Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The End is Near

A little double meaning there ;-)

The doomsayers will soon start screeching about the Fed "pushing on a string." and the world is ending.

But since the big gun, viz., the Fed, is now on track to eliminate its wrongheaded tight money policies, the end really is near. That is, the end of the end of the "subprime" fiasco that began almost one year ago.

Low and soon to be lower overnight rates means that payments on home equity loans go down and payments on many floating rate loans go down and rates on corporate debt come down and refinancing and home affordability goes up. All that is good and "will" lead to renewed vigor in economic growth.

Note that I said, "will", not the endless "may" of the fearmongers.

AAPL reported good earnings and tepid guidance. That's AAPL's recurring style and why I told Mrs. B to wait until today to buy her shares for the Sky Fund.

More Euro-liquidation is occurring this morning, even though Asia was up solidly last night.

No significant news ... Davos rich & powerful are preaching again ... I "greatly dislike" that event.

I am now about 200% long. BAC, GE, WB, JPM and C are my biggest positions by far.

All the energies and miners are at fine prices if you have none of those.

I do have some reserves if needed, but I plan to wait now and watch. I am also planning to sell a bit of gold to buy more stocks in the Krypto Fund as gold is wayyyy overweight in it. That takes time as it's physical gold, but as long as gold stays up here, I will do it.

62 comments:

Bud said...

AAPL reported 'good' earnings and the stock is down 16......huh?


i wonder how much the stock wud be down if the earnings were ...uh....not so 'good'

PS......MOT nice quarter guys!!

Bunkerman said...

hmmm futures drop big atound 2PM Eurotime. I wonder if more Eurobeefers are getting margin calls and being liquidated.

Bunkerman said...

AAPL is down from the guidance, not the Q4 numbers.

Spin-em said...

fri op/ex...protection comes off
tues....big gap down..shorts cover

today were sitting here with no opposing force on the down side??

staggerlee said...

i sux!

but i mite have found a job.

back in production, but no tape chasing involved.

sounds boring and lucrative.

work from home, stop at local banks do financial planning for existing clients.

they love that im so bearish becuase the job is basically telling old people to move out of risk into bonds and cds.

and no DT. plus a decent salary, benefits, and commish.

i think if i just shut up and let my u4 do the talking i mite just not die in 2008.

imo, even though i got roasted, AAPL down hard on the ipod miss. i think about 4 mil units below expectation.

seriously what is an ipod but a glorified walkmen. plus the batteries stink

11500 today?

we need to watch corp spreads here. if they continue to push out against the curve,the selling will get worse. but if those spreads start to tighten, people will start taking risk again.

staggerlee said...

santelli saying a lot of derivatives are leveraged 35 to 1.

and we started a war in iraq to find WMD's?

duh, they were here the whole time, and whitey plus frank raines had em.

DIE whitey DIE!

Bunkerman said...

agree spin ... fear rules.

A "lot" of derivatives are offset with counter-derivatives; and any with non-credits have collateral posted.

And a lot of derivatives are hedges against true postions -> own loan and get credit default sawp protection.

Generalizations are dumb.

Bunkerman said...

Europe really seems to be the locus of fear for months now.

Bunkerman said...

the play at AAPL is and has always been that their products drive traffic to Mac sales - that's where the profits are ... and that is going very well.

I think Mac will eventually get 25% market share in PCs.

Bunkerman said...

women are going to love that new ultra-light notebook PC.

Bunkerman said...

The BAC and WB conference calls sounded OK ... they are on top of the problems and have good positions.

Frosty said...

mern...perhaps you should join Bud on the pole down at the biker bar...those tips can add up...oopppsss, sorry that wasn't nice, the liberal frosty should feel sorry for Bud and accepting of his sexual bias...the bank job sounds good mern, go for it.

staggerlee said...

ya they love me, but their CRD isnt gud.

its not very interesting but it better than chatting on the net and cleaning all day

Bud said...

huh frosty?....is he drunk

Bunkerman said...

hmmm what is a "DT" in that context ;-)

Sounds like a good job, stagger. Those FL geezers need a guy like you to give them the truth.

Bud said...

is this a recession?

staggerlee said...

ya but im not sure this shop wants me to tell the truth, so that is a major problem. it is one thing to financial plan, it is another to churn annuities.

annuities r not the best vehicle for most, but the rips r huge to the reps. now that finra is focused on protecting old geezers, after they are done protecting us from the housing scams, they probably move to annuities next. and if they want me to push variable insurance over term, forget it.

how in hell did insurance ever get interwined with an investment? think of what the word means, insurance. it means, in case shit happens. only in very unique, usually very high net worth situations is it wise to use insurance as an 'investment".

so morally that mite not fit, but i have to dig deeper into the company. they look scammy, the more i look.

who caught jack welch patting santelli for throwing cramer under the bus yesterday. of course he was being tongue and cheek about it, until carl blew his cover and said something like "of course jack u r talking about the banter rick had with cramer yesterday". i dont think jack was amused, i was however

Bud said...

ag stocks gettin blasted

'people still eat in a recession'


lmaooooooooooooooooooooooo

staggerlee said...

this recession cud help with the obesity problem in the country.

i was watching these two pigs on tv. daughter and father how both dropped over 50 lbs so far, but had a lot more to go.

they didnt realize how fat they were until they went to china. in china, people were poking them, taking pics of them, and LOL at them. the daughter said u know here (in the usa) everyone is fat.

everyone? LOL

the olsen twins r huge. ally mcmeal is no kristy alley who only over eats during the holidays. which is halloween thru valentines day.

ROFLL santelli wants to kill leisman

staggerlee said...

man that was funny.

santelli literally spinning

Bunkerman said...

annuities are a horrible "investment", mostly.

Bunkerman said...

I can't stand Babblevsion anymore. Endless blather, no facts.

Watching an art course on DVDs. Yes, Bunkerman is getting some culture.

Thinking of goiing to Rome in May.

Frosty said...

still no wash out...perhaps to many looking for it to happen or there is some fear of the fed though no respect...my original thought this week, if we were to get hammered that wed afternoon or thurs morning to pull in the bear claws and perhaps venture net long.

The fed delayed the move and the means by which we test down 11500 this week, but sure looks set in stone to me...fins and retail say yes to some level of recovery, time for darkside defense and a swing at the long side feels very near.

MSFT craps the sack like AAPL and all bets are off...Mern, how do you play MSFT earnings?

staggerlee said...

id be short

agree bman annuities only for very high net worth situations, usually

Bud said...

lmaoooooooooooo frosty


you're terrible

Bud said...

AAPL down 27


thank god they had 'good' earnings

staggerlee said...

lol

i sux

:-(

Bud said...

george soros...." US recession almost inevitable "


'fear mongerers'


lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

staggerlee said...

so y not get into financial planning?

ROFL.

have interview friday.

after further digging seems like they want me to pitch a lot fidelity product , term, p and c. plus they hand u a book, and they r opening a office 3 minutes from my house in october.

probably a lot of work, but not as stressful as the trading bullshit.

as long as the products r gud, ie id wud put my own money into them, then it is a gud fit. if not, back to the bunker.

;-)

i need some clean your urine

staggerlee said...

getting close to rip cord lows from yesterday.

"whoa oh what i want to know is, what will the fed do?
come hear
uncle bens band
playin by the riverside
come with me or go alone
he's come to take his children home"

staggerlee said...

b man, CHK a buy here?

staggerlee said...

bud u dont think soros is talking his book?

what do u expect him to say? i havent been leaning this short since stan and i took the nazz from 4 to 5k shutting our fund down!

Bunkerman said...

probably yes re CHK.

But the beefers can push any stock anywhere as they have no bounds anymore.

Any stock with gains is a target - they rotate from one to the other.

At some point there will be enough bad weather to eat up the nat gas storage and then it goes to a new level.

Long term only.

staggerlee said...

aapl down 36% in a month.

that does seem a bit much, unless this is a bear market.

Bud said...

i hope soros is 'talking his book'

that's why i don't listen to journalists or columnists

traders and guys that actually put their money where their mouth is what i want


i shud hope if you like or dislike a stock....you are long or short it


if not.....then just go be a college professor

Bunkerman said...

maybe this is how the world is purged of hedge funds and managed accounts ?

staggerlee said...

the stuff that lead us down has stopped going down and is going up.

now they are getting everything, even the XOM's.

we dwon 300 hunge and the fins r mostly up smartly?

staggerlee said...

or a financial planner bud.

CFP lol

what a scam

Frosty said...

Bunkerman...when you sell that gold do you take the half track to town?...the k-9 team I anticipate rides shot gun, so that leaves mrs. bunky manning automatic weapons?

Bunkerman said...

nah frosty ... gold is small ... anonymity works well ... plus a pocket .38 :-))

Frosty said...

Bunkerman...the crack W economic team, with the fed have a chance to fix the problem ala a 1990 type actoin, at least that is what I take from several sources...what are the odds that this group can one, grasp the resolution trust concept..two, do they have the support to pull it off and third do they have the means to do so without making the infaltion hawk EU look spot on for their inflation concerns.

Bunkerman said...

I don't think the RTC applies here, frosty. In that case, the S&Ls had made huge dumb loans with Federally insured depositors money, so the government was already on the hook.

In this case, the money came from uninsured investors, mostly.

But if an institution like FHLBB, FNMA or Freddie gets in trouble, that would be different. But those loans aren't in trouble.


I can't see Congress authorizing a big spending plan to buy up foreclosed houses or the loans.

Bud said...

crack W economic team

lmaooooooooooooooo


the Bush recession killin the common man

Frosty said...

we talked about fed string pushing when they fumble at the goal with that previous 25 bps as you noted this morning...they have shown a willings to try creattive solutions.

Bunkerman said...

Uh ... Bud ... re your crowing about a recession, did you know that after the crash in 1987, there was no recession ?

The godlike "market" got that one wrong.

Bunkerman said...

50 or 75 bps next week would be a good move. That would get the overnight rate to 2.75 or 3% and make a huge amount of loans refinanceable and affordable.

Banks stand to make large net interest income this year thanks to the Fed.

Bud said...

Bman ......1987 crash was a stcok market 'event' .......now....we are already in a recession ( have been since last summer ) and the stock market is catchin up

PS.....only Bman and the crack W economic team don't think we are in a recession

Bunkerman said...

uh ... this seems like a stock & bond market event: UTX and DOW CEOs see no decline in orders ... uh ditto GE ... uh ...

By the way, housing did go down bigtime in the aftermath of 1987 - maybe over 30% here. It took ten years or more to recover prices.

Bunkerman said...

sheesh these moves re nuts ... just saw the S&P cash move 8 pts in a few mintues up & down.

Insanity at work.

Bud said...

i luv how Bman seems to 'pick and choose' the ceo's he trusts

dow and utx and ge ceo's are truth tellers

but jimmy cayne is a criminal

Frosty said...

The suprerbowl indicator, I forgot about that...that is the crack economic teams plan...lay off the national debt on the Gmen and take the points.

Spinny where are you...a round of the giants fight sound is the common mans on chance.

Frosty said...

Bunkerman...another idea to turn this tape...push GOLD MIST off a cliff :)

Frosty said...

Bunkerman...you are getting some nice moves in those fins today...glad for you big guy.

Bunkerman said...

what the beefers give, the beefers can take away .. and vice versa.

Bunkerman said...

gosh I just love seeing an "efficient amrket" in action.

Bud said...

this is an efficient market


buyers and sellers are determining prices

no price controls here

Bunkerman said...

IFF this hold, it looks like an outside day up on higher volume reversal off a new low... aka a "key reversal"

Bunkerman said...

uh ... that's not the definition of "efficient market", that's a "free market"

An "efficient amrket" captures all available information in the price and rationally discounts all future expecation of events.

An animal spirits market is not "efficient" but can be free; ditto a market dominated by the fear and greed of beefers.

Bunkerman said...

hmmm looks like I should have kept YRCW ... there must have been a lot of shorts in that one.

Bunkerman said...

oh well, I had to circle the wagons on the stocks I really liked and load up on those.

Bunkerman said...

That's an IBD day #1 ... follow thru needed. Fed day next week is a possible point.

Spin-em said...

Im just happy for ya Bunkerman "Senior Cucharachas"