Misc Observations On Financial Markets
Posted by Frugal on October 16th, 2007
Just some more data points on this crazy markets:
- Have you heard those radio ads on TreasuryDirect for buying US bonds directly? I listen to business channel on radio when driving to work everyday. Never heard that kind of radio ad before. Maybe US bonds are really unwanted and required special advertising these days from public. And US Fed is not alone. California bonds are also in the ad too.
- I have never seen Xmas tree decoration this early in the year. The first week of October, Macy is already filled with Xmas merchandise. Unbelievable. Halloween is barely here, and Macy is already selling for Xmas? I’m guessing there will be quite a lot of things on sale this year.
- Have you got your Wii yet? I tried to buy Wii at several stores, and they always run out of stock right in the morning of the day on sale. I think Nintendo Wii is going to have a really good Christmas. If you stock up on Wii, you can probably make some 10% to 15% reselling them on Ebay during Christmas, I guess.
- The precious metal markets are truly scaring me. Yeah, my portfolio is at all time high. I’m just nervously waiting for the fall to come, just like night is followed by the day. My wild guess is that HUI goes to 459, and then comes back down to 357, correcting some 20%. It appears that there are so much more money NOT in the PM, missing the biggest rally so far. Most of the best market timers that I’m aware of are missing this rally. There goes the best technical analysis down to the drain. There is a reason that I don’t want to time the market so much. I just know that I’m not that smart. If the smart market timers cannot time it, then how can I time it? My guess is that HUI will become so painfully high for people who miss the rally to suck them all in, and/or correct to a value so grudgingly high that few will take up enough shares.
- As far as I can tell, the band of day traders from 2000 are back in fashion. These day traders are trading China stocks, plus all the high volatility & high momentum stocks. And many more are leveraging their house, and making a killing in trading. Since not everyone can be rich, eventually I am guessing that it will be resolved. Watch out. Everything is alway happy, even if it’s one minute right before the top of the market.
- I listened to the financialsense.com radio over the weekend. Robert McHugh is stating out my biggest fear for this great country USA. He believes that bond yields will not be going up next year for the benefits of housing market because Federal Reserve will be monetizing the US debts by printing money to mop up the excess of US treasury bonds. That makes a lot of sense to me, and that’s what I would do to save the housing markets if I’m the Federal Reserve. But that’s just NOT the decaying path that I want to see for this great country. Such actions are simply making everyone to pay for the sins from house flippers. When I commented last year about the real losers when the housing market bursts, few people seem to understand what I wanted to say. I think as time goes on, possibly forward by another 6 or 7 years, it should become all very clear.
- Crude oil is going crazy too. Looks like $4 per gallon will be here sooner than I think. Inflation will transfer the wealth from middle class to the upper class. The short-sighted Federal Reserve thinks they’re doing the country a service, but higher inflation eventually will make big changes in the political arena globally. Poorer people from inflation won’t be happy. And vote they will. I only pray that we will have smart leaders like Ron Paul, instead of Hilter-like leaders. The history has shown that the mass cannot tell a good leader from a bad one. They will demand changes, whoever that can provide to them.
In any case, it looks like phase two of the gold bull market is here or almost here, thanks to Bernanke to kick-start it by cutting 50 basis point. Sit tight. The roller-coaster is going to get wild, both up and down.
More related posts:
Digg it Del.icio.us Reddit Furl BlinkList Newsvine Yahoo MyWeb






October 16th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hi Frugal,
I hope you are right about $HUI going up and then correcting down into the mid 300s. Shake out more weak hands and allow me the opportunity to get back in. I went out with the market timers and all I have to show for it is frustration.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Frugal,
I have been investing in the pm’s for years. I hold NEM, GLD, SLV, SSRI, UNWPX and USERX. Just wanted to get your thoughts on other pm plays for when the dip happens.
Thanks,
M
October 16th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
I haven’t seen a Wii anywhere. Nintendo is now twice as large as Sony which has 8 times more revenue. Wow. But video games is a notoriously difficult business. The leaders rarely stay that way forever. Look at past leaders:
1. Atari (2600)
2. Coleco (ColecoVision)
3. Nintendo (NES and SNES – they dominated both cycles)
4. Sony (PS1 and PS2)
5. Nintendo (Wii)
October 16th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Dear Mr. Frugal,
Got a question if you don’t mind. I got these two Canadian oil trusts CNE (Canetic) and HTE (Harvest). The dividend yield is about 15% and they pay every month. With oil up to $87/barrel, these stocks haven’t performed at all! They also pay the dividend in CDN, so even staying the same, the dividend has gone up 10% (in USD terms) since August 2007. I mean, it’s double-barrel firepower of high oil prices and the rising CAN-USD ratio. I was wondering why these stocks have shown investors no love at all.
October 17th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Novice,
HUI will fall for sure at some point. The only problem is that whether you and I will take the “insufficient discount” and accept it.
M,
For the next dip, you should go with big cap gold stocks. For the bigger dip after that, you should accumulate and tilt the portfolio towards juniors. At least, that’s my plan anyway. Try picking the ones that are technically more strong among HUI/XAU components.
Lawrence,
My Canadian trusts are not doing so great like yours either. But I’m not concerned about it. At such time, the benefits of diversification will show, if you’re investing energy in both dividends and non-dividend plays. Dividend stocks are slowly moving for both up and down. The yield component makes them more bond-like, and enhance your portfolio return during market downturn (while decrease your portfolio return during market upturn). Try splitting your energy investment into dividends & non-dividends. If energy market pulls back in 2008, it should be a terrific opportunity to load up. At least that’s what I’m planning/hoping for.