Stock Markets Worldwide Look a Mite Weak

Indeed, DonDiego's been extracting himself from the market for some time. On 17 August he announced in an LVA thread that: ". . . over the last few months DonDiego has informed the Forum that he's been exiting the stock market bit-by-bit; he's jes' about 80%-or-85% out altogether now."
Today he entered some sell limit-orders before the open which failed to trigger after the open, but did execute on the mid-day snapback. So all he's got in the market now is i. 200 shares of a food processing company, ii. 200 shares of a security firm, iii. and some odds-and-ends in two IRAs, and iv. a position in a Canadian gold mine as a sorta insurance against calamity.

There was some mischief in today's market moves.
Apple fell dramatically at the open - down to $92 - and then rose to $109 after some hyping on TV by Cramer, and closing at $103.
The market turnaround came with reports and speculation that the FED would have to postpone raising interest rates until next year. And 2 minutes before the close some FED official down in Atlanta announced that he expected the FED to raise interest rates this year so there was a little pullback right before the close.

So poor old DonDiego is mostly in cash. The reason is his concern that the "markets" are more influenced currently by announcements/rumors, . . . chiefly addressing Government policies, . . . as opposed to actual economic-events/evaluation of companies and markets.

DonDiego read a long time ago that because the Great Depression was a deflationary event in the US and the collapse of the German Mark in the 1920's was an inflationary event, that the US would try to avoid deflation in the future and the Germans would try to avoid inflation forever.

So the FED has been trying to increase inflation by keeping interest rates low so as to encourage folks to borrow and buy stuff, . . . but such stimulus has jes' about quit working - probably 'cause lots of folks are in too much debt already [see f'rinstance college grads], . . . so the beneficiaries of the policy have largely been wealthy citizens who've bought stocks and watched their wealth grow. Now DonDiego supposes the economy is likely to get worse in the near future, and - with interest rates at historic lows - he expects when things slow down they may well slow down hard, since interest cannot be lowered any further.

Times could get hard, . . . and bad things can happen when times get hard. Imagine the chaos if, f'rinstance, the Nation's teenagers lose their internet connections.

Boy, that high 15ishK close came awfully quick. I'ma gonna sit back and watch fer abit.

Had a good day with "DWTI" which is a inverse oil trade. Shares up $32. today alone. Have had this for a few months now, if it hits target around $33 per barrel I will exit.
Looking at some facebook, netflix and google with this drop. Just not ready to pull trigger yet.

Very ugly day.

This market needs some Viagra.

I am telling you it is all about operation Jade Helm. Don't be fooled.

Market's back like gangbusters again today, I'm still not gonna touch anything, yet. Oil finally got a much needed shot in the arm, a most excellent thing for me, still have a ways to go, but will be adding in a few different co.s when I think has oil somewhat stabilizes. I wonder how much of this is short covering. The vol. for DWTI (oil shortx3) was above avg. but not tremendously. I hope nobody was still holding DWTI, dropped 62 bucks today to 153, ouch.
I read an article yesterday on Saudi Arabia (the ones who started the whole slide in oil prices) that ,at current conditions, they would be broke at the end of 2018. This isn't to suggest that that's going to actually happen, but the point of the article was that many of the oil producers aren't going to last forever on 40$ oil and will have to make some moves sooner or later to get the price back up.

Does anyone want to hazard a guess where oil prices will land once China stabilizes, the oil glut ends and the market returns to a somewhat more stable and orderly arena? Of course, there's so many variables that could throw things into chaos at any minute, but assuming nothing big happens. I'm going to guess that in a year to a year and a half WTI will be trading in the 70$-80$ range.

Did oil finally find it's bottom? I know, way to early to tell but pretty monster comeback. WTI now @ 45+, one bouncy feline if that's what it is.

DonDiego doesn't recommend one try to "pick bottoms"; it's dangerous.*
Oil can certainly go below $40/barrel, as it did this week. But a lot of oil drillers, especially those working shale beds, cannot sustain profitability at that price, . . . and when they stop producing or fail, the supply'll go down and the price'll rise. That''s what rational markets do. If rational markets prevail oil won't stay under $40 for long.*

Today's headline, "Saudi Troops Enter Northern Yemen After Houthi Clashes", may have something to do with the price of oil. The mideast can be a chaotic place.
Ref: Aljazeera

*A wise man once advised don't try to capture 100% of the price movement of any investment; if one can capture the 80% - after the first 10% and before the last 10% - he'll do well.
*Another wise man once said "Markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent."

StoneMore (STON) is up 20% and locked in a very safe dividend yield of 10% going forward as of my post Monday. Sometimes I'm pretty good at this shit.

It almost was enough to make up for the complete beating I've taken in Apple.

Nice call on that PJ. Are you sure that dividend is 'very safe'? Most investments yielding 9-10 percent these days is 'very risky'. Hopefully you found a mispriced gem. I like the name too. StoneMore. Cracks me up.