Be "One" With The Markets

I've always been asked how is that I can see things others cannot see, or refuse to see? How is it that I know what's going to happen, just before it happens? I use what I call "market meditation".

When it comes to investing, I'm a fundamentalist. It's hard to argue with the math.

But, years of experience have also taught me to think for myself, trust my instinct and intuition, and to have faith in my own abilities. People move the markets, and I have this keen ability to understand people's fears and motivations, and to correctly gauge how they will react based on their beliefs and perceptions. As such, this ability allows me to "be one with the markets".

But, people always want concrete answers for things that can't easily be explained.

Unfortunately, the only way I know how to explain my continual success is that - when you cease to strive to understand irrational markets, then you will know - without understanding.

The Future Of Banking

Cashless from Naked Emperor Productions on Vimeo.

Are You Being Played Again?

I've been reading more and more manipulative reports lately in the financial media, attempting to shift blame for this economic crisis onto the gullible rubes who bought homes at, or near, the peak of the housing bubble. It seems as though the people in these reports are saying "you bought the bag of goods we were selling, so it's your current debt, your unemployment, and your inability to qualify for even more debt that's perpetuating the problem."

That's right, it's not the people who encouraged you to apply for a mortgage they knew you couldn't possibly afford, told you that a $100,000.00 home was really worth $500,000.00 and appraised it as such, loaned you 100% (or more) of the home price knowing that taxpayers would be stuck paying the bill if you defaulted, and then packaged these fraudulent loans and sold them to gullible investors as "safe" investments.

It's YOUR FAULT for not seeing through their criminal enterprise.

Be a critical reader folks and you'll see that what I'm saying is correct. Underwater homeowners are being blamed more and more for current economic conditions. Unbelievably, the perpetrators of this historic financial crisis are now blaming your debt for their crimes. It's almost as though the victims of these crimes are now being considered the perpetrators.

Do I really need to say that it's not your fault? For goodness sake, don't be played AGAIN!

The REAL perpetrators want you to forget that the actual cause of our economic crisis stems from fraudulent financial derivatives created by Wall Street, corrupt politicians, crooked mortgage lenders, and an unethical real estate industry, all of whom exploited your foolish gullibility.. and freely continue to do so to this day.

So, I'm posting this seminal investigation of the real causes behind this economic crisis, conducted by the unerringly ethical investigative reporters at PBS FRONTLINE.

This way you can decide for yourself if our current economic problems are truly your fault.

Source: PBS Frontline, The Warning.

The Instability of Inequality

Do you ever get that feeling that you know something is fundamentally wrong but you just can't fully put your finger on it, or express exactly what's bothering you? That's often my case.

So, when I read Nouriel Roubini's commentary, The Instability of Inequality, on Project Syndicate, I realized that what he says almost expresses how I feel about our economic turmoil and the Occupy Wall Street movement. As excerpted from this article, Roubini says -

Even before the Great Depression, Europe’s enlightened “bourgeois” classes recognized that, to avoid revolution, workers’ rights needed to be protected, wage and labor conditions improved, and a welfare state created to redistribute wealth and finance public goods – education, health care, and a social safety net. The push towards a modern welfare state accelerated after the Great Depression, when the state took on the responsibility for macroeconomic stabilization – a role that required the maintenance of a large middle class by widening the provision of public goods through progressive taxation of incomes and wealth and fostering economic opportunity for all.

When you read the full article, you'll see that Roubini is a very intelligent economist whose insights cut right to the point. He's pointed out the specific problems, and I'm sure he's also prepared an economic model designed to address those problems (for a fee of course).

But, as often happens, ivory tower solutions are often based upon altruistic ideals. We tend to think that people who are elected, appointed, or otherwise paid to address these situations will always act on behalf of Americans as a whole, instead of acting upon their own personal agendas.

To me, that's the crux of the problem. America was already operating on a great economic model that was created from the ashes of The Great Depression. We didn't need to create a new model to replace it, what we needed was enforcement of our old model. All economic models will fail if the rules of those models aren't enforced.

And there's the rub. How do you create a functioning economic model when the people running the show don't want it? The people in charge of enforcing our previously functioning economic model weren't altruistic. They pursued their own individual agendas instead of watching out for our country collectively, and allowed that model to become "legally" corrupted in order to serve their own needs.

And, what's sad to me is that I don't believe that there are enough altruistic people left to change the status quo. I think many Americans have already lost faith in our leaders to do what's best for the country, regardless of their political affiliations. Personally, I don't see things changing anytime soon.

I mean, even the man who was elected on the basis of hope and change seems to be pursuing his own individual agenda. But, don't take my word for it, see for yourself -

Happy Halloween Traders

It's easy to get squashed when people are running scared. Always expect the unexpected and you'll never be disappointed when short-term market movements don't go your way.