May 21, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?Each politician pursues self-interest while the common cause imperceptibly decays,? lamented the Greek philosopher and historian, Thucydides.
Entries by DougD
The Long View on Emerging Markets
I managed to catch a few comments in the distinct northern accent of Jim O'Neil, the fabled analyst who invented the 'BRIC' term, and who has been kicked upstairs to the chairman's seat at Goldman Sachs International (GS) in London. Jim thinks that it is still the early days for the space, and that these
The 'Friday-Monday Effect' Exposed
Dennis Gartman, of the ever interesting The Gartman Letter, published an interesting analysis on the 'Monday-Friday' effect. If you bought every Friday close last year and sold the Monday close, your return would have been 14.20%, versus a 0.42% return on the S&P 500 (SPX). Virtually all the gains would accrue at the Monday morning
A Chat With Bill Clinton
I opened the e-mail at my usual wake up time of 4:00 am. President Bill Clinton was playing with Tiger Woods at the Presidents? Cup PGA tournament at the Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco today. Would I have time for a chat about US economic policy afterwards? That afternoon, in walked Bill, sunburned
May 18, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?The one thing that is not safe is the dollar in your pocket. That is certainly going to be worth a lot less over time. The greatest asset to own is your own ability,? said Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, about the European debt crisis.
Risk Reduction Alert
For those who wisely ignored my advice to sell the SPDR Gold Trust Shares ETF (GLD) June $160 Puts on May 3, good for you. The options are now trading at $10.50 and you have a profit of 147%, adding 14.7% to your annual return. This will no doubt be your home run trade of
A Conversation With Charles Nenner
I managed to catch my longtime friend, technical analyst, Charles Nenner, on the fly between London appointments yesterday. The must go to guy for big hedge funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and high net worth individuals, says that the global markets are on the verge of completing round one of a major risk
May 17, 2012 - Quote of the Day
?For every one book written about deflation there are 25 written about inflation. We are starting to look more like Japan every day,? said Scott Shellady at Bradford Capital Management.
Charts Are Breaking Down All Over
They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so here are 4,000 words worth. My friends at www.stockcharts.com put together this series of charts establishing beyond any reasonable doubt that the ?RISK ON? trade is breaking down across all asset classes. Everything is breaking down, simultaneously and in unison, including the S&P 500 (SPX),
The Energy Revolution on Our Doorstep
A major plank in my golden age scenario for the 2020?s is the collapse of the cost of energy. This won?t occur because of a single big discovery, but from a 1,000 small ones that aggregate together to create a leveraged effect. The upshot is that we may be free of OPEC in 3-5 years,