Doug Kass Is the Ultimate Contrarian of a Contrarian Indicator

If there was ever a bigger blow-hard on CNBC then Jim Cramer, it is likely to found in Doug Kass. If you’ve ever followed him on Twitter, he uses senseless expressions like, “gun-to-the-head – market goes down/up” as if that really helps those who follow him. 

When the guy is net short and the market rips higher, he conveniently forgets that he happened to be net short, despite the hoards of people asking him if he is still short while the market rips higher. Instead he finds himself magically net-long as if that was the case all along. 

Mr. Kass will tout his success when he is right, and refuse to answer his critics for his bad trades. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I am wrong about the market all the time, the difference is, I don’t hide from it. I post my trades and past performance each day, and you can see how well I have done over the years. With Doug there is no such information out there. Though my respect for him would be far greater if he would. 

This morning he is out there telling everyone to raise cash or get short, on the basis… now get this, the basis that he has that “Summer of 1987 Feeling”, which just happens to be when we saw historic levels of volatility similar to what was seen back in 2008. You also had the “Black Tuesday” where the market tanked over 20% and he’s out there stroking fears telling folks that the same is likely to happen again, based on some feeling of his we should trust. There is absolutely nothing out there to suggest that in the short-term such an extreme pullback is imminent.

The fact that people will listen to him and others who like to ‘toot their horn’ with no accountability is why so many people desperate for success will follow someone like Kass and ultimately fail at trading for doing so. 

I’ve been critical of Doug Kass personally in the past, on Twitter I simply stated that he should not tell everyone to get short without an exit plan if he’s wrong (and at the time he was in the wrong for telling folks to do as much) and instead of responding in kind, he simply blocked me, which is no loss to me, but clearly the guy doesn’t appreciate any accountability in his trading world. 

So while I think there is a case that this market is overextended and perhaps ready for a pullback, I think it is immature and highly pompous of Mr. Kass to go around stating that this market gives him that “Summer of ’87” feeling as if he was trying to relive some popular Bryan Adams song and in doing so refuse to be accountable when he is wrong despite enjoying that “spike-the-ball” feeling of being right.