Yesterday, one of the regulars here on Slope expressed puzzlement and my frequent mentions of "the evils" out there, such as Bernanke, Geithner, POMO, and so forth. He politely stated that the focus should be on the charts, and that the reason behind the price movement was really neither here nor there. He quickly got a lot of "Likes" on his comment, and I realized he had struck a chord. There was so much chatter about his comment that he wound up deleting it, but I felt it was something I should address.
I've made a habit of writing whatever is on my mind (within reason; I don't want to alienate everyone by being too candid about my feelings) here on Slope. It bugs me……..a lot……..that my beloved free enterprise system has been corrupted on an unprecedented scale, so I've been quite vocal – perhaps to the point of nettlesome – about these persons and actions.
Let us use the metaphor of an airplane pilot. I have been trained, let us suppose, as a pilot. I've got years of experience, volumes of knowledge, and a specific objective (which is to get the plane safely to my destination). I have been able to do this for years. However, one day, some people begin putting Vaseline on my windshield. This ground crew – – Geithner and Blankfein – – smear their POMO sauce all over my windshield so that things are difficult to see.
What used to work doesn't work anymore. Things don't make sense. I can't ascertain what's coming up next. Other pilots, whose windshields are similarly smeared, tell me to just keep flying, and that everything will be fine. Just fly, and don't worry about it. But I can't; it's uncomfortable, unsettling, and bothersome. So I complain about the Vaseline. And I keep complaining.
So it is with the markets today. The easiest thing to do is fly (buy) and keep flying (keep buying). It's worked out for plenty of folks. But it seems insane to me (as examples like FFIV are beginning to show us). I'm not a momentum trader. I don't play "Greater Fool" markets. That costs me sometimes, since insanity like 1999 (and 2009/2010) happen. But pushing my plane full-throttle forward, Vaseline be damned, just isn't the way I'm put together. Maybe that makes me a fool, but at least I'm a fool with integrity.
But I understand the Sloper's point about my all-too-frequent complaints about Vaseline. I'll lighten up about it, since I've made my point. You guys know how I feel. I'll try to refrain from mentioning the Evils anymore – – or at least do so infrequently – – since I understand repeating what I've said doesn't really add anything to the discussion. And that's all I've got to say about that.
