The financial markets are becoming a joke due to lack of real leadership in so many places. I can't believe that a bunch of clowns end up in Washington and cannot fking negotiate a way to make the US stronger. We can point fingers all we want and say one-side has it right and the other side is 100% wrong, but we will all go down with the ship in the end unless some intelligence is brought to the table and egos are put aside in the interest of better decision making for a longer term. There is never one answer or solution and most often there are valid points or view or positions on both sides. In my view the right-wing, religious nut-job Republicans are causing this problem. They continue to refuse to budge on any issue that is not in 100% agreement with their liking. An example of this horsesh-t is the agreement these pricks sign saying they will never ever raise taxes. As far as I am concerned these recalcitrant lowlifes right-wing zealots should be indicted for treason. Same for those on the extreme left. For me these markets present too much continual overnight risk and its ain't fun even though I have a lot of short positions in SPY and some equities right now by "luck" and will maybe do OK on this b.s. sell-off... if it is sustained. However I have am too long AAPl once again overnight and closed out MNX options position {rolled into higher strikes rather than the same strikes for January} thus the front month will now settle significantly below where I exited at the close yesterday. Feels like throwing $ down the toilet when the best trade on my short Dec calls was to do nothing. However my bias was we would be higher today in front of Xmas week. So far, not looking like that. Maybe I need to retain a psychic, because in hindsight we have a bunch of geniuses on ET. Anyone want to join me and split the cost? Good luck to the gambler geniuses here who can "trade" this crap and make any "sense" out of it. Had there been a deal or close to it this week we would now be exploding higher, even with triple witch vola. How do you handicap that so as to have some + expectancy? If you are able to you have my admiration. I am often so hedged that no matter which way I make 1/10th of what I would in a market I could trust with more exposure. Times are too uncertain to be trading this crap. We need to stabilize the markets and get the retail market/public back in the game. Hedge funds are getting whipsawed weekly and grossly under-performing the S& P from what I read. Is anyone getting it right enough to make the trading risk reasonable, not to mention consistently profitable. Good luck the next 4-5 days. I am going to start closing positions, and wait until we have some semblance of stability.
The market is actually doing well given the circumstances, and seems to follow the efficient market hypothesis.
I'm taking the rest of the year off myself. The risk:reward ratio makes no sense, because any of my positions will get blasted by insiders who have eyes and ears in DC and know which way the vote is headed or which way the wind is blowing. I'm really fed up with this strangle hold DC has on the market.
Murray, we finally get an uptick in vol and you go running? Dude, the VIX can't stay at 3 forever. Maybe you shouldn't be short so much premium going into the fiscal cliff. Perhaps that's the problem and not Washington. And no, it's not the f*cking religious nut jobs that are the problem. All of them are the problem. They all want to spend more, including the republicans. We are broke Murray. And just like a trader that is broke, at some point you have to stop giving them capital to trade. You should understand that.
"In my view the right-wing, religious nut-job Republicans are causing this problem. " First sentence of second paragraph. --------------------- I was up for some good editorial comment. Pfffttt. sorry had to stop reading when I got to that sentence. How ordinary. Live by Yahoo die by Yahoo. Regards. From your loco right-wing, religious nut-job Republican ET poster.
"Your market is everybody's problem. I don't like your markets because they're unsafe." Gay And it's the republican's fault. LOL. Go after a group that is trying to keep from raising taxes and ignore the Fed's hand in all the markets.
The US being funded buy foreign central banks colluding to buy each others debt with debased currency. The chinese need the US engine to continue consumption at any cost, their population is demanding higher standard of living, to avoid another revolution, job growth centrally planned is occurring. The markets are embracing communism, they arent being allowed to reach equilibrium. Inefficient goals are being pursued at the cost of job creation. They will keep funding us, till they achieve a sense of infrastructure/military to pose a threat.