First and Foremost … By early October, 2018, the S&P 500 had more than quadrupled off its 666, 2009 secular bear market low (up over 300%). This was capped off by a spectacular 24 month run that saw the S&P 500 increase more than 50% to a new all-time-high of 2951.81 (10/3/18). I would say a correction of…
Tag: Ben Bernanke
Panic City & Cramer’s Revisionist Market History
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning” … Robert Duval as gung-ho, Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Vietnam film, “Apocalypse Now.“ In Kilgore’s case it was the “smell of victory” … not so for the market. Since Monday (10/8) it was napalm morning, noon and night for US equities, burning…
“The Real Cause of Stocks’ Big Stumble”
Randall Forsyth at Barron’s Magazine says it had little to do with those ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ (exchange traded funds and notes), derivative securities, created to bet against volatility (VIX). In his opinion it is all about monetary policy. “We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the radical monetary policies that…
Please! Don’t confuse me with the facts!
In an era when playing fast and loose with the facts seems de rigueur, not only for the newsmakers but the media covering them, you are bound to get some carryover to the mundane world of economic and financial news. But in financial media what you get is opinion and speculation about assumed facts. The…
“I WENT TO CASH TODAY”
This would probably never be my call. I am an investor, not a market timer. I buy companies, not group-think. Alot of negative group-think seems to be going around these days. My title was the call of CNBC’s Fast Money contributor, Brian Kelly, last Friday (1/29/16). The theory behind this bold move was that the Fed’s tight money…
The Market’s Gonna Do What The Market’s Gonna Do
Be careful what you wish for! In May of 2015, all the popular averages had tripled off their lows. There was a great clamor among the media and punditry that we needed a correction. A retracement of at least 10% had not happened in 18 months. In August of last year we got the correction, and…
Conventional Wisdom Undone
The end of Quantitative Easing (QE) will spell the end of the post-financial crisis recovery of the U.S. economy with a spike in interest rates and hard times for the stock market. It did not happen. Here is a link to what we were saying in December of 2013 that may add credibility to our post…
“Why the Fed Should Stand Pat”
Do I buy this title from Randall Forsyth and Barron’s this weekend? NO. It is just one more example of the media stirring the pot on a trivial issue that it has managed to build into a tower of worry and grief. The tag-line on this header is even worse, “Fed tries to avoid torpedoing global economy and market.”…
Session 113–How to be a successful pundit
Be well-spoken, authoritative and, most importantly, wrong most of the time. In the absence of any real, new or compelling gambits for the media to obsess upon, kortsessions.com is having trouble finding material to illuminate or debunk. On top of this, I think this beautiful, dull (lacking volatility) market is, likewise, dealing the media fits….
Session 107–Geithner’s Book
Although I have yet to read former Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner’s book, “Stress Test: Reflections on a financial crises,” by virtue of the significant publicity generated and in-depth interviews conducted with Mr. Geithner (Charlie Rose), I do feel competent to comment on issues raised about the book and a persistent critique to the effect that…