Trader’s Narrative

Here’s a recent screenshot of thestreet.com:

In the first article, he is pessimistic about the outcome of a concerted financial rescue plan and offers the kind of target that I’m used to seeing from Bob Prechter:

Why I’m Negative Now (2:02 PM Sunday)

This strategy, which I presume will not be adopted, but which makes the most sense, would allow for shotgun weddings for all the weak banks to eliminate the bleeding. Without this kind of action I am reverting to a downside target of 6,700 for Monday and then 4,700 for Tuesday in keeping with the hopeful ‘87 playbook.

A few hours later, as Asian markets and overnight futures traded higher showing confidence back in the markets, he writes:

Don’t Fade the Opening (9:13 PM Sunday)

I say, play it out, don’t sell. Let’s see if we can’t get something going for a couple of days, unless you have some stock you bought into the down-600 moments from Friday. Even if you are down a lot, you are being too greedy…

Within a time span of a few hours, he has contradicted himself. But that’s not all. Here he is, just a few days ago telling people to sell and take their money out of the market:

Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week…I don’t want people to get hurt in the market.

Got that Cramerica? Clear as mud, right? Booya!

It looks like Cramer is just throwing everything at the wall and hoping something will stick. Whatever scenario plays out, he will have ample “opinions” to choose from and point to, and many others to conveniently sweep under the rug.

The following is from San Francisco magazine (online). I’ve included it here because, for some odd reason, the original site shows it as a 404 error now. This is much too good to let disappear into the ether, so bookmark this, delicious it or just print it off and read it.

Just remember to not get drunk on the indexing Kool-Aid. All methods of investing are active, even indexes like the Dow Jones. Passivity does not exist. All indexes have their components picked by someone and regularly rebalanced and modified by someone (or some committee).

The best investment advice you’ll never get
For 35 years, Bay Area finance revolutionaries have been pushing a personal investing strategy that brokers despise and hope you ignore. The story of a rebellion that’s slowly but surely putting money into the pockets of millions of Americans, winning powerful converts, and making money managers from California Street to Wall Street squirm.
By Mark Dowie

As Google’s historic August 2004 IPO approached, the company’s senior vice president, Jonathan Rosenberg, realized he was about to spawn hundreds of impetuous young multimillionaires. They would, he feared, become the prey of Wall Street brokers, financial advisers, and wealth managers, all offering their own get-even-richer investment schemes. Scores of them from firms like J.P. Morgan Chase, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Presidio Financial Partners were already circling company headquarters in Mountain View with hopes of presenting their wares to some soon-to-be-very-wealthy new clients.

Rosenberg didn’t turn the suitors away; he simply placed them in a holding pattern. Then, to protect Google’s staff, he proposed a series of in-house investment teach-ins, to be held before the investment counselors were given a green light to land. Company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt were excited by the idea and gave it the go-ahead.

Continue reading ‘The Best Investment Advice You’ll Never Get’