WHO DOES THE U.S. SURRENDER TO NEXT?

 

“Poster Boy for FAILURE!”

It would be too easy to nominate Taiwan & Ukraine as the next dominoes to fall to

Authoritarianism, cuz natch they’re gonna go “buh bye” when Vlad & Xi are ready

… no, I think Preezy Idiot Boy should surrender ‘Murica’s 20 largest shitholes [in

what used to be called “cities”] to the Taliban … I mean, they’re already 3rd world

countries by any reasonable standard, with more violent crimes & murders than

Kabul … and then the Gubermint could send more aid to the Taliban and set up

embassies in the suburbs … would it be any worse than it is now?  

Last day of one of the worst trading months I can ever remember in my entire

trading career … yea, there have been slow Augusts in the past, but nothing like

this … everyday I get up thinking it can’t be any worse than yesterday, and

everyday I get up and 5 hours later it’s WORSE … yesterday’s ranges & trading

action, especially in FX, can’t even be properly put into words it was so bad … will

this shit ever get any better?

Crude oil quiet so far today, as OPEC+ meets tomorrow … nobody looking for any

earth shattering changes, as output set to increase slightly in September per prior

statements & policy, but this is a group of clowns, so who knows? … this is a

great market to trade, and all we need is halfway decent pricing from Turnkey’s

LP thieves to trade it … today looks like a “hurry up & wait” day for oil, but we’ll

see … the last 5 days really have been incredibly tight for ranges, with some

very choppy trading action, which only means this market is “coiling” like a

spring to go somewhere.

If FX got any worse, they’d have to close it, not that anybody would notice

… traders continue to migrate to crypto but “flows are flows”, so from the

institutional side it isn’t gonna go away … still, every week FX continues to

redefine “pathetic” … in the last hour, Cable hasn’t even moved 10 PIPS, and this

is considered the busiest time of the day … I don’t even know how to process

this … EURUSD go a tiny pop up, when one of the ECB Apparatchiks started

waxing eloquent on “tapering” … yes, the “T” word … but that got walked back

in short order, letting you know it was all pre planned bullshit to allow scumbag

LP banks to get out of longs … where’s our 800 number for support?

Approaching the “London Fix” in a few minutes … “oh, somebody is gonna get

“fixed” alright [new high for the day right before the “fix”, and then minutes after

the “fix” almost a new low for the day, that missed by a couple of PIPS … [oh

wait, there it is, for a nice double reversal on the day]!  … and all I can say is FX

is a joke … end of month flows most likely having an impact, but this trading

action is downright pathetic … let’s be clear here, THERE ARE NO SPEC FLOWS

HERE, cuz anybody trading serious money is trading in another space, cuz it sure

as hell ain’t FX … oil, “Stock Bellies” [maybe, but I doubt it], AND MOST

DEFINITELY CRYPTO … take your pick … BTC, ETH, ADA, XRP, DOGE, and a

bunch of other alt-coins trading 1000X times better than anything in FX, and it’s

all spec flows with no scumbag LP banks … oh wait, EUR just moved 6 - 7 PIPS

over the last hour! … oh, the volatility! … meanwhile BTC has moved over $1,000,

with more than a few $200 - $400 correction phases of activity, and it trades

… thank goodess this is the last day of this fucking horrendous month! Yesterday

sees GBPJPY with a 33 PIP range, today sees about 52 PIPS … this from a market

that has a 20 Day Range MA of about 90 PIPS [and dropping fast] … can’t hardly

wait for September, and once we get the OPEC+ out of the way tomorrow,

hopefully we can trade oil.

So what we basically see out of FX these days, and it’s been like this for a good

long while, is some kind of up/down action within 30 - 60 minutes to the “London

Fix”, where scumbag banks are gonna 1) front run the order flow coming in for

the “fix”, and 2) in the process screw institutions blind … since there’s very little

spec flow any longer, that’s pretty much it for the entire day since the European

open … let the Chuckleheads do whatever they want in the Asian session, cuz it

won’t matter much, let Europe die and wait for the U.S. session and wherever

10 YR. rates go that’s gonna determine a dollar up day or a dollar down day

… maybe a few PIPS at the NYSE open, then it’s on to the “Fix”, and everything

else during this 24 hours is pure bullshit … and that’s how you end up with

ranges never thought possible 10 years ago, but now are commonplace cuz of

the blatant manipulation … yea, I can deal with LOW VIX, but I can’t deal with

NO VIX, and a completely dead trading day except for shit around the “London

Fix” is simply not worth it … as we go into September, somethings gotta give

with FX that results into higher ranges, cuz what we see now is horseshit … there

are simply better alternatives to making money rather than sitting and watching

grass grow under the manipulative eye of some dumbass bunch of central bank

Apparatchiks … they can’t control oil and they can’t control crypto, and oh isn’t

it a coincidence these are the 2 trading spaces that have the highest volatility

… “oh, see my shockingly shocked face that is shocked”!

I was ready for FX today, also oil … then I realized tomorrow is the OPEC+ clown

show meeting … well, don’t expect anything today then, and sure enough that’s

what happened … but for FX, this has become the “norm”, and it sucks!

No trades today in the Turnkey PAMM.

I’ll be watching FX for movement, and any increase in the 20 Day Range MA, but

I turn my attention tomorrow to WTI crude oil, where the trading algorithm is

exceptional … today’s range of $1.14 in crude is a “one off” cuz of tomorrow’s

meeting … the 20 Day Range MA is around $2.28, and WTI gets going right around

the European open, so there’s plenty in the day … tomorrow also sees the

Cushing inventories data [EIA] at 10:30 AM EST [New York], which I always

sidestep cuz it’s nothing more than a roulette bet, and quite often it’s a huge

sigma miss … but after that, as the market returns to normal we’ll see what

happens … but as I said before, if Turnkey’s LP gets stupid and starts quoting

ridiculous bid/offer spreads, I simply just have to wait it out and let them return

to normal.

Over in crypto, the story today is the big move up in ETHUSD, especially relative

to BTC, where as I write BTC is DOWN 1.51%, and ETH is UP 3.67% for the day

… for “The Syndicate” today, some light trading in BTC, and we’re UP

APPROXIMATELY 0.19% … in about 10 -15 days [mid September], I’ll be ramping

volumes much higher in BTC … I have some BTC funds I’m transferring into

“The Syndicate” at that time, so “GiddyUp!”.

… outta here early … “the future looks so bright, I need sunglasses”! 😎

… Onward & Upward!!

-vegas

MEMORY HOLING A SHAMEFUL SURRENDER

 

“Inside the White House!”

Start of a fresh new week, and Libtards in the MSM will do anything to

“Memory Hole” the shameful surrender of Afghanistan by Preezy Idiot Boy, and

pretend it never happened … “that was like 4 or 5 days ago”! … meanwhile,

“Sir Dopiness” will disappear back to his basement safe and sound, hoping it

will all go away … “is there a more ugly reminder who these kind of people really

are than this directly below.

“That’s right Idiot Boy, check your watch as the caskets roll by, cuz we ALL

KNOW this is not where you want to be … how assholes like this can even get

up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me … what a

shameful, disgusting person”!

Today so quiet in markets it’s surreal … even Bitcoin is relatively quiet … bank

Holiday in the U.K., as if scumbag bankers need a Holiday … for what? … I guess

stealing money is hard work, so here’s a Monday for you? … is that the

purpose? … what level of trading hell have we descended into? … within an hour

of the NYSE open, and EURUSD has a 19 PIP range, Cable has a 28 PIP range, and

USDJPY has a 19 PIP range … what do you do with this but stare at it and laugh?

… and then right before 9 AM EST, here comes the bank sell stop hunt right out of

the blue for no reason whatsoever … criminals top to bottom but whaddaya gonna

do when every POL, Apparatchik, & regulator in the world is on the take? … crude

oil rockin’ & rollin’, with an almost $2 range overnight, but Turnkey being Turnkey,

their LP in oil has decided a 6 cent spread is appropriate … yea right, don’t hold

your breath waiting for my order, OK? … then as 8 AM EST rolls around, oil goes

to a 2 - 3 cnt spread … maybe there’s hope yet in oil today if we can get some of

that overnight volatility to show up … we’ll see.

What an absolute joke of a “trading day” … you wanna call it that, be my guest

… ranges so small, I need a magnifying glass just to see the m1’s … yea I know,

August & a bank “Holiday” … anyway, no need to elaborate further, you get the

drift … onto tomorrow.

… outta here early before my head explodes … “the future looks so bright, I

need sunglasses”! 😎 … Onward & Upward!!

-vegas

SUNDAY UPDATE: RE-EXAMINING FX

 

“Perspective is everything!”

What is “normal” in FX? … depends on your decade AND the paradigm in which

these markets operate … FX has been around in its modern incarnation since

the mid ‘70’s, and what was “true” about these markets from trading action to

who the players are over the years & decades sure as hell doesn’t apply today

… today’s FX paradigm came into being in January 2015 with the EURCHF

debacle, and don’t look for it to ever change cuz central banks are firmly in

control now and won’t ever give up power over FX unless it comes at the end of

a gun & heads get separated from shoulders.

I’ve had some very recent conversations with other trusted trading pros, guys

I’ve known for years and trade for a living, who still prefer to trade FX [although

not gold] over anything else … and they all say the same thing [paraphrasing]

… “yes vegas, you are right about the things you’ve been writing about

concerning FX pairs, and the loss of “spec monkeys” to other markets, but with

all due respect YOUR CONCLUSIONS ARE IN ERROR”! … OK, I say, please

enlighten me cuz I’m missing something here evidently … “the loss of the

“spec monkeys” has seen VIX go lower, but that only means running stops of

the “clueless specs” is less of an event than in the past … that actually IS GOOD

FOR US, cuz it means its INSTITUTIONAL FLOWS that run more of the market

than ever before … and while overall VIX is lower, as seen in the 20 Day Range

MA’s, the intraday moves are “purer” than they’ve ever been cuz of the loss of

the specs … you are right that it means less “pump & dump”, but that’s not a

negative in our view, it’s a VERY BIG POSITIVE, unless you focus simply on

“quick hits” for trading … it means our trades are longer and take more time

than in years past, but the flip side to that is spreads are as low as they are ever

going to get, along with RT commissions, and slippage is minimal … for sure,

you can’t trade EURUSD or USDJPY like you do Bitcoin, cuz they are totally

different, but that doesn’t mean they are less profitable either”.

And given that perspective, what clouds the issue is having trading pairs that run

the gamut in terms of VIX … and that means a “solution” for FX has got to be for

FX ONLY, and can’t be translated or superimposed on other markets … ratcheting

down VIX, and then creating algorithm parameters that spot things happening in

the market the naked eye can’t distinguish is of prime importance … cuz here’s

the deal folks … we have to be FASTER to the trade THAN OTHERS, cuz 1) you

don’t want collective spec company on your trade, AND 2) we have to EXIT

EARLY BEFORE THE TURN … and what my colleagues are saying is that the

institutional flows are good enough to do that, and that’s why they love FX in

this low VIX environment!

So before I take up crude oil, I’ll give FX another shot, although I’ll be focusing

more on EURUSD than other pairs cuz 1) total cost to trade is the LOWEST, and

2) it has the highest liquidity and volumes [on a par with USDJPY] … USDJPY is

the other trading pair worth noting, and I’ll be looking at that as well, along with

GBPJPY … given the slight modifications I have made in the trading algorithm

for the FX space, there should be ample opportunity in at least one of these 3

pairs  … to that end, below is a 20 Day Range MA table for selected FX pairs that

have decent spreads [right around 1 PIP or LOWER] … this will replace the

indices table, cuz I’m not interested in trading indices any longer.

click on table to enlarge

I’ll keep my eye on crude oil, but the costs to trade here are much higher relative

to the 3 FX pairs mentioned above … as it is, a 3 cent spread is acceptable, but it

sure as hell isn’t ideal either, whereas the costs in FX are the best around … gold

for its part I’m avoiding for now cuz it just isn’t “trading” relative to the costs and

risks [horrible stop hunts] … you pay a very high cost to trade gold, and then it

meanders around with “mystery ticks” galore until it decides to explode … if I

want explosions I’ll go over to Bitcoin, I don’t want them in FX cuz more often

than not it simply leads to the Loser Formation.

Onto the week … outta here … “the future looks so bright, I need sunglasses”! 😎

… Onward & Upward!!

-vegas

WORST PRESSER IN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY

 

“A national embarrassment!”

Quite frankly, the nation should be in a state of shock … shock that there’s a

demented, corrupt, clueless fool masquerading as POTUS … that presser last

night delivered a “brick to the face” for the people of the U.S., as it highlighted in

no uncertain terms the hypocrisy, ineptitude, and especially the moral bankruptcy

of a nation … “it’s bad enough you surrendered, cut & run leaving fellow

Americans behind, spit on the people that helped you for 20 years, but to literally

give them 1) billions upon billions in weapons, 2) hand them a list of Americans &

Afghans to look for, and 3) then threaten while surrendering, an interesting

concept to be sure, is the height of stupidity not ever seen in political history”!

… and then, as if by the magic of “handlers”, here comes the utterly fake emotion

of his late son to invoke empathy … “my, my, those polling groups sure do work

fast don’t they”?

Only thing is “Sir Dopiness”, your son died cuz of medical conditions, and these

13 marines who just died, are forever dead cuz of your stupidity, ineptitude, hubris,

and desire to get a “photo op” with a 9/11 speech where you tout how wonderful

you are and such a genius … instead, both YOU and your former boss, who

remember freed the very scum from Gitmo that most likely planned the attacks,

got a bucket of blood on your filthy hands as a result … and it’s just started folks,

cuz this hapless Moron doesn’t know anything but failure, and that failure is gonna

be paid with other people’s blood.

And we waited 100+ hours this week for this shit? … that’s it? … Spicoli said and

gave nothing but a bunch of bullshit of “we’ll see” … and with that, spreads in FX

double, gold’s spread goes higher as well, and nothing of substance has

happened EXCEPT a scumbag bank LP hit job on his release of prepared remarks

… outside of that 2 second stop hunt there isn’t shit here to trade, with M1’s so

small you almost can’t even see them on a candlestick chart … this is

embarrassing on so many levels … and the reason is simple … there isn’t

anybody trading it, cuz they’ve left for more opportune markets instead of this

constant bank manipulation bullshit where stops are run, and ranges are pathetic

… and the same for gold, only DOUBLE IT! … outside of that first few seconds,

after 45 minutes going into the London Fix here shortly, Cable has moved 11 PIPS

… Wow!, such power … let’s see what happens after the Bozo’s from dumbass

corporate institutions get their fills here in a few minutes, cuz usually they get the

day’s high or low … and at the “”Fix”, Cable is almost exactly where it was at

10 AM when SHTF and stops got blown up … “look at all the red & green spikes

that went absolutely nowhere in the last hour … banks versus a dwindling number

of specs, and after today you just have to wonder how many more weeks and/or

months the remaining players are gonna give FX before there are literally ZERO

PLAYERS”?

Meanwhile over in crypto, specifically BTCUSD, it’s just another day at the office

of “100% rock & roll” trading, where the world’s trading money is traveling to 

faster than a Biden FUBAR … do spreads in perpetual futures go up each time

Bitcoin “burps”, like the scumbag LP banks do over on the MT4 or MT5? … err,

NO! … “open order book” [OOB] platform BABY!, so you know exactly where the

market is and where your orders are at, with complete transparency … compare

that to scumbag LP banks where we get NADA of that … is your fill fair on the

MT4? … yes, no, how the hell do you know? … “I know, the answer is a

resounding NO”! … and so, like all previous times we :hurry up & wait”, after the

banks clean out stops, markets trade for a few minutes and then the trading

ammunition runs dry … now what? … well, whatever “what” is, it’s not gonna

be helping you! … “thanks, come again”!

I’m gonna ask this question again, cuz it absolutely pertains to the matter of

making money … “If gold were a free market and had a 20 Day Range MA of

approximately $2,700 and it was priced way higher than it is now, with a 50

cent bid/offer spread that stays constant, AND YOU GOT PAID TO DO LIMIT

ORDERS, who among you wouldn’t be trading this? … and yet, rename this puppy

to “Bitcoin”, and all of sudden people get the fucking shakes and quivers! … why?

… it makes ZERO sense to me … hell, I’ll trade ANYTHING THAT MOVES, if it’s

priced right and there’s excellent volumes & liquidity, AND ESPECIALLY if there

aren’t any scumbag LP banks hanging around wanting to control things … well,

here it is, right in front of YOU!, with 100% spec activity around the clock.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been contemplating moving trading to WTI Crude

Oil … most days it’s tradeable with either a 2 or 3 cent spread … I can live with

3 cents, but 4 cents or higher and it really pisses me off … if Turnkey had a

STABLE spread of 2 cents I’d trade it all the time … on days when the thieves

demand 4 cents or higher, I’ve just walked away and come back later, and I’m not

talkin’ about around inventories reports or OPEC+ meetings … that goes without

saying … but whatever anybody thinks of oil, it frickin’ moves! … gold sometimes,

but for a good long time it has been very inconsistent with scumbaggery

everywhere … it doesn’t “trade”, it simply goes straight up or straight down and

then sits, and it’s been a very lousy trading vehicle … FX has just been a

complete nightmare, with the European session completely comatose, and not

just here in August … it’s been this way for way to “Hoover Dam” long … I came

into today with a feeling  FX would be a disaster after Spicoli’s speech, and I’ve

been proven right … sorry, I got to be honest … as I said yesterday, the “Spec

Monkeys” have left the jungle, and there isn’t anybody in size trading FX any

longer … they have all fled! … either to “Stock Bellies” [no bargain], crude oil, or

gone to crypto … we can’t trade crypto at Turnkey cuz their LP is a thief, simple

as that … crude oil here we come on Monday.

Currently, we end the week in crude oil with an approximate 20 Day Range

MA = $2.28, which is just under a hair of about 4% of the value of oil itself …  that’s

on a par with Bitcoin that comes in at around a shade over 5% of its value … I’d

like to see a 2 cent spread, but I can live with a 3 cent spread, and if it can stay that

way, and remain volatile is the key … so far lately, that’s not an issue.

No trades today for the Turnkey PAMM … for obvious reasons I stated above.

Over in crypto for “The Syndicate”, and we’re up APPROXIMATELY 0.71%

I’m a little disappointed in myself, cuz I thought I should have done better … but

whatever, I’ll get over it … grinding our way to “Millionairehood” is all that matters

for participants! 

Blog update on Sunday … outta here early… “the future looks so bright, I need

sunglasses”! 😎 … Onward & Upward!!

-vegas