THE GRAND ILLUSION

“If the stock indices had a face, this would be it.”

With exactly 3 hours until the open, word went out, bids got placed in the FANG stocks, and “pajama” traders panicked all at once to the upside, on this last day of trading for the month of May. And since we can expect the institutional Chipmunks to rush into stocks at the open for “window dressing” purposes, cuz they want all their clients to see in their 13-F filings that they’re in the “right & proper” MoMo stocks of the moment, why wouldn’t stocks rally pre-market to get these morons to buy at higher prices? EXIT QUESTION: “What changed in the world over the last 90 minutes to get the largest equity indices market on earth to go up 0.1%? What? Somebody enlighten my sorry donkey, cuz if it’s not manipulation from the deepest pockets on earth [a/k/a central banks], then what was it? And so, the “illusion” continues day-in, day-out as otherwise “normal” people rack their brains to try and figure this crap out and can’t do it.

And even if they can, most won’t believe it cuz they can’t square the implications in their head of the consequences in other parts of their life of challenging Wall Street orthodoxy. Sadly, I’ve known liberals who can’t face facts and accept reality; they make lousy traders; just as sadly, I’ve known conservatives who can’t see the hypocrisy in their own “facts” and are just as delusional about trading as others. “Fact is, until you accept the fact that these markets are manipulated and that you have to figure out how to get their manipulations to “work for you”, you might as well be Alfred E. Nueman”.

So, here we are today facing end of month money flows, and a crude oil inventory report that has the potential to crater crude below $48 / bbl. rather quickly; the key question, of course, is will the oil “Plunge Protection Team” show up and save the day if this happens? I’m betting they will, cuz stocks must go higher without any real cracks in the dam, and a plunging crude oil price threatens the energy industry that is overweight energy to begin with. We’ll see what happens, but under no circumstances will the equity markets be allowed to go down the “rabbit hole”; we know this from the FED Pie Hole after yesterday’s interview with CNBC head FED apple polisher S. Liesman.

Turning to today’s market … a funny thing happened after the Chipmunks failed to show up and buy at the open … seems crude oil has the market spooked after breaking $48 … and whaddaya know, NDX finally discovers gravity … I mean, what’s wrong with the market’s favorite stock at $1,000 per share @ almost 200 PE? First trade of the day directly below; I had to take some heat, but it finally rallied some before oil stabilized, so I treated it as a scalp.

As you can see, I was a hair early; didn’t count on crude oil plunging to take out stops below $48 before the oil inventories report that I thought was coming at 10:30. For now, the market is on hold. Oil doesn’t waterfall, so stocks take this as a positive and immediately rally. But apparently, I’m wrong about the API oil data @ 10:30, cuz I can’t find it anywhere; fact is I don’t know when it’s going to be released now except that it’s today sometime … great … this is what pisses me off about oil … they change everything around at the drop of a hat, and I can never get a handle on when shit is reported that affects the market. And once again, it bites me in the ass, cuz it causes me to treat the Dow30 trade as a scalp when it didn’t have to be; it makes a large gain into a small gain, and once again the oil Gods make me look like an idiot. “Hey, I don’t need your help to be an idiot; I can do it all by myself, OK”?

Well, now that the retail sell stops have been flushed out of the SP500 & NDX100, along with the Dow30, and the fact oil didn’t plunge after taking out stops below $48, means stocks are set to rally with nothing in there way except pesky facts of economic gloom & doom with terrible home sales & PMI figures; but, as I have said before, news doesn’t mean Mr. Jack Squat. The marching orders were given yesterday by the FED Pie Hole for the correction, and now subsequent rally. EXIT QUESTION OF THE DAY: “Can they rally this stuff back over 21100 – 21110 or do we retest the lows at 20940”?

Well, that escalated quickly; market is at 21110 within 45 minutes of the low 70 points ago. Frickin’ oil a-hole industry; OK, happy thoughts, like puppies or something … “no, you ain’t gettin’ a Beggin’ Strip now”! … “dog is readin’ my thoughts and it’s freakin’ me out here” … I find it hard to believe they’re gonna bring it back today over the opening level of 21047, but since the central planners don’t email me to let me know for sure, the market has got to be careful of more shoes to drop here, especially in NDX100.

Once again today, we see the first leg down be the bottom, with no test of the low or even anything remotely considered a move down after the low is put in; as I said yesterday, this is rare, but it is happening with increased frequency lately [last few months]. This most likely due to the fact the first leg is simply long liquidation and there isn’t anything left when it’s over; in other words no follow through on the sell side.

Also again today, the crude oil “Plunge Protection Team” hard at work after stops get taken out below $48; after that it’s straight up to support equities until the API inventories report at 4:30 P.M., after equities close, and by then who cares about oil? Better two-way action in the Dow30 today, only because 1) NDX100 rediscovers gravity, 2) the economic data is horrible, and 3) the FED Pie Hole yesterday gave the “green light” for a correction with his “it’s healthy” seal of good approval from the central planners. Still, it isn’t anywhere near where it should be and has been in the past.

Now I see on ZH, that the PMI numbers that came in this morning that were abysmal have been changed due to a “reporting error”; “sure thing; and I’m supposed to believe this”? Here at 17:18 server time the market takes out the previous 100 minutes of action in about 5 seconds to the downside; this is exactly what concerns me about being long from the first leg down and also being below the opening New York level. It’s a dangerous trade, especially in a complacent market that has been conditioned these last couple of months to view this first leg as “that’s it” when it comes to the daily bottom; well, I got news for you, history says otherwise. Granted, we got the central bank planners preventing a meltdown or even a mini meltdown, but they aren’t going to prevent a correction, especially when the day before one of their very own said it would be “healthy” if the market had one. Well, here it is … here’s to your “health”!

Here in the early afternoon, the Dow30 really doesn’t act like we’ve seen the bottom of this correction; the market is only about a dozen points from my earlier liquidation exit from the waterfall drop. It should be higher than this, but isn’t; I think it’s too late for new lows for the day, simply cuz the planners really don’t want an end of day panic on their hands to the downside. On the other hand, unless there is some catalyst for the Dow30 to rally up to the New York open, all that is going to do is rob tomorrow’s trading of some firepower the market needs tomorrow. So, it looks like serious “chop” the rest of the day, with spikes up, then down, to get people to do what they don’t want to do.

I’m somewhat miffed I got bad info about the oil report today; it cost me money. But, it is what it is, and I can’t dwell on stupidity otherwise I’d already be insane by now … I hate in when I’m logical like this. So, we take another small gain and move forward to tomorrow.

PAMM spreadsheet directly below.

The dog is driving me nuts again; ever since he read my thoughts earlier… the beach beckons … I’m so outta here … until tomorrow.

Have a great day everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX  “PAMM/MAM”  IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!

VISUALIZING THE IMPOSSIBLE

“Sheeple can’t handle the truth!”

In what seems like an impossible event, stocks will actually open lower today; all of the financial MSM mouth organs are in sync with 1) Greek default risk, 2) Italy collapse, 3) OPEC worries they can’t keep production cuts in place [“yes, believe anything a member of OPEC says, and I got some Haitian swamp land to sell you cheap”!], and 4) FED June rate hike on impending Friday NFP numbers. Amazing how they can all come to the same conclusion on the same day at the same time; “why hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d think there was some kind of collusion amongst the “powers that be” to put the line out for today’s talking points, almost as if they wanted prices to go lower today, especially at the open and soon after that.”

Cuz what I’m suggesting would have been unthinkable a few short years ago; back when sanity ruled both finance and politics. Thanks to a string of disaster Presidents starting with Clinton right through President Empty Suit, the political well has been poisoned, and the country’s finances turned basically into a third world banana republic. In 25 short years, what would have been totally impossible is now the norm; “and that norm is the manipulation by central banks of every single market that is traded and that matters. It’s all coordinated, dictated by, and led by the FED, SNB, BOJ, BOE, & the ECB, and there isn’t a whimper anywhere in the MSM that it is wrong, immoral, or extremely short sighted. And all of us in the minority pointing this out are somehow marginalized into the tinfoil crowd”.

You think it’s a coincidence that when crude oil bottoms on the M1, that the Dow30 & SP500 bottom also? And if this lower opening today sees a strong rally after the European close today [11:30 ish in New York] in the Dow30, will it be a coincidence that everybody has forgotten and no longer talks about what is being talked about now? How is it the “mantra” changed and who changed it?

Markets, like our personal freedoms, are being gradually eroded over time so that nobody notices what they have lost and how little they have gained in return for “more government”; nobody complains because they don’t want to be the next victim of the Clinton Crime Family, the Obama IRS hit squad on conservative organizations for audits, or ChairSatan Yellen’s  decision to freeze you out of the next FED briefing cuz you asked the “inconvenient questions” and wouldn’t STFU and go away like the rest of the MSM sycophants who eat up the slop she serves and now you’ve lost your news reporting job because of it. So, who stands up and complains about market manipulation? JPM & Squid? Hell, they’re part of the problem; joined at the hip with the FED and feeding at the Pig trough of Government.

And so, it starts in 2012 with gold, and now 5 years later after various debacles in other markets and with other central banks paving the way, most notably the SNB & BOJ, it now doesn’t even raise an eyebrow [except on CNBC cuz nobody likes to be reminded about unpleasant facts] when central banks openly smash gold & silver or buy crude oil; “it’s just the way markets work now is all”. “And some day, when they come for you for just about anything, who will be there to stand up for you”?

“Oh yea, it’s impossible, cuz we live in the “land of the free & the home of the brave”, only we don’t anymore. The U.S. is a “soft” police state, run by petulant elitist children of both parties, who want nothing more than 2 things; 1) more power over your life, and 2) all of your money. Liberal Democrats are communist thugs, and Republicans simply Democrat “Lite”; nothing gets solved, nothing gets fixed, and all the while class warfare is perpetuated by a self-anointed, elitist [all the “proper” schools don’tchaknow] ruling class that is neither educated nor enlightened but simply indoctrinated & credentialed that aren’t “up to the task” to do anything about it until there is another civil war. Ignore all of this at your peril”!

Turning to today’s market … how long can the lower open be allowed? What FED Pie Hole will be “trotted out” like a show pony mid-maybe late to mid-afternoon to change the narrative? Don’t be surprised if it happens. Here at the open in New York, the same “Chipmunk” institutional activity that infects almost every open very much in force; I guess they all got together over Memorial Day weekend and convinced themselves that stocks are cheap so “let’s buy on the open”.

First trade of the day directly below, looking for momentum off the short-term correction low.

Basically, riding it higher until it loses momentum and then liquidating before the turn; it’s the only way to insure not getting completely screwed by the LP with an off-market fill.

And once again, with everything on the MT4 board seemingly dead, why should the stock indices be any different? Here around Noon time in New York, the SP500 with an effective range of about 4 index points; better than most days last week, but in the scheme of things very pathetic. Remember 10-15 years ago with the SP500 @ 900 – 1100, it had consistent daily ranges of 15-22 points. Now @2400 we’re lucky to see anything over 10 points in the New York session, and most likely it will be 4 – 8  points. This is what manipulative markets look like folks, cuz the central planners don’t want under any circumstances volatility that might upset their imaginary, fairy tale policy objectives; as a result, we get BS like today, where for the better half of the morning we’ve been stuck within a few points of the New York open around the 21044  level … and when I say “stuck”, I mean stuck cuz we haven’t seen ±5 points in over an hour … i.e. until somebody simply can’t take the SNB bids any longer and “pays up” with a nice 10 point spike in 2 seconds, of which I’m not the only one who looks around and says quite literally, “WTF was that”?... well, that lasted all of 20 minutes to unwind and come back from where it started.

File this under, “I simply can’t make shit like this up without it becoming reality”; seems talking head Steve Liesman over at CNBC, who by the way is so in love with everything the FED does and says, had an interview with some FED Pie Hole, and the guy actually said a market correction, “might be a good thing”. Now, for everybody who needs translation, this is exactly what I was writing about above earlier; here comes “Mr. Government”, telling all market Snowflakes, “don’t worry about these little corrections … it’s really “healthy”, and we’ll have your favorite FANG stock higher in no time … nothing to worry about, don’t panic and sell your shares, all is well … we got everything under control … nothing to see here Sheeple, move along Ok”? Remember the Titanic, when the band kept playing in first class?

Simply put folks, understand and realize that everything you thought you knew and understood about markets pre-2016, doesn’t mean Mr. Jack Squat anymore; “traders especially had better come to grips with the new reality that the only thing that matters is what central banks say anything means. The new paradigm of “Speed of Light trading … Crickets” comes not from confusion in the market among traders who suddenly decide price needs to be adjusted; it comes from central bank “Plunge Protection Teams” via the TBTF banks and ripples into markets in a nanosecond. In the stock indices we got various central banks who adjust their block bids for key stocks, thus sending “in-the-know’ traders scurrying to buy SP500 & Dow30 futures. So, if the news is bad it’s “Transitory” [Yellen’s favorite word]; point is, it doesn’t matter what the news is, cuz all that matters is what they tell you to think about the news and how to trade it”. Keep this in mind next time you listen to one of these Fed Pie Holes on the propaganda channel a/k/a CNBC; they are there for a reason, and it’s not to enlighten your ass, it’s to let “big money” know they got their back covered and not to worry. TRANSLATION: Higher stock prices ahead, don’t worry about it. And for this reason alone, you got hedge funds closing all over the place, cuz they can’t make any sense of this at all and don’t want to be a part of the great manipulation. Of course, someday when it all blows up, they’ll deny everything and find somebody to blame.

And so we sit here caught in intraday ranges, which truly as little as a couple of years ago I would have said is “impossible” given the dynamics of the marketplace and the money “sloshing” around; impossible? Not any more it isn’t, cuz the stock indices markets I used to know have been killed … murdered by central planners … it’s dead, and unless and until central banks are defeated and western civilization changes for the better, why should anybody in their right mind think they are going to allow markets to return to the condition they were in pre-2016? They have unlimited political power and the CNTRL-P button; what the hell do we have?

The only headline they want you reading, via newspaper or online is, “Stocks hit new record”! Everything else is moot, which is why I said before that FX is dead … gold is dead … and oil has a floor underneath it to protect the energy industry. The very last thing they want is volatility, cuz volatility is uncertainty, and uncertainty may lead you to sell your ETF’s and Index funds or change your 401(k) [which they plan on looting some day real soon, cuz it’s not fair you got one while others don’t], none of which is “good” for policy objectives. I’ve said this before, and some listen while others won’t cuz they don’t want to believe, but get your money out of the U.S. before Trump’s Presidency is over; the next DEM to gain power and the country is O.V.E.R.

I’d love to trade the Dow30 more, but there isn’t any prudent thing I can do when it won’t move. So many traders have been burned the last couple of years selling markets, looking at phantom fundamentals that they thought mattered, but didn’t in the eyes of the central planners. Take your pick, from gold to EURUSD, to crude oil, and now the stock indices; nothing is acting and trading like it used to, and once you’ve taken a few arrows in the chest or got 3^rd degree burns on your financial body, you tend to back away from this stuff and let others be first in line. And that’s what’s happening in the stock indices right now; nobody wants to “hit” the SNB bids cuz there is no limit to them. They soak up your sell order like a group of hungry locusts. Ditto in the SP500 futures and Dow30; “go ahead brave soul, you be first to sell … I’m right behind you [kinda … maybe … I dunno … good luck comrade!].”  And so we sit here and there is no trading activity. In all seriousness, I don’t even know why we need to have the NYSE anymore; just have the central banks have a stock “fix” twice a day and fix prices where they want them. They’re gonna control all companies within 30 years anyway [well, at least the SNB plans to], they can dictate price and allocation of shares to the public for “policy” purposes. Congrats, you’ve glimpsed into the future … as for me, I hope I’m dead by then.

I thought at the beginning of trading we had a chance to see a relatively active day; what started out as promising, though, turned to bat guano almost exactly as the FED Pie Hole hit CNBC; “Message received sir, no need to fear the future … will only buy moar & moar and await your further instructions … over and out”. And from the moment he stopped talking the Dow30 has gone totally comatose; no movement as there are only bids under the market with nobody to sell and nobody willing to buy unless the central banks raise their bids, which they don’t often do during the day. And there you have it.

Patience & discipline are the keys to thriving in this new trading paradigm. In some ways it makes making money easier cuz you know their “game plan”; in other ways it makes it tougher cuz you’re not going to get the number of trading opportunities that past markets offered. In the final analysis, it really doesn’t matter, cuz over time the only way for the stock indices markets to beat me is to go lower, lower, and lower some more … constantly and consistently without any rallies … you and I know that given the current environment we find ourselves in, that’s a really tall order to fill right now. Granted, the more “back & forth” action we get day-to-day will see trading activity for the PAMM increase, and on some days when the market actually gets 2^nd and 3^rd legs lower in price, most often trades will have higher volumes; right now, we’re lucky to get one, maybe 2 chances to trade before the market goes ‘sleepytime” … that most likely will change for the better at some point, if only marginally but it will be helpful.

One trade today was all we got … really nothing off the low on that move from the high that didn’t see prices go back down for any kind of test or even a 2^nd leg down; this has been commonplace lately, but I can assure you this is by no means common, especially when the daily range is so constricted in historical terms. In any event, it is what it is, and all I can do is capture what the market gives me. Onward & upward.

PAMM spreadsheet directly below.

The dog is driving me nuts … the beach beckons … I’m so outta here … until tomorrow when we do it again!

Have a great day everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX  “PAMM/MAM”  IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!

THE UNOFFICIAL START TO SUMMER

“Summer starts early here in the Caribbean!”

Happy Holiday everybody! Of course, it’s the unofficial start of summer today, and markets are closed in the U.S. Not too much to report on today; was going to post my usual blog post, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized, ain’t anybody gonna care what I write today … it’s BBQ, or picnics & parades, or something, but sitting down and seriously thinking about markets isn’t one of them.

So, I’ll be back at it tomorrow morning, and hopefully the stock indices perform better than what we saw this last week; practically anything would be better. On that cheery note …

Time for the beach … the dog and I are outta here … until tomorrow mi amigos.

Have a great weekend everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX  “PAMM/MAM”  IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!

SEE MY SHOCKED FACE

“Lower open? Wait … what?!”

Some day’s physics is a B. I. Itch isn’t it? I’m speaking, of course, of the warping of market space-time known as “gravity” … seems the stock indices this morning are going to find some … what with slow Asian & European sessions, seems the catalyst this morning, besides the fact it needs to “cool off”, are lower oil prices. “Imagine that … everybody in OPEC lies and cheats RE production & output! Damn, who would have thunk it? Throw in the Russians and other odd and assorted scoundrels, and you can’t trust anybody in the oil business, now can you”? “LUCY, DON’T YOU DARE MOVE THAT FOOTBALL”!

In any event, it’s a welcome relief to at least see some semblance of sanity, if only briefly by a scant few points, in world equity markets … the question for the day, though, is what happens after the lower open? Can the NDX100 cool off? Can the Dow30 get a second leg down after the open, or are we forever destined to “one & done” on the downside? It’s Friday, and after the recent runups, I’d expect some position squaring ahead of the weekend, which should mean some selling pressure at some point, and the sooner we get it after the open, the better for some long buying on the break. The only negative ‘wildcard” I see in this is crude oil … if the price freefalls again today after the NYMEX open, and yesterday’s $4 per barrel debacle on the downside, it could drag stocks lower into sell stops … who knows where that “feedback loop” ends. I have written about this before, but it bears repeating again today … nothing traded on earth doesn’t have a “Plunge Protection Team”; if it starts falling, do they show up?

Well, that escalated quickly; looks like the crude oil “Plunge Protection Team” [and hell yes, it does exist] is at work today, cuz we need to see stocks “green” at the open no matter what … can’t have crude oil spoiling the party. Here minutes before the open it’s a coin toss as to whether stocks open a little lower, UNCH, or even higher … seeing how it would be breaking the law to open lower, my money is on the Chipmunks [institutions who must buy at the open per the mutual funds rules] to ramp it higher in the first minute to five they got their fingers on the buy buttons … and well, there’s always the SNB too.

And of course, here at the open, nobody wants to see laws get broken, and Chipmunks being Chipmunks [who’ve never seen a stock price they didn’t like] and are buying like there’s no tomorrow on the 7^th straight day of higher prices, the Dow30 opens and immediately rallies up to almost a new high for the day … congrats Chipmunks; now the stage has been set for a move lower later this A.M. [Maybe … doubtful … but maybe] Remember, it’s the “setup” that matters … nothing else.

As I said yesterday, why even have a New York session? What’s the point? Two hours into this absolute mess of nothingness [and outside of crude oil nothing else is doing anything either], and aside from the usual lunacy around the open for a few minutes, the Dow30 has seen a 20 point range MAX, with most of the trade around a dozen points. NEWS FLASH: No signal means anything in this crap.

To be sure, the crude oil “Plunge Protection Team” has been hard at work supporting oil today, so as not to “spook” energy investors and … well, God forbid … see the Dow30 negative for the day more than 10 points, cuz the Dow30 is heavily weighted with energy. Yesterday’s oil news caught the trade long, and it isn’t until the selling is over that the PPT shows up and drives prices higher; and that happened this morning. Cuz in the world of central planning [a/k/a The Federal Reserve] the only mantra that counts is Stocks. Must. Not. Be. Allowed. To. Go. Lower. Ever.

Cuz if there ever was a day where this stuff should have seen a selloff below 21040 and into sell stops [may still happen today, but I doubt it.], this was it. And instead we get slop around the open. My advice to the central planners is simple; let this stuff correct on its own, cuz if you don’t you aren’t gonna like the result. But hey, these are the “smartest people in the room” … go ahead, just ask them … but, in reality they are Twits who 1) have never had a job outside government, and 2) solve problems in the faculty lounge where other enlightened Twits hang around … together it all seems so easy.

The market action since the beginning of 2017, the February melt up, the French election, the “Trump Dump” … if ever there was a clearer signal to the stock indices, I’ve never seen it … these markets are now clearly controlled and manipulated by the central planners, and stocks aren’t going to be allowed to go down … and I know many thought I was joking, but I wasn’t, cuz on the surface it sounds crazy, but I don’t think the SP500 is ever going below 2300 again, or the Dow30 below 20,000 …unless of course we get something like a nuclear war, or political assassinations that upset the applecart … central banks got all the money in the world with CNTRL-P, and they have “come out of the closet” in using it … who is going to stop them? Who is going to sell their bids? Who wants, yet again, to lose billions betting against them? I dunno, but it sure as hell ain’t going to be me.

The fact of the matter is, anybody who has tried selling this stuff on perceived “fun-durr-mentals” has gotten multiple arrows in the chest and/or burn marks all over themselves. “By all means, go ahead and sell it … let me know how selling into an unlimited bid amount works out for you … cuz pretty much all traders have given up selling this stuff cuz they’ve lost too much blood already … and with the bids sitting there, the index sits and doesn’t trade, and the result is what you see before you … a market that “lurches” when the bids are readjusted and that’s it”.

What you are witnessing is the destruction of free markets for corporate globalism … where in the eyes of the central planners everybody wins [well, at least the elites that matter] … where they have come to the conclusion that markets [FX, interest rates,, precious metals, crude oil & products, and of course equity markets] are all simply “policy tools”, too important to be left to thug trader types who don’t and/or can’t “see the light” of the enlightened … at the end of the day it boils down to GOVERNMENT AS RELIGION.

Of course, the hubris here among these Twits is “off the charts” … that smugness and air of invincibility at some point gets wiped off rather quickly when SHTF, but as they have learned simply blame others. What bothers me more than anything is that the financial media goes right along with this scam, and people who should know better buy into it with ease … all cuz the FED says, “Everything is F-ing Awesome Baby”! It’s truly sickening to me to see government sycophants in the markets.

And so, we can’t go up and we can’t go down; as Art Cashin’ infamously said a week or so ago, “It’s a waste of car money and a clean shirt”. At some point, of course, the market corrects some … will their hubris even prevent that from happening? Simply put, when you 1) have the will, and 2) have the CNTRL-P button to the mainframe computer to create money out of thin air, what’s to stop you from buying everything in sight to make sure there isn’t another down day in history? And as stupid as that sounds in pre 2016 markets, consider what the FED has learned from just one year ago.

Exactly 15-16 months ago, crude oil collapsed, taking prices down to the $25/ barrel area … and then the “magical” happened; in one day we went from $25 to $33 and it’s been up ever since [in both crude oil & equity indices]. Both the Dow30 & SP500 have large energy components, and the fluctuations in crude oil in January & February 2016 contributed to a very volatile stock indices markets. In today’s terms, that kind of volatility is “verboten” … the FED isn’t going to allow it. And so, the PPT crude oil version was born, and outside Brexit & the U.S. elections, oil has been very tame in relation to that time period.

That’s why today is a perfect example of the inter-connectedness of the manipulations; right before crude oil opened, we saw a big jump up and it was off to the races. This all happened about an hour before stocks opened; that gave stocks enough time to rally the futures off the low and prevent selling on the open. Cuz as we all know, stocks can’t be allowed to open lower and go lower. And as you can clearly see from today it’s “mission accomplished”. That’s why I said in an earlier blog, that FX is dead, gold is dead … they aren’t going to be allowed to do anything of substance unless they raise stock prices … cuz the mandate of the FED is clear, and that mandate is for the elites to see slowly rising equity prices with NO drops. And as we all know, when the Twits at the FED retire, where do they go? They go to their Overlord masters at Squid or JPM or some investment bank in Europe where the ECB has sprinkled “holy water” on them.

So far today, the SP500 has about a 2 – 2 ½ point range, while the Dow30 has about a 35 point range that was established in the first 15 minutes of the day when the Chipmunks did their thing; pathetic to be sure, but if you’re a FED member it’s a masterpiece on canvas … “simply behold our power & foresight Sheeple … we know what’s best for you, and don’t you forget it”! Welcome to the future … somebody explain to me how I’m wrong here, cuz I don’t see anything but evidence that I’m right. This entire week has been nothing but a no volume gap open higher from the “wee hours” to literally nothing during the New York day … rinse & repeat 5 times and that’s the week.

Obviously, there were no trades today … tough to trade when the market spends 90% of the day in a ±10 point range, with little bursts up/down to try and suck you into something you don’t want to do. Quite frankly, I don’t care what it does, but I can tell you the longer it has consecutive days higher, the worse it’s going to be when it corrects … that’s a fact. In any event, it is what it is, and I deal with it as it comes, but I can tell you I’m not buying this stuff unless we see some kind of weakness lower … you know, the kind we used to see pretty much every damn day but has now been declared “verboten” by the FED … so, I wait for our moments.

Well, I finally got the Microsoft Excel working, thanks to the efforts of tech rep Cherry Ann, who I might add was really good; way past my pay grade. She took control of my computer via a Microsoft link, and sitting here watching her whiz through files and protocols over about 15 minutes, she took care of everything and got it “ship shape”. Kudos to Microsoft for having her in tech support, and whatever it is they pay her, it isn’t enough.

With that said, the updated PAMM/MAMM Spreadsheet directly below.

Time for the beach … the dog and I are outta here … until Monday. I’ll be posting something Monday, probably in the late afternoon sometime; enjoy the Holiday.

Have a great weekend everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX  “PAMM/MAM”  IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!

THE IDIOT TRAIN HAS LEFT THE STATION

“And believe me, it’s a very large bag!”

Another day, another off hours ramp on “vapors”; today’s installment of lunacy comes fresh off of a 100 point Dow30 ramp in Asia & Europe, where apparently, the Chuckleheads that used to trade gold and ramp it up every night, are now giving seminars to the Chipmunks who trade stocks. I said it yesterday and I meant what I said; we may have entered an era where central banks are never going to allow stocks to ever go lower again.

And why should they? Think about how easy it is to hit the CNTRL-P button on the mainframe computer at the central bank and create local currency; take said newly printed currency and sell them for dollars; take the dollars and buy Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and a host of other Dow30 conglomerates, and somebody please tell me, where is the downside for these central banks? Who cares what the price is they pay? If SHTF in a big way, 1) buy more, and 2) buy more after that. They aren’t using the QE printing presses to shove into domestic social spending programs, and there is no inflationary consequences to worry about. There’s nothing but upside here, cuz in 5 – 10 years they will be a major, if not downright the majority, shareholder in the largest companies in the world.

Throw in assclowns like Uncle Warren Buffet to the mix and the slew of company boards involved in giving themselves a raise by buying back stock, and somebody please tell me where the selling is going to originate. Outside of some external event, like nuclear war, where is the decline? Even terrorism, politics, budgets, currency debacles, China’s implosion, and a world economy that is shrinking from excessive debt, haven’t been able to dent prices more than a frickin’ day. Show me all the chart porn you want; show me all the “ratios” that say this can’t go on and continue; and throw at me every useless economic statistic the Department of Unicorns & Fairy Tales spits out ad infinitum nauseum; none of it means “diddly squat”. Corporate earnings? Who cares? All that matters now is that central bank “A” is bidding and ramping the indices higher through buying during the thinnest and most illiquid hours of the day; something you would most definitely do if you didn’t care about price and wanted to get the most bang for your buck.

And of course, the clueless Twits at the FED, having boarded the “idiot train” long ago and have never left, view all of this with delight, cuz it allows others to pay for their policy goals. “Everything is F-ing Awesome Baby”! The fact of the matter is, your financial life is determined by a bunch of imbecile elites who’ve never left the faculty lounge, and will take no responsibility for anything they have done when SHTF, which it will eventually do in a very big way.

So, here we are pre-market open a couple of hours, and already I’m seeing throughout the financial press stories about “stunned & bewildered” traders worldwide, waking up to another idiotic ramp up on absolutely nothing except central bank buying. EXIT QUESTION: “Why even have a New York session; what’s the point? Everything is being bought and run from Tokyo, London, & Zurich … what purpose does the NYSE serve really? Just another place for New York wives to drop the husband off someplace “safe” so they don’t hang out in some bar somewhere and get in trouble, plus it saves on babysitting costs. Cuz all we really need now is a “Central Bank Fix” in the morning and we can all go to the beach for the rest of the day”.

Turning to today’s market … “whew, another higher open; no laws broken today”! Another nothingness first hour with every M1 down treated as the end of a bear market … I haven’t a clue when this stupidity of buying stocks at any price ends, but I can tell you if the morons bidding this stuff up don’t take their collective gas off the throttle soon, it’s going to be an ugly mess going down … and that I know for sure. It’s simply open higher, go higher, and stay higher with no moves down of anything greater than about 20 points MAX; goose the crap out of it overnight, and rinse & repeat. That’s the new collective mantra from Wall Street … love it, hate it, that’s what it is.

About a half hour from Noon in New York, and some trouble brewing with GM … seems they fudged emissions data with trucks … that’s causing a reaction in the Dow30, and now we got out first crack in the dam. Could this be a catalyst for some short term selling, in what is an extremely extended market? We’ll see. Well, that lasted all of 30 minutes, with 4 M1 spikes down and the rest basically sideways … but not to be outdone, the manipulators get even when moments later with the market at 21064, in literally 1 second the market is up at 21085 … seems somebody [and we know who that might be] decided that would be a good time for some very large bid blocks to be placed, and the rats scattered rather quickly to get in front of it.

Now, of course, we’re in “chop city” … the market’s been stuck in a ±15 point range for the last 90 minutes. At least, though, with the GM news and a FED “trial balloon” via JPM that the FED wants to start reducing its balance sheet [tightening] in September, the market appears to have stalled, and momentum taken away from the upside. I don’t think they will do much this afternoon, but it sets the stage for some Friday morning “profit taking” tomorrow.

Overall, 2 scalp trades yielded some profit, but the action is far from conducive for hanging on to anything. This market is so over extended to the upside it isn’t even funny anymore … I’m not looking for some huge selloff, simply two-way somewhat “normal” action; without it, the market is very susceptible to very quick drops. My biggest concern is a very quick selloff I can’t recover from, and the quick up blasts we’ve been seeing become down blasts. With two-way action that becomes less likely, but we need to start seeing more balance in this market or else there is going to be hell to pay, and I don’t care if the central banks think they’re bigger than the market … if they keep this shit up of open, go higher and stay higher with no breaks, their hubris will eventually ruin and destabilize the stock market and they will find out the hard way their efforts were foolhardy. And for all of the day’s effort, here we are right before the close, notwithstanding the 25 point 2 M1 blast up from nowhere @ 15:45, only 9 points from the open bid price @ 9:30. As I said earlier, why even have a New York trading session; what’s the point?

I finally got Microsoft Excel tech support last night to admit my Office 365 software has “corrupted” files … so, they sent me via email the serial key to use after I download a completely new set of software; I’m going to do that tonight, and hopefully I’ll have it finished in time to post the PAMM spreadsheet later this evening. In any event, I’ll have it done by the end of tomorrow [Friday].

Time for the beach … the dog and I are outta here … until tomorrow.

Have a great day everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX  “PAMM/MAM”  IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!

THE SMELL TEST

“When it dawns on you everything is a pack of lies!”

Yesterday we finished up for the 4^th day in a row, after the “Trump Dump” cuz he was gonna get impeached, on the lightest volume ramps I have ever seen in my trading career; after getting totally slammed almost 500 Dow30 points in 36 hours, suddenly at the European open on day 1, thank you very much central planners, it’s off to the races … 5 days later here we sit on what I call the “Vapors rally”.

Scanning the financial press this morning, I see over on ZH that Asher Edelman went on CNBC and told the “talking heads”  on “Fast Money” he isn’t in the market anymore cuz the “Plunge Protection Team” is behind the latest bogus rally, and he doesn’t want to be caught when they “pull the plug”. “OMG! Stop the presses! Can you imagine the horror … oh, the humanity … on whichever clueless Infobabe happens to have the studio feed in her ear when he says this on live TV … this is blasphemy … this is heresy … Asher, don’t look to be invited back anytime soon OK”? But that’s not the real news.

No, the real news is immediately after, when somebody tweeted the obvious; “can't believe @AsherEdelman just talked about the PPT on @CNBCFastMoney. Didn't think anyone was allowed to talk about it. That was crazy”. And so, when everybody finds out the “emperor”” has no clothes, what happens next?

And of course, unless you want your first appearance to be your last ever, there are some things you just can’t do on CNBC; 1) criticize the FED or ChairSatan Yellen, 2) say anything negative about Uncle Warren Buffet, especially when Becky Quick is around, 3) say anything negative about Cankles Clinton or Ex Preezy Empty Suit cuz most hosts are Libtard Dems with bylines, and 5) mention government intervention in the holy temple of Wall Street, even though everybody and their brother knows the ECB, BOJ, & SNB are active manipulators right along with the “Plunge Protection Team”. “Oh wait … if they never mention it, that means it doesn’t exist … right”? I’m predicting right now … this isn’t going to end well.

Simply to put a cherry on top of this idiotic cupcake known as the USA, from the financial to the political … well, whaddaya know … “I’d just like to know where the “outrage” is on the left”? Directly below the link to ZH.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-24/fisa-court-finds-very-serious-fourth-amendment-issue-obamas-widespread-illegal-searc

“Oh wait … I forgot … he’s black & a “DEM”, so that makes it OK … I’m waiting for Maxine Waters to start an investigation … if it weren’t for double standards, Libtards wouldn’t have any.

Turning to today’s market … of course we open higher … isn’t there a law or something? … I, for one, can’t wait until they make downticks illegal; now you got something! … watching the first hour, if this isn’t manipulative trading, then I don’t know what is … seriously, this is a sick joke … since the start of 2016, right after the “Plunge Protection Team” [PPT] cleaned up the FED mess left by Yellen & Fischer at the end of 2015, moving to Brexit, and then the U.S. election, and now to the melt up, I don’t think anything pre 2016 means anything anymore in the stock indices … it’s a new game of coordinated manipulation, and come hell or high water, the central banks are going to ramp stocks to levels you never dreamed of in your wildest dreams, in order to pursue policy objectives they deem desirable. WE MAY NEVER SEE A 2% DECLINE IN THE SP500 OR THE DOW30 AGAIN.

Now, I know some of you think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not; what’s happening is very large bids under key stocks are driving trading action, and everybody and their brother knows who it is that’s doing it [SNB, PPT, BOJ, ECB, etc.], and they are simply “front running” the bids … this is the reason for absolutely no downside trading action whatsoever … why sell into the bid, are you crazy? When the bids get pulled, trader’s panic to sell, and that’s why we get these 15 point 30 second down moves … when the bids come back, they panic buy to “front run” yet again. And what the SNB is finding out, and most likely are not very happy about, is all the front running of their orders … which is why they pull them to screw with trader’s heads and cause them to lose money. How else do you explain this unexplainable action I’m looking at on my screen? “Government lies at all levels, Pols lie, the FED lies, the talking heads in the MSM lie … it’s all lies, deception, and deceit … and now the market lies and is almost 100% totally controlled day-to-day by central banks and their sycophant Apparatchiks who drink the Kool-Aid. Simply put, they see no reason stocks should ever go down; and as proof, I would suggest you remember what Fed Pie Hole Bullard was told to do, the day after the "Trump Dump" when he suggested maybe no June rate hike and more QE in the future. Anything to change the narrative and “wink-wink, nod-nod” to the big money that we got your back … mission accomplished, the selling dried up, the PPT went to work along with the SNB, and here we are back to the highs in a flash. It is what it is, and to ignore the obvious is to be delusional”.

And so here we sit, and I’m supposed to believe it’s all because we are waiting for Fed Pie Hole Minutes @ 2 P.M. EDST? Where’s the “profit taking” the glorious talking heads love to spit out anytime there is the slightest bit of selling? Where is the volume? Where is the frickin’ trade that isn’t 100% attached to a central bank bid in Apple & Google? Try nowhere, that’s where. And every single time, almost without exception, somebody comes in and sells, immediately the PPT or the SNB pretty much says, “no, no, can’t have that”!, and then immediately bids it higher to regain the lost ground. It’s gotten to the point where they won’t let the SP500 go down any more than about 2 points and the Dow30 about 20 – 25 points, before frantically raising bids in large quantities to get the market back its lost ground … quite frankly, I’m beginning to wonder how long this can go on before something really, really ugly happens, making October 1987 look like a “downtick”. Nobody is bigger than the market … nobody … the hubris of the central banks is “off the charts”, and some day there gonna find out what a “melt down” really looks and feels like … when that day comes, and it surely will, look the hell out.

Last night I had a session with Microsoft tech support for my Office 365, specifically my Excel spreadsheet which isn’t working… seems the level one college dropout trainee knew even less than I did … so, tonight, same time, I get the next level of super duper customer service from a company I literally detest on every level … I’ve been “assured” it will get resolved tonight … “umm yea, sure it will”. So again tonight, I get to spend time with Microsoft … I think I got a tingle down my leg.

If you ever needed more evidence of Government lies & deception on a scale that would make any dictator proud, all you have to do is read the Minutes of the Fed meeting from last month; truly delusional and they simply have no clue what the hell they are doing. This is gross negligence on a massive scale. But it doesn’t matter, cuz even though rates are going up in an environment of global slowdown and terrible economic stats, we’re assured it’s “transitory”. What if it isn’t? And on cue, stocks take it all in stride cuz the large bids are underneath Apple, Google, etc. and who in their right mind is going to hit them and sell? Somebody please, tell me who?

Ok, it’s twenty minutes after the Fed nonsense so we can go back to nothingness again; slow grind higher with bolts down that go nowhere followed by more slow grind higher, and of course all on non-existent volume. I’m sorry, but this is a gigantic F-ing joke, as all rallies come on “vapor” as the central banks adjust their bids and traders panic to get in front of them … then literally zero price movement until they again decide to raise their bids, at which point we gap 20 higher again … rinse & repeat until Jesus returns. You want some proof? Directly below.

 

Oh yea, tell me how “normal” the chart above looks; it screams manipulation. I’m telling you folks, we are in a brand new ballgame where the rules have been changed drastically … to be sure, we will get our shots at buying at lower levels … but anything you look at prior to 2016 doesn’t mean anything anymore. All that matters anymore to these markets is what the central planners got planned for the day … that’s it, and to ignore it or refuse to acknowledge it is going to be a problem for you.

One trade today that led to nothing … a scalp after the Fed Minutes looking for buy stops above 21000 … didn’t get any so exited with very minimal gain rather than hope for a rebound that might not come [and it didn’t]. All in all, another pathetic day for U.S. finance … across the board it’s terrible action, with a mini flash crash in the Russell 2000, blatant manipulation in the bond market [via ZH], and of course our own Dow30 which sings to the desires of the SNB & PPT. If only my investment finance professors from back in college could see this; I can only imagine their utter horror at what is going on and what passes for policy in government … what a clusterfark. Tomorrow is another day, with Super Mario’s turn [ECB] at 08:30 A.M. in New York for another installment of complete policy stupidity from Europe; oh joy.

Finally, as the trading day draws to a close, if this isn’t the sickest rally I’ve ever seen, then I simply frickin’ have no clue … no volume ramp on central bank bids … oh yea, count me in … nothing says “buy stocks” more than the FED using the word “Transitory” to describe abysmal economic & global conditions … only thing is it’s been abysmal for over 6 months. Next stop Dow30 @ 30,000 by end of the year … why not, when you got CNTRL-P at your disposal and there are zero consequences for your policy genius … makes sense to me.

 

Time for a little beach until another of the  Microsoft Excel “whiz kids” comes a callin’… the dog and I are outta here … until tomorrow.

Have a great day everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX  “PAMM/MAM”  IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!