be awry in the newsroom. We do recall the Journal’s announcing a while back that it was going to devote more space to reporting on developments in the fashion industry. But who would have thought that this shift in emphasis heralded a metrosexual coup in the newsroom?
Unfortunately, the metrosexuals probably were not to blame for yesterday’s clueless lead story about the purported impact of falling oil prices. In its own way, this report was as far removed from reality as the one about men wearing shorts with sport coats. The headline was succinct and untroubling: “Falling Oil Prices // May Spell Relief // For Consumers.” But then there was this sub-hed, a veritable whipped-cream pie of happy-talk: “More Pocket Money Helps // Economy Overcome Trouble // On Housing, Inflation Fronts.” Now, far be it from me to assert that a drop in the price of gas from $3.00 a gallon to $2.50 or so will be insignificant to the economy. For my household alone it would mean a saving of about $600 during the next twelve months. But consider the other side of the ledger – the approximately $60,000 slippage in the value of my home since it was last appraised. Talk about a shriveling wealth effect! And I am hardly alone, as anyone who has followed news concerning the housing bust already knows.
Of course, we expect Wall Street’s paper of record to paint the bust in hues of rose, even if it requires more than a few gallons of bad arithmetic to sustain such a brazen lie. It may be simply a matter of being polite, akin to Alan Greenspan’s genteel avoidance of such words as deflation, recession, and bust during his benighted tenure as economic philosopher-in-chief. But the evidence suggests otherwise. Indeed, the Journal was complicitous in popularizing the many dangerous falsehoods asssociated with Mr. Greenspan’s brand of rogue economics.. Recall that the Fed chairman’s malodorous slurry of dubious statistics purported to discover real wealth in inflated property values, not to mention an investment boom at a time when U.S. household savings growth was negative.
To judge from yesterday’s front page, we shouldn’t look to the Wall Street Journal to tell us when recession has arrived.
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Vancouver Seminar
Registration forms for this October 28-29 event at the Fairmont Waterfront will go out within the next ten days, so if you haven’t yet let me know of your interest in attending, please do so as soon as possible by clicking here. Here are some further details:
FAQ
When will the Hidden Pivot Seminar be held?
There are four seminars scheduled over the next four months, all on weekends. The first will be in New York City on October 14-15; the second, in Vancouver on October 28-29; the third, in San Francisco on November 11-12; and the last, in Sydney on December 2-3.
The class takes two full days, then?
Yes, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. After an on-site brunch the second day, the remaining hours will be devoted to an informal Q&A session.
Can I take the course online?
We do not offer an online seminar at this time, but this may change if demand warrants it.
Is the seminar open to those who do not subscribe to your Rick’s Picks advisory service?
The course is open to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. However, I encourage all seminar students to subscribe to Rick’s Picks, if only for a month or two, so that they can become familiar with my methods and trading style. Also, the archives and educational pages offer a useful resource for learning about my proprietary methods prior to the seminar.
How can I sign up for the seminar?
You can request a registration form by clicking on the blue hypertext line under “Last Call!” above.
How much does the seminar cost?
Tuition for the two-day event is $1,500, This covers course materials and extensive post-grad mentoring in a real-time chat-room held during market hours.
When is the money due?
A deposit of $300 is due with the registration form. $100 of it would be non-refundable, and the remaining $200 would become non-refundable six weeks prior to the session.
How about the remaining balance of $1,200?
It would be payable by two weeks prior to the session and would be refundable. A check is preferred, but you will be able to use a credit card for an additional administrative fee of $50.
What will I learn?
The goal of the course is to enable students to master the Hidden Pivot method and to use it to forecast price reversals at least as accurately as experts who do it for a living. In addition, you will learn to use some basic risk management strategies and to leverage swing points with puts and calls. If you’re interested in what my subscribers have said about hidden pivots, click here.
Can someone who knows little about trading or technical analysis benefit from the seminar?
Although many professionals have taken the course, it is an ideal place for the novice to start, since it offers a relatively simple, stand-alone method of forecasting and trading. No prior trading experience or knowledge is required.
