DISQUS

There should be a secret handshake for kids like us. I think it takes a lot of courage to persevere in a relationship with someone who's hurt you so badly in the past. Take care.

So was Governor Sanford exposed because he didn't go along with the bailout package for South Carolina? Are the banksters behind this one too?

What's the take of this crowd on what happened to Sanford?

I still dont see where program trading comes in here...

couldn't agree with you more... you're always a voice of reason on this site.

i think part of what fuels the conspiracy-minded populist anger re: program trading is that most people don't really know what it is. they hear PT and think evil robots, instead of the more common, and pretty vanilla, basket trades.

@squire... ftw

So, an increase in buying in the last 5 minutes MUST be manipulation? How come I never see these types of posts when the market breaks south in the last 5 minutes? It happens all the time, and it happend extremely frequently from September to March. We can't expect a trend like that to continue forever in a single direction.

Anyone reading through these comments can see the OVERWHELMING negativity. It's apperent on every blog , marketwatch, stock message board and real-life conversation. No one has the confidence to go long the market, which is absolutely the time you want to accumulate. We have been climbing a true wall-of-worry since March and juding from the comments here, you can clearly see we have numerous individuals willing to short or continue to sit on the sideline. Who exactly is left to sell?

Valuations mean nothing when the market chooses to ignore valuations. Clearly, investors do not care about p/e ratios at the present time. Everyone is ignoring valuations because no one has any real clarity. A lack of clarity does not mean earnings will continue to fall off a cliff. It simply means that everyone's "best guess" of future earnings is extremely unclear. As a result, you would expect p/e expectations to trade either extremely high (market expects recovery) or extremely compressed (market expects never-ending decline).

Now, why exactly would you want to be on the side of "never-ending" decline? It doesn't make sense to short humanity. As the population continues to grow, we create wealth. We always find ways of creating wealth. IT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR CENTURIES. That wealth finds its way into any investment vehicle available, including stocks. Why would you want to short that? Your fighting the tide.

Very few individuals have been riding the bull from March until now. It's very easy to shake a long's confidence when the headlines are endlessly negative. You can say "but but, people are talking about green shoots Mike, no one is negative anymore!" Guess what? WRONG. Talk to ANYONE from executive to trash man, and you can see a huge change in attitude yr/yr. Everyone is still paranoid because revenues are down, the job market is rancid and earnings visibility is extremely uncertain. That paranoia is CLEARLY priced in and has been for a number of months.

Uncertainity creates opportunity. If everyone was certain the market would rise, it would be priced in.

Let us hope Congress prevents the Fed from getting any more power, and that if Summers gets the chairmanship, he is run out of DC on a rail the way he was from Harvard before not too long.

I wish the Fed were toast. It has caused two depressions in less than a hundred years.

watch it.. the conspiracy nuts are gonna jump on you for that one!

if what you suggest were to be implemented, the stock market would certainly not be more boring or safer... liquidity would die and volatility would spike, making the stock market an even riskier place to put your money than before.

a few last points.
1. I wouldn't say anything about the past year has been "normal". But again, the jump from unexpected to conspiracy is a pretty tough one. What's the phrase... don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence?

2. Does everyone on this site have to agree with you? I notice a pattern where anytime someone posts a dissenting opinion on here they immediately get flamed.

3. While I think Tyler's posts on the equity markets tend to miss the point, his analysis of the credit world is usually pretty interesting and a lot less conspiracy-minded.

RS be that as it will, this article left little for the imagination when it came to evidence. either historical facts or basic supply and demand figures are cited, or a chain of events with the main corroborators are brought to the fore in connection with outcomes that clearly would make even the pink panthers of the world suspiscious.

PULITZER...PULITZER!

yeah... i've read all the posts. IOI screens that kinda, sorta, suggest whatever you want them to mean... accusations and innuendo with no REAL facts to back them up.

Since JPM executes trades for RenTec, and JPM has large advertised IOI volume on SPY, then there must be collusion between them to prop up the markets? Since GS is a SLP on the NYSE (where only a fraction of volume gets done these days), the logical conclusion is that they're manipulating markets? Sorry, but all they're doing is running a short-term alpha strategy as market makers using the SLP status to boost their rebate arb.

As a trader whose job it is to trade with all of these counter parties and more I can tell you that you guys are just believing what you want to believe. That all of these institutions are part of one grand conspiracy is pure lunacy.

i'm not sure their thinking has changed much since then.

since i'm so dumb... please explain what is NOT stupid about this post.

the fact remains... i don't see how posting a SPY chart and then using it as evidence to accuse GS of manipulation, JPM of not being able to decide which hedge fund it would rather break the law for, and Jim Simons of front-running his investors is anything but STUPID.

wow. you sound really mad.

was it the 'hobbyist' or the 'money losing' part that has you so angry?

the personal attacks are cute, but you never get around to refuting the original comment...

it helps the hobbyists feel better about how much money they're losing...

Perhaps you should consult the I Ching.

The odd thing about Kaukab's head on this blog is that it does not decompose. It remains as fresh as it was when it was first posted.

Also you are assuming that things are actually happening in Iran. You are underestimating the power of the disinfo media. They can spin a revolution out of thin air. The Iranian revolution is a chimera. There is a revolution going on inside a revolution inside a revolution.

Also there was a train derailment in Illinois. One dead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/us/21train.ht...

Combine that with this,

http://www.northcom.mil/news/2009/060909.html

"PETERSON AFB, Colo. – North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command are planning to conduct a combined exercise June 18 - 24 that will incorporate several military exercises with a National Guard exercise. [...] Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska National Guard units will respond to multiple events in Iowa and Kansas including simulated train derailments and foreign animal disease."