Monday Money

So it begins.

Grab your towel.

Very briefly for a couple of people in case they look here this morning... Ah, first the disclaimer:  I've none of these things - those who know me know the primary cause. Yes, he stole everything, leaving me penniless. So these are merely suggestions with no conflicts of interest. For now.

Remember Hitchhiker's Guide? 'DONT PANIC'. But dont be complacent either - the markets could and should fall another 20 percent from where they are -and basically stay there. Not necessarily in the absolute and not necessarily today. But... many things remain to acquire and hold indefinately while portfolio hedges/adjustments should still be placed or made as good sense asks it.

This morning - short the VXX. As noted by a couple others... maybe a tiny bit of explaining things would make the understanding easier. So: there are ETF's, Exchange Traded Funds, that act as stocks but mimic stuff like silver or gold prices or in this instance the volatility of the overall stock market. That is what I recommended in May and November and earlier this year- not to short sell it but to buy it in chunks when low and sell it off as market volatility increased. Short selleng, vendere allo scoperto, I very rarely did or suggested but sometimes in moments of great volatility it can be a useful tool. So, today I suggest to short the VXX at limit 82 or so only good for the day. Once the shares have been 'sold', then place a buy-to-cover order good to cancel at 74 or so. 

Since it's late, I'm posting this immediately and will follow up later. 

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...so the VXX did pretty much as expected during the day, even during the first couple hours, soaring into the 80's then plopping down below 72. The level of panic in the broader markets had bridged into an unrealistic level, for now, given the lack of present context. Even the primary immediate causal event- the announcement of tariffs and counter-tariffs - is overstated. Most of them, from the US side, will likely be reduced or withdrawn in bilateral negotiations largely to open certain industries in other countries to predatory US equity, particularly private, ie healthcare and insurance. For China and Germany.... they have been in turn parasitic countries for quite some time relying on the US running massive defecits, the former first having the justification of their need to develop - which it has - but now does have to.... play ball, allow other places to export to them. Germany instead...is just a hypocritical pain in the ass that simply does not play well with others.  Parasitic, it is, and frankly a lousy culture,managing to fuck themselves and Europe despite having an EU basically made entirely for it at the expense of places like Italy. Recall Merkel's line on the Greek kids -'they've gotten fat for too long'. Well...karma.

But - Europeans have to find a way to throw the current political class out and remove that small group of people, many in London, who dominate its politics from legislative to executive to judicial systmes via a massive flow of multi-layered corruption and intimidation. The market fall-off in itself is helpful in that regard and actually also helpful to the vast majority of people individually. Wars instead are harmful and in time so is Keynsian militarism. We need to invest into things like the below, the extension and expression of culture by production, not cluster bombs and tanks. (A. - video note tomorrow.)