The Week That Was & What's Next
Sunday, May 7th
A gracious good evening to everyone especially to those actually reading and listening to this in “real-time” on Sunday night. That’s why we’re doing it; to give you a leg up on the trading horizon for next week and a few tidbits of what actually transpired or you might have missed from the week before. There’s a big one in my mind that we’ll talk about that received little to no attention as well as a few sarcastic innuendos I’ve been know to assert from time to time. Without further ado, here’s this week’s video:
Sunday, May 7th
So, I’m sure you quickly picked out the sarcasm associated with the bankruptcy of The Christmas Tree Stores. What are we going to do without them? This is tragic unless of course you’re Jewish but then again, one never knows. I guess they thought they were a regional bank and a call to Yellin and Powell would have triggered immediate action from say a Walmart or Target; nope just let the chips fall where they may. It would be nice, in a true capitalist world, if we allowed failure to be similarly rewarded across all sectors but that’s probably not going to happen; too bad, maybe the failure to hire less than adequate corporate managers would cease as well in the banking industry.
On the out-of-nowhere side did you see the unexpected increase in consumer debt? Just how many iPhones were sold on credit? US consumer borrowing increased in March by more than expected on one of the largest spikes in credit-card balances on record.
Total credit increased $26.5 billion versus an estimate of $17 billion after a February gain of $15 billion. Biggest since Christmas when I guess it’s OK to spend, right? The revolving credit outstanding, which includes credit cards, jumped $17.6 billion, about three times the prior month’s gain and the largest in a year. Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it; seems like everyone else still is so you may as well join the crowd.
Low unemployment is a key support for consumer spending, but Americans are not pulling back. Some are now leaning on credit cards to maintain lifestyles. That bubble is going to break or pretty soon the only capital source remaining to be tapped will be IRAs and other retirement accounts. That leads me to my final entry this week.
I’m a stalwart fan of John Naisbitt and his 1981 book, “Megatrends”. Go ahead, click on it; better yet buy and read it. Naisbitt, a bit of a follower of Marshall McLuhan took note of to what degree and more so where information was “printed”. McLuhan in his “The Medium Is The Message” illustrated it takes multiple “sightings”, observations by individuals of let’s say a product before they react to it and potentially buy it.
I’ve been preaching this trend for months about individuals, those who are tapped out, turning next to raiding their IRAs. Over the weekend I came across a “primer” telling people how to do it. Naturally, all of the pitfalls were discussed and illustrated therein but the fact that these types of articles are beginning to appear leads me to believe they will soon start to proliferate. If people start hitting their retirements the only thing they’ll be doing is selling the securities held within their plans. Do you think that might cause stocks to decline? I do; simple supply and demand and it’s coming; how else do you expect Apple to keep selling those $1.500+ iPhones.
Update: Just finished my review of the BOJ minutes. Not nearly as dovish as they have been. Seems that instead of “we will stay the course” the language appears to be changing to a “we’ll see” status . . . so I added a few more contracts to what is an already a decent sized and profitable position.
Lots going on here at “The Ticker EDU”; what do you think? The first segment of “Trading Psychology” is “in the books”. Saturdays seem to me to be the best day to provide informative commentary of this nature; hope it works for you. There’s much more to come from The Ticker EDU. Stay tuned and as always, let me know what you want to learn; I listen.
Hope you enjoyed this post. I’m just a young 68 years old; my Dad became a broker when I was 13. It’s time for me to ‘give back’ to all of you what’s in my head. It’s not always pretty but it’s based on history . . . and history, unchecked, repeats itself.
Everyone learns at their own pace. If you pick everything up the first time through, great but if not email me at david@thetickeredu.com so we can further help. Thanks again go out to Danny www.mrtopstep.com . . . check him out; he’s worth your “click” and thanks to all of you who have adopted what is being created and presented; we’re humbled by the response and referrals. Again, let me know what you want to learn, I’m all ears.
Let’s end with a little Pink Floyd’s “Money” . . . great tune but take the time to listen to the words . . . there’s two sides to money.