Like a pit bull with its jaws locked on your crotch, October just won't let us go. Index futures locked limit down pre-opening this morning and had to be halted. So far, the market isn't doing so bad, but I'm pretty sure it's a head fake as traders will want to close out positions at the end of the day rather than carry them into the weekend.
October has always been the month when the worst things have happened in the market. This particular October has been so financially painful it makes a root canal look like a shiatsu massage with happy ending.
Some attribute the continued malaise to the Obama factor:
No doubt anyone of substantial net worth is scrambling to get out before the imposition of an unwieldy capital gains tax. But I think blaming Obama's ascendancy for the current meltdown is giving him too much credit.
The bottom line is that the party is over. Everyone, from government dickheads and Wall Street fat cats all the way down to Brooklyn Barbie shelling out a hundred bucks to get her beaver waxed, got drunk on free spending and thought little about the ultimate cost. So here we are. The question is, will anything change?
Will the American public revert to a philosophy of thrift and long-term savings and investment? Doubtful. Already, like a butler in a trailer park handing out Alka-Seltzer and hair-of-the-dog, the government has stepped in to shore up the market.
For anyone who has a memory longer than 12 months, you can see what this intervention will achieve. The Japanese did the exact same thing in 1990. Back then, the Nikkei was around 39,000. Yup, that's right, 39,000. What is it today? 7,500. Even more anemic than the Dow. 7,500. 18 years later.
My point in all this is that it is time to protect yourself. If you are hoping the government will sort this mess out, ask a Japanese trader how that works out. Do yourself a favor, live below your means, cut up your credit cards, and save as much as you can. Dial back the lifestyle a few notches and sock some dough away. The bleeding is far from over, and you'll be glad you've got some capital put away when the buy signals become evident.
Come on, November...
hehe i love that picture.
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