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Stocks Surge To Record Highs After Biggest Short Squeeze In Over 3 Years
Because really there is nothing left to say... US Macro data at 10-month lows, earnings expectations collapsing... US equity markets at all-time record highs...
These last 2 weeks - post Yellen - are the biggest and baddest stretch of gains since Bullard did the heavy lifting in October... (and 2nd best since Dec 2011)
Quite a rip in stocks this week... given everything that is going on...

VIX was clubbed like a babyseal...
But not surprising given the biggest 2-week short squeeze since December 2011...
Ugly week for the long-bond (significant steepening in 2s30s)...
Worst 2-week spik ein 30Y Yields since Jan 2009...
The Dollar was weak on the week... led by EUR (everything is fixed) and JPY (BoJ is buggered) strength...
Gold closed the week in the red despite USD weakness - well everything is awesome so why not - as silver led commdoties higher along with copper and crude. Crude seemed to roundtrip off the early week plunge.
And so with that we leave for a long weekend... with this... it's all about fundamentals...
Charts:Bloomberg
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zimbabwe
Long wheel barrels to carry all that cash they're printin! Long EPSON toners to sell em back to benny.
One would have thought the Greek crisis was solved already. I wonder what happens on Tuesday....
Thanks for all the shorts to feed on Zerohedge!
When Greenspan made that comment the other day, I knew a short squeeze was in the works.
BTFD is in play. I said so a few days ago when Zero Reported the VXX levels at highs.
Hello, How do you think they make the market go up. Manipulate and Cash in off of shorts.
Let me see if I understand this - the worse news get the better the dow does...
So.. what would it take to get the dow to 35,000 a nuclear warhead going off in a city?
1.Club members receive notice of the coming nuke attack
2. The Club buys hundreds of billions of put options on the S&P and billions more on call options on Oil and defense companies
3. 3 days after attack when market bottoms they go long the S&P
4. All of the funds were supplied by the Fed at 0% interest along with taxpayer bailout money and is leveraged 100 to 1
5. The 50,000x increase in option volume is never investigated
I can´t imagine the life of a professional stock trader. Unless your a trader working for a club member and getting consistant, and accurate, insider information from unprosecutable sources....and you don´t make any stupid mistakes...life must be pretty damned good. If your anyone else, fighting the cartels, fighting the algos, day after day after day...how on Earth can you avoid ageing at 5x the normal rate?
You really can't. Look at the average trader/banker/businessman, they all look like zombies in expensive suits. They are sucked dry by the succubus that is money (or the dream of it). Like hamsters trapped in their wheel of shit.
What would be the best way to join the club though? Is there even a way? Become friends with some unscrupulous politicians?
If you're not born into the money-changing tribe, you join the Freemasons.
Nothing like a nice cold glass of freshly squeezed zerohedger in the morning.
Carnage. Have an awesome weekend.
I don't know if more Greece theatrics are needed or not, before the Greeks fold like a cheap lawn chair.
Doesn't matter what happens with Greece. The FED has the markets right where they want them. Short of a nuke being detonated, I can't see anything bringing the markets back down.
Short of a nuke being detonated, I can't see anything bringing the markets back down.
I bet the market would rally on a nuke being detonated. That is how fucked things are.
Damn, I didn't think of that.
Basically we need the universe to collapse upon itself at a speed of infinity until we reach a particle of infinite density.
That is what it wil take for the bears to win.
According to several sources, many people on Thursday lost their jobs at Yahoo.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-is-firing-people-at-yahoo-20...
More "rebalancing" and "restructuring" ....
This is an excerpt from the article about job losses at Yahoo!:
"CEO Marissa Mayer has been under pressure to cut costs at Yahoo since before she formally accepted the job in 2012. Instead of deploying broad layoffs, Mayer has favored a system that ranks employees and dismisses those with poor scores."
That sort of method to cull employees was used by Jack Welch at GE, He describes the method in 'Jack: Straight from the Gut'. It is a controversial management style.
Sounds Bullish!
"That is what it will take for reality to rear its ugly head." FIFY
maybe it's not even that far off.
i'm beginning to think all it will take is a well-time Volker-esque interest rate hike into collapsing macro data.
sure the recession will be painful, but the Fed is now pretty aware it's lost control and speculators aren't listening to it... why that 'rate hike talk' is coming unabated and with increasing frequency.
this is what 'loss of credibility' begets, now the Fed is scrambling to gain it back.
If that were to happen, they would shut down the markets. If you were short or had puts you still wouldn't be able to make any money.
I have a feeling this run is about long spy short oil trades unwinding. .
Over and out!
Let me look into my crystal ball...
Stocks will go higher
"One would have thought the Greek crisis was solved already. I wonder what happens on Tuesday...."
Bit of a short term perspective...like one day...
Where is Dick Fuld from lehman fame to fuck over the shorts?
I would rather shit my shorts than short this shit.
It's the New Normal... makes no sense unless you happen to be Getting FREE $$$$$ Earnings? Fuck that...
This whole thing is such a joke. I am almost to the point of
/whatever'ing it
and turning on the Kardashians.
Yep, I'm signing up for some twerking lessons and turning my truck into a grilled cheese wagon...should make me at least $5,000,000,000.00 by Monday, fuck it.
i think that was the price of sandwiches during Weimar Republic.
It is not a joke at all. It is sad that the elites cannot create wealth anymore. It is just a sprint to the finish.
Just a print to the finish, you mean?
Haus-Targaryen
The Kardashians! God no. Think of the children!
Apparently Kim did a video that is worth my time ... who knows.
funny coincidence, Haus-Targaryen, Wait What beat you to it by a week. he ventured over to a site called "TMZ" last friday and laughed his ass off... almost as hard as he laughs his ass off reading ZH and Marketwatch.
'markets' aren't even worth the trouble at this point, just let them do what they're gonna do, check in every once in a while, and wait for them to come out on the other side.
go discover some new beers (I found the best Triple IPA ever this week, Hoparrillo from Knee Deep Brewing), start up a conversation with a stranger, and realize "what is it like to walk around with that kind of knowledge?" applies to you.
Opting out is one thing, but if you're living in a country where your leaders can choose to inflate your currency on a whim, you need some kind of plan to secure your wealth from arbitrary devaluation. And that's the truth for most countries I'd wager.
So what to do? The stock market is fixed, gold is fixed, real estate is going to implode. I want neither USD nor EUR, nor any other fiat currency prone to impulsive printing. Give me some ideas, how to profit off this shitshow?!
is this what is known as whistling past the graveyard?
Despite headlines, portions of today's action seemed tentative, didn't it? RUT from years past would have screamed to new highs pre-lunch. Today, it mostly came in the 3:06 p.m. 2-minute bar from earlier machine loading. Could indicate institutions have short orders waiting just above, or simply the long-weekend effect. The Russell rarely fails to tag a daily Keltner limit within range, so it's possible we rocket a bit further next week.
It's got a beat, but I can't dance to it. But . . . apparently, machines can.
STOCKS UP CHART PORN BLEARGH
yeah, still making money over here doing the opposite of what ZH says... this place is a better contrarian indicator than Jim Cramer
This first paragraph of the ZH disclaimer:
"Zero Hedge is a financial news and information site, not an investment advisor. Making investment decisions based on information published on Zero Hedge, or any internet site for that matter, is more than unwise, it is folly."
Yeah, but the laughs are priceless.
I will admit the facts. I stopped shorting the market becasue of insights obtained here. I also starting buying PMs for the same reason. No regrets.
I'm withya when you're right....
well it's this or throw darts at a board randomly... this is more fun
Please let us know when you cash in all the paper gains. And do us a favor, let us know before the crash.
I don't bet what I can't afford... I also sleep like a baby, so don't worry yourself lol
love the fact you got 7 negatives..
they can't handle the truth!
you forgot to add "because stocks, and buying them, are the whole world, the only thing that matters. why everyone doesn't just quit their job and become an index day trader is beyond me."
that's pretty much what you're saying.
love the fact you got 7 negatives..
they can't handle the truth!
You can either look like an idiot, BEFORE or AFTER the crash.....
It's your choice.
Say turtle: "yeah, still making money over here doing the opposite of what ZH says... this place is a better contrarian indicator than Jim Cramer"
If you doubled your fiat e-money, but cut your kids/grandkids lives in half, would you consider it a successful investment? Tick, tick, tick...
if a hypothetical argument falls flat on its face on ZH, does it make a sound?
Yea yea, we've been told since S&P 666 that all gains were due to short squeezes all occurring before/after market hours....gee why do I think it's all horse shit?
Because that's the Zerohedge way, dontcha know? paranoia and negativity in one big bowl!
Right, but how much of the gain is based on anything real?
Washington's Birthday is a United States federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. Colloquially, it is widely known as "Presidents Day" and is often an occasion to remember all the presidents, not just George Washington or Abraham Lincoln but also Woodrow Wilson who sold out the nation to a bunch of money grubbing bankers.
Soon they'll rename it to 'Obama Day'....or maybe jjust tell the truth and name it 'Bankster Day', those who really run everything after all.
Someday, when obamy is gone, he will be printed into fame on the thousand dollar bill.
The children of the future will laugh and say "that fucker is not worth a real silver dime".
"not worth a real silver dime".
Nor even a Kenyan shilling..
"Soon they'll rename it to 'Obama Day'"
They? All he needs these days are executive orders...Congress is soooooooo 1776...
Where is Ol' Hickory when you need him?
Time to BTFATH?
Speaking of high, its quitting time! Cheers
You expect all time highs with new products\innovation but look at Shiller P/E ratio back to 2007-8 highs, only time higher were 2000 and 1930's
http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/
The regular P/E ratio is lower but earnings are declining, so this should increase rapidly
http://www.multpl.com/
It's different this time. Got a LOOONNGG way to go to get back to the PE ratio highs in 2000.
Very interesting numbers but I'm not buying it. Corporation have always cooked their books, but with the end of mark to market, who knows what anything is worth?
Right, just like the BlS numbers are cooked and every other political, er government "stat" on this economy.
Just continue to convert nearly infinite duration financial assets to cash and gold each and every day and you will be in AWESOME shape...
There was a time when I was in a hurry to close trades
I was like you
There was a week I averaged 734 SPY trades per day
I was like you
Now I don't mean to make you frown
No, I just need to slow down
Have you never been yellow?
Have you never tried to tap the Graham & Dodd inside you?
Have you never been happy just to buy and stay long
then wait five years to see if you were wrong?
Trading all day as you do, with your eyes locked the screen
I was like you
Never had time to kick back, watch that monthly bar turn green
I was like you
Now may not be time to take a stand
As banker balance sheets expand
Have you never been yellow?
Have you never tried to channel Yellen from inside you?
Have you never been happy to stop trading as a sport?
Have you never let someone else sell short?
I see a lot of yellow, but that will change.
I see orange too.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/breaking-explosion-in-barcelona-orange-ch...
And blue.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/blue-snow-now-russia-must-be-one-colorful...
"I see dead shorts." -- apparently a line uttered by a youngster in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming film "Sixth Squeeze."
Prediction: No new record highs on Monday.
SQUEEZE...OUCH!!...But, my turn is coming!!
they'll probably change the rules, when my turn comes around
CRIMINALS
"they'll probably change the rules,..."
you mean like collars on Silver and 2 margin hikes in a couple of weeks.....?
It's depressing, (I know)....
As for me and my house....
I will keep stacking...
"probably" change the rules?
where have you been?
mark-to-market
dodd-frank
basel III
those are just off the top of my head.
whenever something untoward happens, you can be sure they will change the rules to benefit bond and stockholders, and screw as many individuals subordinate to those groups as is necessary to restore their inflationary trajectory.
it's what always happens.
Not over until AAPL market cap is 1 trillion. Almost there.
Well beyond rigged, well beyond criminal...
............
Plenty of IPOs to do.
Why play the lotto when you can make hundreds of millions IPOing Food Service/taco trucks?
Along the Cheese truck how about IPOing a taco/burrito business?
Fund managers are waiting to snatch up IPOs.
I'm going to suggest a guy I know with 2 trucks IPO his business.
"And so with that we leave for a long weekend... with this... it's all about fundamentals..." That says it all for me. Even the casino has fundamentals. Market Fundamentals, what a joke.
Spitz was untouched, while Buck was streaming with blood and panting hard. The fight was growing desperate. And all the while the silent and wolfish circle waited to finish off whichever dog went down. As Buck grew winded, Spitz took to rushing, and he kept him staggering for footing. Once Buck went over, and the whole circle of sixty dogs started up; but he recovered himself, almost in mid air, and the circle sank down again and waited.
But Buck possessed a quality that made for greatness--imagination. He fought by instinct, but he could fight by head as well he rushed, as though attempting the old shoulder trick, but at the last instant swept low to the snow and in. His teeth closed on Spitz's left fore leg. There was a crunch of breaking bone, and the white dog faced him on three legs. Thrice he tried to knock him over, then repeated the trick and broke the right fore leg. Despite the pain and helplessness, Spitz struggled madly to keep up. He saw the silent circle, with gleaming eyes, lolling tongues, and silvery breaths drifting upward, closing in upon him as he had seen similar circles close in upon beaten antagonists in the past. Only this time he was the one who was beaten.
There was no hope for him. Buck was inexorable. Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes. He maneuvered for the final rush. The circle had tightened till he could feel the breaths of the huskies on his flanks. He could see them, beyond Spitz and to either side, half-crouching for the spring, their eyes fixed upon him. A pause seemed to fall. Every animal was motionless as though turned to stone. Only Spitz quivered and bristled as he staggered back and forth, snarling with horrible menace, as though to frighten off impending death. Then Buck sprang in and out; but while he was in, shoulder had at last squarely met shoulder. The dark circle became a dot on the moon flooded snow as Spitz disappeared from view. Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good.
Gus, haven't seen you around since you got banned at TF. Still the most awesome avatar ever. What a story, what a dogfight, dang. Still trading I see, lol...
Hallo, JStanley.
Yes, we are still keeping the home fires burning over in Deflation Land, patiently waiting for signs of a tradable top.
Three Peaks and a Domed House is still ready to go, just waiting for the red candles to arrive.
First leg down takes out the market longs. Later we take down the banks, and finish up with the currency system. Stock up on cold Rainier beer before it's too late.
And make sure you check out Bicycle's charts, too. He's a regular Rainman lately.
Hey, thanks for the links. I'm participating in Emini Addict's trading room, as a n00b learning first off how to trade the gap. There's at least one old TFer hand there, I forget his handle back then, but he had the b&w Easy Rider avatar. I did well this week, on paper. The real dogfight will start when there's real money at stake. DH's call on this last leg up a couple of days ago could rightfully be called uncanny if it weren't right there in the fibs.
Yeah, you know, when it comes to the market, a person can do amazing things on methamphetamines. But when the tweeking starts, that's when shit gets crazy. Et ubi sistit, nemo scit.
christiangustafson
That was awesome.
I have a book like that.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Haven-G-R-Graham/dp/0872163989
The followup is this book, but I have not read it yet.
http://www.amazon.com/Forest-Wars-Graham-Diamond/dp/1419675672/ref=sr_1_...
Jack London, The Call of the Wild. Simply the best.
Think I'll read White Fang this weekend.
"Buck," of course!
When this double top becomes evident, I'm giving all my favorite bulls(hitters) a copy of London's To Build a Fire (pdf), heheheh....
>And so with that we leave for a long weekend
As the sun sets slowly in the west, obedient to the will of the Fed, ...
I am not an economist, nor do I play one on ZH. Nevertheless...
On one hand, markets can remain irrational longer than anyone can stay liquid. On the other hand, when this sucker finally breaks it is going to be epic. And, not in a good way...
Keep stackin'...
I can't take this anymore. Turning my back to all and going to just live my life. I'm exhausted from frustration in our country's politics and CB. There's nothing I can do about it anyways & in the end when I'm taking my final breath I don't wanna regret spending so much time wondering when this shit show is gonna end, it may never at this point. I give up. Our government & media win.
Absolutely true. The disinformation does not make any quest for sound judgement useless as tits on a bull.
Thin air still has more value than digital money for it really exists. Start paying attention to what really matters, like waiting for two hours on Valentines day to get a table at a restaurant.
Enjoy your fantasy island or the midget will club you to death.
Funny, I've been thinking the same. This is just plain unhealthy. Everyday gets more tempting to turn off the news both political and economic and pull what little I have left in the market out of the "market". Tired of this shit. Maybe I need a few more days or weeks of this nonsense to convince me still...lol
That's why I drink.
Rubber neckin.
My fundamental analysis indicates that the market is severely undervalued and I recommend a max leveraged long position.
Sincerely,
Every CFA
Pan
Greece
Faunus
Lupercalia
February 15
Romulus
Remus
V
We've been through this umpteen times:
We know that...
1. Every game has its rules, rule makers and rule keepers.
2. Everything is manipulated or controlled by TPTB.
That being the case... fundamentals and porn charts mean very little. In this sense, this is like old USSR. We thus now have USSA.
In the former, people had few or no illusions about things. They simply adapted to the lunacy, but still kept their sanity in the basics of life: family, friends, food, drink, culture. Call it Existentialism at work.
In USSA, by contrast, the illusions and self-deception is rampant and chronic. Even here on ZH, its owners, writers and bloggers keep persisting in their beliefs of natural economics. It makes more sense to adapt to a similar mode of Existentialism, and play the Game.
Unless some want to persist in Einstein's definition of insanity, the rational thing to do is to play the "Game within a Game". Put another way, to derive maximum benefit, fun and safety at the same time...
Keep dancing, but stay close to the door.
Except that, as much as he may be subject to manipulation in the short run, in the long run Mr. Market will always show his true colors as a force of nature. One that is ultimately beyond any mere human being's or brain trust's control. Not "sort of like death," but exactly like death. If that weren't so, there would still be a Soviet Union.
"In USSA, by contrast, the illusions and self-deception is rampant and chronic. Even here on ZH, its owners, writers and bloggers keep persisting in their beliefs of natural economics."
Some parts of your metaphor are apt. But I will say that nature, and economic law will not be disobeyed. This is like saying you can push off Katrina - just because...no - you can't. And one day, that'll happen to these criminals central planned interlinked economies. It'll happen very quickly, imho, faster than anyone here can imagine. The question is - what will the reset end up like? Will we have any freedom at all (even costly freedom?), or will it be the same or worse than before? In that whole admixture, there's some hope that things could possibly be different. Other than that, I hope in Divine Providence, and as you pointed out about the Soviet common person - in the important stuff of life - family and friends...
Something is wrong here (no shit right), but this little rally has been different. While the others have had some sort of CNBC hyped logic behind them - the Fed will print more, the economy isn't so bad or good, etc... - there are too many things going on to be rallying like we are - the Fed is actively talking about hiking rates in the summer, the USD/JPY took a dump on BOJ talk, every single economic report (other than goal seemed jobs) has been a major miss, earnings season (other than Apple) was bad - makes me think this is the final blow off top
Technicals dont matter with this level of manipulation happening. The manipulation in the PM market is another story however. As Pms really start to take off, the regular smack downs will have less and less affect and eventually will work against the manipulators, At that point it will stop. I dont see it taking very long either.
Something is not right about this market. We have a divergence between the stock market and the underlying fundalmentals. More layoffs coming and economy losing steam again.
Same thing happened in 2009 and the market went on to gain 200%. What's your point?
Deep down inside I have to believe I am 'correct'.
I look around, see all the crazy things going on in the markets and KNOW I am reading this correctly.
This weekend I will take my hun out for Valentines day, enjoy a nice meal, some adult beverages, and.....
won't think about this issue until next payday when I attain some addt'l shiny.
ps: Look at what the BOJ has done to their stawk market and what has happened to their price of YEN / AU....
FED is jawboning and buyin' stocks, doods. Manipulation error in buyer's favor.
So if they are manipulating, I should buy?
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2015/02/13/10-states-where-h...
Violence is coming. And I'm not talking Ferguson-let-off-some-steam type violence. But I promise you libs / progressives three things:
1) It will be brief
2) It will be bloody
3) And it won't go the way you think it will
What is "lib"? What is "progressive"? You sound like a bank cocksucker when you don't know who the real enemy is.
"I promise you... (the coming violence) won't go the way you think it will." --SnatchnGrab
How do you know I don't know what you know, and how don't you know that I know that you don't know what you think you know about what I know?
C'mon it's a fair game. Ackerman constant
whining made herbalife go down 1/4
Take a shot everytime Ackerman is on Bloomberg and you'll have a party in no time.
If I had know the stock market is full of this much bull, I would have sold my shorts back in the 90's to get long everything.
Mark my words, when all wars have ended and all currency crisis is resolved then and only then is the market making a full-on reversal. That's never going to happen.
Fewer and fewer participants in this "market" are scalping each other and hoping that the cattle class will never wake up and question the value of the digitized Dollars that are sloshing around
I'm selling used furniture which we bought 5 years ago or longer and relatively cheap for at least 2x the money today and have no time finding buyers. The new stuff is also way more expensive than it was. Only 2 years ago, it was much harder to get people excited. It's just one of the part time "jobs". People have no trouble parting with their cash. People are losing faith.
Hyperinflation is coming.
If stocks are hitting record highs and the current data looks bleak, maybe Durrrrrrrrrrrrden is missing something that stocks are looking at. I am pretty sure the market prices better than one guy's twisted perspective.
I sold all my Equities around 2012, expecting a crash. I later became convinced junk cdo's were going to cause it. I have lost a lot by sitting on the sidelines. Coincidence that this is around the time I started following ZH?
Would be nice if there was more balance and trading strategy. Ok, world terrible but any good stock strategy?
Zh is a bit like that film, "they live"
You aren't alone mcean2163. I sold everything late September 2014 and used half of it to buy two deferred annuities and the other half is sitting in a fixed income account that is making 3.5% a year in interest. I'm am not complaining one bit about it. I'm glad I did what I did, because now I can do productive things everyday without worrying about all of this crap anymore.
That's a pretty good time to sell. I sold with a 40% profit but it would have been significantly more if I'd waited until 2014 like you...
What part of BTFATH did you not understand? Did you think it was a joke?
Stock market movements are a redistribution of claims on wealth, nothing more.
Cornell students taste socialism first hand:
Cornell students erupt over health care feeStudents at vaunted Cornell University are plenty smart enough to know they should not have to pay a penalty for not buying the school's health insurance if they already have coverage, but that's exactly what a new policy at the Ivy League school requires.
The $350 "health fee" for opting out of the school’s insurance plan was announced in a memo school President David Skorton posted on Cornell’s website last week, according to higher education blog The College Fix. But it is just setting in with the student body, and many attending the Ithaca, N.Y., school are not pleased. Under the Affordable Care Act, students must have insurance, but making those already covered pay an extra fee to skip the school's plan is not sitting well.
“It is our responsibility to work together, to make sure everyone in our community who needs help gets it. That is a burden, and a benefit, we all share,” She said
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/13/cornell-student-body-furious-over-s...
It's a fallacy to think that the stock market's role is to mirror the economy. Rather, the stock market is an economy unto itself. Look at all the IPO's that have come to the market and how the cash just floods in. The Top 1% are doing extremely well and the Central bankers are all committed to Keynesian economics. A 2% gain YTD for the S&P isn't exactly a tulip stem either. And who knows.... James Bullard might even chime in with some more positive vibes next week....
I've given up bad-mouthing it. Now I just trade this fucking joke. Fuckem. I'll get a peice of this whether it goes up or down.