Archive for January, 2009

The Last two days…kinda similar

By trader7757, 28 January, 2009, No Comment

ESH9 1-28-09
Click to enlarge
The market was very entertaining today, as traders celebrated the prospect of yet another bailout. There was a time when positive news made the market go up…and negative news caused the market to go down. In this highly speculative market, technically based trading with well thought out stops is the order of the day. As you can see on todays charts, several lines of and resistance and support were key the entire day. Of course, in recent months, no day would be complete without some giant moves up/down that occur without warning or reason.

ESH9 1-27-09
Click graph to enlarge
As has been the case in the last few sessions, there was lots of action around the support and resistance lines, and it payed to pay close attention to the volume numbers as the lines were approached. I had a great time trading today.

think about this

By trader7757, 26 January, 2009, No Comment
Ten Rules for Trader Longevity
This list is for traders but also applies to investors
.

1. Recognize mental blocks. If you believe that the financial markets are rigged, stay away. Bias is blinding. If your ego requires constant feeding and vindication, do not trade. If being right is more important than making money, steer clear of the stock market. If you must be dogmatic, direct your energy into following these rules.
2. There is no needle in the haystack. There’s no reliable way of picking a single winner from the thousands of stocks listed on the exchanges.
3. Resist betting it all on the longshot because the outcome is based purely on luck. Dr. Ziemba explains the mathematics of horse racing. The point is that the bettor is better off with horses that finish the race “in the money”. They don’t have to come in first.
4. Diversify. Spread your bets around. It’s the only way to be on board the winner.
5. Trade small. Bet only a small fraction of your equity on each position. You must take risk to get reward, but ruin is certain if you take insane risk. It’s defined in Fortune’s Formula. Think Adventures in Conditional Probability.
6. Press the winners. You must compound a winning streak.
7. Never throw in good money after bad. Never double down. Ever.
8. Do not rationalize. Down is NOT up. Red is NOT the new black. If the account equity is shrinking, your bets are in the wrong direction.
9. Establish a stop loss. Place it in the appropriate location (except just above the swing high or under the swing low where everyone else put theirs), a place where you can be statistically confident that the move in the present direction is over. Don’t use a tight stop for lack of equity. The market doesn’t care about how much is in your account, so trade a smaller position size and put the stop in the proper place.
10. Use the stop loss. Just do it. Immediately. No excuses. Having a “mental” stop loss is the same as lying. There’s no point, because the longer you let it slide, the deeper the doo-doo.
Observe Rule Nine. Always. Don’t go to the bathroom without it.

This from JanPaul on Market Watch

By trader7757, 26 January, 2009, No Comment

Somebody mentioned gold will go down when bond yields go up. Why?

Yes, that can happen in a sound economy but in this one would cause gold to soar in price if yields start going up. Why?

Because the Fed has no intention of letting yields go up but, it may happen anyway. If yields start going up it is because the dollar is in trouble and they can’t sell enough bonds at the lower rates. However, it is a two-edged sword because the more the dollar drops the less people will want the bonds because they would get paid back with devalued dollars.

I am not saying some people won’t buy the bonds if the yield goes up but, not enough to help the government out of the mess it is in. There is about $500 billion available for lending and the government wants a couple trillion. So, you could offer 10% yield and you still can’t get enough lenders.

Also, at this time, nations that lend to us need to spend on their own people and economies instead of lend to the U.S. Our nation is basically bankrupt so our people can’t cover the loans we need and the world can’t either.

Then you have the rumblings in the G-20 of a new global currency to be the world’s reserve currency. The people who say the dollar won’t end its reign as the world’s reserve currency say there is no currency to replace it. They are probably right which is why the G-20 was talking about an entirely new currency tied to a “basket of currencies.” Some say it will be a gold backed currency but, I doubt that.

If the world returns to a gold standard, it would most likely be due to oil nations. The Gulf nations are going to depeg this summer from the dollar and go to a common currency. The Malaysian gold and silver backed currency is being pushed by Malaysia to be the “Islamic currency.” Should they decide to go with that currency and then require oil be sold in that currency, it would destroy demand for the dollar.

Even if they only go with a “common currency” tied to a basket of currencies as has been talked about in the Gulf nations, and require oil be sold in it, the dollar’s demand will fall like a rock and all commodities, especially gold will soar in price even if value is falling.

The U.S. government seems to be doing everything it can to destroy the dollar. You have to ask why? Could it be they need an excuse to default or hyper-inflate out of debt. Testimony to Congress says we can’t grow or tax out of this anymore. Well, guess where that road leads?

The Gov. Accounting Office says it leads to the “gradual, if not sudden loss of ..our standard of living…” Guess how a “sudden loss” happens? A currency collapse!Don’t go by what our government says. Go by what they are doing and what they are doing is an all out war against the dollar’s value.

This video had me in tears laughing.

By trader7757, 26 January, 2009, 1 Comment

I WANT SOME TARP
by
Bill Zucker