More and more I am beginning to think that investing and trading, is more and more becoming high stakes gambling. I am a big fan of gambling myself, but I always wanted to believe that swing trading and investing was not exactly like gambling at a casino.
How else do you explain 30-40% falls in energy stocks and the 30-40% gains in financials in a period 48 hours? This week was perhaps the most grotesque and egregious example of “sector rotation” that I have ever seen. So energy was so great last week and financials so horrible…then everything just flips on a dime? Sure a correction was to be expected but not everyone in the market should be trading together, there should be some kind of balancing act which keeps the market somewhat sane I am beginning to think the stock market has organized criminals involved, but it could be just Goldman Sachs reigning havoc on us all.
I don’t think any stock or sector is really investable right now. Financials have gone up too much too quick…backing of Fannie and Freddie by the feds and less than dire news from Wells Fargo and Citi doesn’t take us out of the woods yet. Tech? It has been one of the worst sectors this year and bad news from Apple and Sandisk…with continued bad news from VMWare and EMC can send us to the abyss.
I’ve been through wild swings before, but this past week was the most disgusting manipulation by the market I have ever seen. Unless you engage in rapid fire daytrading, nobody can make any money…the bulls and bears both get taken to the cleaners together. If you shorted financials a month ago, you are even. If you bought energy 3 months ago, you are even. All gains made by casual investors have been wiped clean.
On the other hand if you sold financial stocks last week, I feel your pain…same goes with those who didn’t sell energy 2 weeks ago. Fannie and Freddie is the best example of how our markets have been hijacked…these stocks fluctuate 20-100% daily…which is just not supposed to happen but nowadays we accept the fact that it does.
The World Series of Poker returns to ESPN starting this week on Tuesdays. In a quirky arrangement, the WSOP Main Event was paused last week and all the final table players return in November to complete it. ESPN didn’t like the fact that people knew the winners 3 months before it aired.
The top prize is 9.2 million dollars…and all final table players were given an advance of $900,000 which was 9th place money. There are no well known pros who survived, which assures for the 8th year or so a no namer will follow the footsteps of Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Jaime Gold and Jerry Yang.
The best poker program on TV, the World Poker Tour is returning for its 7th season. They will leave their home on the Game Show Network (GSN) and move to Fox Sports Net. It is unclear if the hosts (Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten) will return or if it will continue to same format that it always had.
Hostess Layla Kayleigh will not be returning which makes her the third straight hostess to be one and done since the 3 year reign of Shana Hiatt. Courtney Freel and Sabina Gadecki were the last two one and done. The favorite of many WPT fans including myself is Kimberly Lansing to take over the post.
Season 6 Hostess Layla Kayleigh and former G4 and Maxim personality.
Seasons 1~3 Hostess Shana Hiatt, former hostess of Poker After Dark and Playboy Cover Model
Season 4 Hostess Courtney Friel, now an entertainment reporter and contributor for Fox News
Season 5 hostess Sabina Gadecki, currently the girlfriend of New York Knicks player David Lee
Season 6 Supporting Hostess Kimberly Lansing…the girl I would like to see takeover the duties for Season 7 and one of the top 5 ladies on tv I have a crush on.
I am NOT looking forward to the stock market tomorrow…no matter what happens I am likely to lose. I am in the process of winding down my positions, taking what little profits I have left and cutting losses…but as long as financials keep rallying while tech and energy tank…I am trapped. A lot of depend on earnings reports from Bank of America (before the bell) and Apple Inc (after the bell). Good luck to all investors out there!
John Against Bailout Nation 