Archive - Mar 13, 2015

"I was shocked today by the absolute gaul of the Fed releasing a statement about Net Worth in America reaching record levels.  Now I get that they are under extreme pressure to sell the story that everything is rainbows and butterflies. The ugly reality is that the bottom 80% of Americans experienced none of that gain. And so when the Fed via its ass pamper boy, Steve Liesman, start banging on about the fact that some sliver of society is being handed extraordinary wealth while the working class has lost 40% of their net worth since 2007, well a big F### you right back at ya bub!...And for those of you that think I’m an ass for being so harsh on us, well stuff it.  Get up off your stool you lazy drunk, shut your damn mouth and start fighting these political parasites like a damn man, like a damn American."

"Exceptionally" optimistic, "exceptionally distracted" ignorance, or "exceptionally blind" faith?

The endgame of communist rule in China has begun, and Xi Jinping’s ruthless measures are only bringing the country closer to a breaking point...

Meet ForexChile, the largest purveyor of leveraged contracts for difference in Chile and the subject of a scathing Bloomberg report which outlines how unsuspecting retail investors end up 100X leveraged on derivatives they sometimes do not understand.

There is a possibility of a nuclear deal being agreed between the P5 + 1 nations and Iran next Friday, 20th March. This may be the precursor for energy stocks to recouple to downside and for spending cuts to spread from capex to dividends for majors.

Whether it’s subprime auto lending, Janet Yellen’s “stretched” biotech sector, or corporate credit, bubbles abound in today’s fragile market. Prem Watsa thinks valuations in one sector are particularly outrageous.

"Gotland is a big worry for us. It could be overrun by Russia in minutes and then all of us would be highly vulnerable to an attack," warned one politician recently as it appears NATO fear-mongering and Russia sabre-rattling is having a significant effect on many of the Baltic Sea's border nations. As The FT reports, Sweden will put troops back on the strategic Baltic Sea island of Gotland after a decade-long absence and will also step up military exercises around the island involving the army, navy and air force. “Hunting submarines is a priority area," Sweden's defense minister explained, adding that "everything we do is a part of underlining Swedish sovereignty."

Every time you think the US establishment can do no more to threaten the freedom and livelihood of the very Americans who contribute the most to the prosperity of the country, they increase the heat in the furnace by a notch with more cheap money and debt, additional laws and higher taxes. America, the land of the free, as it was rightfully referred to in the past, and certainly a beautiful place in so many ways, is in the process of destroying the very foundation it was built on.

In an apparent attempt to allow Greeks to live well vicariously through their elected officials, FinMin Yanis Varoufakis poses for a not very austere photo shoot, sending Twitter into a frenzy.

Betting on the end of what is a 30-year interest rate cycle may not a productive use of our time. However, the first thing you need to know about central banks is that they are the worst traders in the world. The worst.

Despite the endless media onslaught, which courtesy of Apple's hundreds of billions in cash is nothing but the biggest new product paid infomercial-cum-publicity stunt to roll out the latest new "revolutionary" wearable product a just released Reuters/IPSOS poll shows that the vast majority of Americans are greeting the new Apple watch with nothing but iYawns. The poll reveals that 69% of Americans are they are not interested in buying the gadget, with 47.8% responding "not at all interested."

The beginning of the end of high frequency trading has arrived, and it has done so in a most unexpected fashion: with an HFT turning on other HFTs and revealing on the record, for the entire world to see, just how truly parasitic, manipulative and "market-rigging" the algorithms truly are.

There is a tremendous denial by analysts and economists currently of the deteriorating economic underpinnings.

Now this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to market manipulation, I thought I would just provide a concrete example of the kind of funny business that goes on every day in financial markets.