It's been a pretty good day so far. I got stopped out of my Bank of America short (thanks, Paulson……) but otherwise I've been doing OK (these things are relative, of course; "OK" means a profit, as opposed to getting mauled).
Since this blog is its own day-by-day history of the market as it reveals itself, and since we may look back on these troubled times in the months to come, I like to lay down cultural markers along the way.
First is the following email which I received this morning. This isn't what I would call hate mail at all (I don't bother showing you that; it would depress you too much); it simply indicates an exasperation with anyone who would use methods which, for most of this year, have been worthless. The multitudinous syntactical and grammatical errors make it a tough read, but you'll get the idea:
i gotta say – each to their own but are you really going to keep this pursuit of 'technical analysis' going – it is just the biggest load of shit i have ever seen in my life. i check in on your site to get a guage on sentiment of traders and from that perspective it is fairly useful to get a handle on how the little rats are chasing their tail……particularly this year as you have been trying to short it all year and been a bit wrong. don't get me wrong, i am sure your IQ is higher than mine…but seriously making decisions based on this little line did this and then taht so now it should do this…..you just can't live your life like this. i book i read once called the MONEY gAME, AM SURE YOU HAVE READ IT BUT THE CHAPTER ON TECHNICAL ANALYSIS SUMS IT UP. if the little line reaches this level and then retraces …it will have been a successful test of that level…if it goes through that level it will have been a breach…….gee …what a revelation !!! and what about that old question – put 5 technical traders, elliott wave, fibonnachies in a room with a chart in 5 different cubicles and watch them all come out with ompletely different lines from each other based on what….??? IT'S A RANDOM WALK………………you are wasting your life. kind reagrds Dom. ps: the little line will continue to go higher as the world is seeing the largest restocking of inventories since 1974 and don't fight the fed and margin expansion (due to massive cost out) is providing for continued upward revisions in earnings and hence what looks expensive is actually cheap.
The other is this item from last month's Business Week. I'll submit this to you without comment.
