Edgy’s Soapbox Derby

Howdy, SharePlanners! I had to come out of my shell to share this recent headline from the PermaBears at ZeroHedge: Market Volume Hits Fresh Non-Holiday Decade Lows.  I tell ya, when I can actually see the cynicism dripping from articles as this, I have to laugh out loud. 

Combine the premise behind this article of HFT’s and Federal market manipulators being the only ones trading these days, to my gradual revelations of the workings of crony capitalism in our governmental system today, and I just have to throw up my hands and laugh like a happy dork in the Periwinkle with sunshine on my nose.

Our country has been stumbling through a cyclical bear market since 1999.  It was shortly after that I started gathering interest in the workings of our financial system and how to become a profitable investor and trader.  The more I’ve learned, the more appalled I have become of how this sausage gets made. For the past decade, while we of the Third Estate have been spoon-fed tripe that prices aren’t really going up, of To Big To Fail, of Quantitative Easing, of the spaghetti code that is our national income tax code, those people in power have been passing laws and money around to buffer and support their own wants and needs using “public” money.  We are being distracted with the modern day equivalents of bread and circuses to disguise the transfer payments being made with our lives.  Occupy Wall Street may have some merits, but it is a distraction from what the real problems are.  Remember that when you hear someone of authority speak in support of OWS or 99% or even 98%.

Think of your money as your life, your blood, sweat, and tears that you have spent away from your family (unless you get to trade at home, good for you!) to earn as a wage, or as a profit for your efforts.  That life-force is being seized as taxes and dispensed at the whims of those who only seek to benefit themselves. And I am beginning to see the unique flavor of Chicago politics these days, too.

Of course, I’m only ranting, here.  I’m not going to offer solutions because that usually leads to arguments.  I just hope you realize what is being done with sleight of hand in front of our faces.

What does that mean for today or tomorrow? I don’t know, but I will strive to trade and work for a profit!  I will be seeking choices that will allow for me and my family to enjoy the liberty of the fruits of our labors. IT IS NOT FAIR to take the fruits of my labors to give to those who are otherwise able to provide for themselves, poor or super-rich.  Because I know that my tax dollars are going to both.

As for the Estes-powered US markets? I more firmly believe that this concealed hyperinflation is going to be the third and final shoe to drop.  And I will be watching for it to drop if the S&P hits 1600 within the next 12 months.  Remember, I’m soothsaying here, so it’s just a prediction.  But it’s based on a theory that prices can’t recover this much, this quickly.  So if the indices stall first and drag on a little longer before reaching new all-time highs, then I would expect to see the higher prices stick.  In other words, I expect a few more years of pain before this economy is truly ready to recover.

I just hope whatever happens will purge out all the garbage that’s in our governing system.  It would seem it is the only peaceful solution left.

Oh.. and I hope all of you have a very happy Valentine’s Day!!!