Earlier we noted that the record lottery jackpot is nothing but a gimmick [5]to get "the poor" to part with what little wealth they have. As it turns out, we should have also added "the stupid", something which MarketWatch has, however, figured out, and in a blatant attempt to ride on the Mega Millions histeria, and to get the the full blown stock market ponzi up and running, the WSJ sister publication is now petitioning everyone to please understand that playing the lottery and participating in a broken, fraudulent and corrupt stock market, are both one and the same: "You have to play to win." We must thank MarketWatch for implicitly pointing out that winning in the centrally planned stock ponzi scheme, in which every trade is frontrun by either a major bank or a millisecond algo, has the same 1 in 100,000,000+ odds as winning the lottery, roughly the same as coming out of Bernie Madoff Asset Management with all your cash intact.
From the MW front page [6].
[7]
And if anyone is wondering why the propaganda has gone full retard, the reason is simple. Recall that 10 days ago we said [8]:
In the latest week, ICI just reported that domestic equity retail funds just saw another $2.9 billion outflow, the 4th consecutive in a row, and the 23 of out 27 outflows during the entire parabolic blow off top phase the market has undergone since October, and instead put another $9 billion in fixed income funds "soaring" yields be damned. What does this mean? Probably that the stock ramp is about to get uber-parabolic for the simple reason that this is the only thing left in the status quo's arsenal - to keep doing the same old same old, hoping for a different outcome, because this time it's different. Only this time the dumb money either doesn't have the cash to burn, or just doesn't want to participate in a rigged, corrupt, centrally-planned market.
Yup - the banks are so loaded up with toxic stocks that they have NO CHOICE but to keep the ramp accelerating higher and higher until "stupid" retail comes back in and distribution happens, leaving the retail investor holding the hollow bag again. Alas, there were no inflows this week either. Which means that just like Italian banks, the meltup could well accelerate even more from here.
[9]
Sadly, retail just doesn't care any more. And once the Primary Dealers and hedge funds realize they have all gone Wile Coyote over the cliff well... gravity ensues.
[10]
h/t Nolsgrad