S&P500 shows remarkable price and time symmetry

Apparently, most people are looking at other things, including ElliotWave International...

Details in the Obama Document are highly questionable...

I wonder just HOW much stress producing this birth certificate was causing for the Department of State...and what was discussed and especially undocumented disccusions...seems like it may have been quite a bit more than they would like think. Ordinarily, I would expect requests by unauthorized people would require very few state resources...and additional requests by authorized ones are not that frequent or can not require that many resources to handle...something does not add up...with "all the strain on state resources" that certainly may explain the shoddy work producing this document and perhaps some of the impulse for doing so. Additionally, I highly doubt that if I made such a request I would recieve the "authorized" and "duplicate original" as a pdf...especially one with all the manual effort this one has in the pdf. Perhaps that is what she means by "strained resources".

Think about it...if I request my birth certificate, I can simply call the department of state and make the requests...most likely they would make me do it via mail or online and then promptly approve or reject such a request. That action, even if complicated by other issues, can not require more than 5 to 30 minutes of time. If 20 people made the requests we could estimate that handling those requests would take 10 minutes each requiring a total of 3.3 hours of time from the staff at the department of state. If there was something really exceptional, lets add 20 hours...that, anyway you look at it, does not add up to strain on resources.

A look at the big picture...

Below is the last dollar sentiment chart, which is no doubt significantly lower now after the drubbing the dollar took this week. This would put it at the lowest reading in history if that were to be the case. Definately, everyone on one side of the boat on this trade...can you spell capitulation?

The Russell 2000 - not your grandfathers top either...

By the looks of things, this is going to get ugly...did you know that the Russell 2K P/E is currently the highest on record and well into the 100s...

Some Charts - this is not your grand mothers top...

This is the result of catastrophic deception and financial engineering by the Fed and their cohorts type top. Right here and now everyone is sure we still have many more impulses up. Really?

Obama Birth Certificate is manipulated and altered

The question is why would they feel the need to indisputably manipulate or alter this document in ANY way...even if the facts are correct. Altering the document makes all of the facts suspect even if they are true. Moreover, how is it that they can not hire a decent specialist to produce a document with all the proper artifacts.

I would like to point out that it is IMPOSSIBLE for the layers in the pdf and placed graphics to be assembled by a computer program from a scan. It is simply not a possible or reasonable option. No automated program would decide to create arbitrary graphic elements of just a "K" or a date with omitted characters. That is not the way graphic applications such as pdf builders work. The fact here is that there is questionable manipulation and alteration BECAUSE there are layers, how the layers were chosen, the blocking out of background knockout of the type etc. Just to make it clear, ABSOLUTELY NO PROGRAM could create a pseudo-arbitrary knockout behind the placed graphics and type. That has to be done manually and deliberately. This, of course, does not mean that the information is not factual or correct, but it certainly makes you wonder why someone went through all this amateurish effort to manipulate, adulterate or enhance a document that could simply be satisfied with a single simple scan. Again, I am not questioning the facts...I simply can not reconcile the gargantuan gulf between what would be a reasonable looking facimile of a real document. In the next days I will produce an example of what this document should have looked like if were well produced and correctly prepared. I will make a video of that also so that it is easier to understand just how amaturish and suspect this document's production actually is...something that I certainly would never have allowed had I been Obama and known that this document would be VERY closely scrutinized. I for one do not think deliberately bad production value was the objective...however, I am left wondering what was...

Please watch the video I made in HD and/or fullscreen mode to see everything at the best resolution. You can set the HD resolution at the bottom of the screen to 1080 for best results.


For a higher resolution version of the video click here

Some more clarity on into the elements in the video can be seen in the image below (click on the image for a closer view):

I wonder just HOW much stress producing this birth certificate was causing for the Department of State...and what was discussed and especially undocumented disccusions...seems like it may have been quite a bit more than I would think. Ordinarily, I would expect requests by unauthorized people would require very few state resources...and additional requests by authorized ones are not that frequent or can not require that many resources to handle...something does not add up...with "all the strain on state resources" that certainly may explain the shoddy work producing this document and perhaps some of the impulse for doing so. Additionally, I highly doubt that if I made such a request I would recieve the "authorized" and "duplicate original" as a pdf...especially one with all the manual effort this one has in the pdf. Perhaps that is what she means by "strained resources".

Think about it...if I request my birth certificate, I can simply call the department of state and make the requests...most likely they would make me do it via mail or online and then promptly approve or reject such a request. That action, even if complicated by other issues, can not require more than 5 to 30 minutes of time. If 20 people made the requests we could estimate that handling those requests would take 10 minutes each requiring a total of 3.3 hours of time from the staff at the department of state. If there was something really exceptional, lets add 20 hours...that, anyway you look at it, does not add up to strain on resources.

Update on the dollar index

Update

I have been in Europe visiting an ill member relative and on some business. Updates have been impossible, as internet has been a challange, and I have not been able to get fully working. I am at a very beautiful place in Germany called Tegernsee and will post some pictures...simply beautiful...

My systems triggered new shorts on Friday and I will post some charts this weekend as is possible...overall the gaps this week are rather bearish, in that in addition to the financials and transports not participating, the gaps were among the larger ones in the NASDAQ 100, s&p500 and Russell 2000 history. Gaps like this, especially on low quality volume with uneven participation, are characteristic bull traps...indeed the fed will meet next week and must attempt to make US debt more attractive and assert their capability to control the scheme, so that their cohorts in government can raise the debt ceiling. Though a raise in interest rates by the fed would be more symbolic than anything else in that it would effect short-term debt, the 30 year bonds would likely remain in their bull market as per my previous post. In any case, it will be interesting to see how these charletans attempt to play it.

The extent of compacency is remarkable not withstanding the significant capitulatory activity in the commodities, euro and dollar. No significant market leader that I watch, especially in the NASDAQ, has broken out to new highs, which puts the whole move on very thin ice.

Swan Dive...the real picture...Bonds versus Equities...Debt versus Cash

What people, even the smartest in the room, fail to understand about money is that it does not act the way that one would think it would. By its nature it is highly counter intuitive mostly because money plays on our weakest traits and strongest compulsions - it is designed by human frailty to manipulate human frailty. So, its a very hard subject to rationalise.

In a collapse the weakest securities get increased distribution and the most conservative get increased demand. That is what we see here. When the equity market sells-off, yields for the 30 year bonds generally have done so as well. However, when the market crashes or people become disoriented then yields on treasuries totally collapse. During the last several years we have had a steady longer-term trend in the 30 year bond. It is yielding less and less. Even though the QE effort resulted in the yield increase that we see starting in October last year. It is counter-intuitive to most people that this could happen as the program was designed to supposedly lower rates...and Bernanke attested to QE efficacy and success previously for lowering rates. Well, I guess Bernanke does not understand either.

However, we stand at the precipice. Apparently, a precipice that most people do not understand. Today for example, Citibank's FX team came out with an analysis that said that if the debt ceiling were not raised the dollar would collapse. That deduction, on its face, is such a great example of why one should discount any analysis from a big firm. If the debt ceiling is not raised, the government will not be able to issue new debt and that will dramatically curtail the supply of new dollars required to keep our system going. It will result in a stronger dollar NOT a weaker one. These guys actually make the money and don't have a clue, or atleast, pretend they don't. Its clear by their track record that banks like Citi do not know much about managing finances or running a business successfully...their thinking on the debt ceiling represents a ridiculous misunderstanding of how currency systems work and how the financial system revolves around those currencies.

Just look at Japan, their credit and economic risk were pounded by the earthquake and Tsunami and the result was a dramatic strengthening of the Yen. Who in their right mind was lining up to lend Japan money immediately after the earthquake? Not many people, and that's one of the reasons their currency went wacko and nearly bankrupted all the carry trading desks. In the end, the inability of the US to issue and pay its creditors will result in a similar condition as Japan - a shortage of dollars and therefore a very strong demand for them. Remember, without credit there is NO MONEY. Therefore, if the government can not issue credit, its currency will become scarce and expensive. Also, keep in mind that Gold and Silver are really assets in our current system - not currencies and will ultimately suffer the fate of most assets if this were to occur. Much of the disconnected price behaviour in inflation asset and commodities markets is being driven by the non-velocity character of the credit being created by the Fed. This credit is not making it into the economy and intead is getting stuck in pockets what bankers believe are safer and more liquid markets than normal lending or investment creating bifurcated price inflation...So much credit driven buying of markets has been generated by the Fed, that huge mallinvestments have once again been triggered. Not only has the irresponsible and uneven distribution of credit been damaging rather than stimulative, but the results will cause considerably more damage. This is just like in many of the sovereign situations that we have seen historically and are currently seeing throughout the world. Reduced debt issuance or capability = stronger currency.

Tonight's exercise is an explanation of what is happening and why PIMCO and a very many others seem like they are going to have to learn a lesson the very very hard way.

Lets look at the inflationary process starting from the beginning:

1. Banks issue credit (creates money)
2. Borrowers buy assets (spends money)
3. Borrowers pay-off the new credit via the use of  larger and new credit from a bank, this can be direct or indirect...as in the borrwer being paid by another borrower with more available credit. (creates more money)
4. Borrowers use surplus credit to pay interest and buy more assets rather than pay full principle off (creates higher prices, depreciates buying power of currency)

The importance in the process is to understand that governments have been very keen on this credit process for years and absolutely rely on rolling over or restructuring credit with new credit. This process has not been lost on the people the government serves or the banks to which the government report. Society has routinely gotten in the practice of paying off one credit or worse one creditor payment with credit from another facility. And now banks simply ignore their responsibilities regarding reserves and have figured out how to issue credit on credit on credit using fractional reserve without the reserve. So, what we have is a huge abundance of credit and very little cash. Further compounding the "availability of cash" problem is that this system only creates new princple - not the money to repay interest. The result is a system that must rely on the concept of "the greater fool" in order to function. Clearly, our central planners do not understand an exponential extrapolation and how it works in real world scenarios.

When a debtor borrows or pays off credit with new credit we usually get credit expansion - inflation. When borrowers can no longer get new credit they are forced to pay off the credit or default and must sell assets as necessary - in this case, we get credit contraction or deflation. So, using this analysis we can see that higher prices are not necessary for inflation but are often a symptom or characteristic of inflation and similarly lower prices are not required for deflation - credit and monetary contraction is what is required - and lower prices are generally a symptom of contraction in credit and money.

So, where are we now? Well, from all the pundits and media, apparently we are expecting a dollar collapse and higher rates. Everyone thinks rates are going up! Everyone thinks that the dollar is going down. But lets look at our example a little bit further. Lets look at the deflationary process:

1. Bank demands payment on maturing credit (money taken out of circulation)
2. Borrower seeks to roll obligation into new credit but can not do so (new money not created)
3. Bank revokes or suspend credit (destroys money)
4. Borrower must raise capital, restructure or default on credit (unspends money)
5. Raising capital must be done by selling valuable assets to an entity either with credit remaining or free cash available often at large discounts (new money is not created)
6. Lower prices for assets trigger other banks to demand payment or collateral from other customers holding similar assets (money taken out of circulation)
7. Borrowers must sell other assets to raise capital to settle obligations (unspend money)

The result of the exercise is this:

• Abundance of credit = abundance of money and the pretense of cash.
• A sustained collapse of available credit becomes a surge in the demand for cash.
• A shortage of cash that is not callable by a creditor translates into lower prices for assets and higher ones for cash. 

Supposedly, higher interest rates should result in a stronger dollar. However, that is not really the larger cycle. The larger cycle is the Borrowers who need to settle maturing or bank demanded debt need access to cash that has not come from the credit spigot. 97% of the currency in our system has been created via the issuance of credit. It should be no surprise that the dollar has dropped in purchasing power by that same amount.

When a large amount of borrowers, especially sovereign ones, are forced to raise capital because they can no longer roll over debt the dancing has really, officially stopped though the music has stopped playing long before anyone decided to pay attention. When countries can not issue debt to settle previous debt, we have a dramatic of encumberment of cash that simple can not just be erased. There is a simple rule if there is a shortage of something that is in demand that thing will usually gain more purchasing power. That is the case here. Credit has continued to contract, available cash has also and expansion has not occurred. Unencumbered cash is in VERY short supply.

Lets discuss other dynamics. Since we know higher interest rates should result in a higher dollar...is there anything else that could accomplish the same thing? And the answer is YES. If the ability of the US government to issue debt were constrained that could certainly result in higher interest rates - or would it?

Lets really examine what would likely happen if that were to occur. The government would be forced to into a cycle one step removed from the desperation of devaluation to create an environment where treasury rates would be forced to remain low by a collapsing credit system and collapse of valuable inflationary assets. By its nature this would not need to be an official effort by the government - it would happen regardless of official efforts due to the nature of credit and money. Asset sales in elevated markets funded by constrained credit will result in the fear trade. Even slight fear of valuations, over leveraged and broke institutions like JP Morgan and Citibank. Fear of guarantors at agencies like FDIC. Simple risk management will simply take capital away from assets supported by credit and its insurance to assets of a safer degree. This will also result in a stronger dollar simply because the collapse of credit, creates the inertia to drive this iterative cycle.

What I see in these charts is a hugely powerful rally in bonds that is nowhere near finished. What I see is a way for the government to continue to have access to extremely low rates and to be able to continue to issue new credit and ironically the reason is the fear of what happens when the government can not issue new credit. Fear will, ironically, drive people right into the very thing that they think they want to be furthest away from - US Treasuries. Our friends at PIMCO seem to be the sacrificial lamb here. There is always one in every major market cycle. Bear Stearn's and Lehman in the last one and now PIMCO. The fact that they are short 18% of their portfolio in US bonds puts them under dramatic pressure when they and all their copycat friends start to find out they are wrong. This will definitely intensify the market reaction and their predicament. Ultimately, no matter what happens, if the government can not issue new debt, then credit for everyone will be called, assets will be sold, prices will collapse, more credit will be called and people will be forced to be satisfied going into the safest available credit they can find - US Treasuries

That's what this chart says. That's what the under 5% dollar bulls say to me. That's what the VIX at 14 says to me. The government can not issue debt and desperately needs to have a way to do so. If sacrificing PIMCO, asset bubbles, jobs and banks may be required to accomplish the task - this chart says that is what is going to happen.

Swan Dive...ready?

The Transports are sporting a clean bear flag...

Nasdaq 100 sets up a possible continuation pattern,,,

Update on the Russell 2000

Getting close to the upper wedge trendline...watch for some testing and then a breakout...keep in mind this is a weekly chart.

Swan Dive collateral...

The chart to watch is the transports.

Swan Dive...?

It has recently come to my attention that it was my birthday - I have been, therefore, a little distracted. I generally prefer not to focus on my birthday or even celebrate it, but sometimes what you do on one is not your choice...so, officially, I am now a year older, though not likely wiser.

As many of you are aware, I have built a nearly full short position over the last weeks. I of course reticulate the positions, which means that the position is messaged intra trade to reduce risk and capture profits with in the position's bias. That current position is very profitable - especially in the Russell, Nasdaq 100 (which was closed today)  and MidCaps 400. It is important to understand that while it may be enticing to create beautiful equity curves, it is usually very hard and unnerving to produce real results with real money. These systems are working exactly as they should and producing substantial alpha.

As you are also most likely already conditioned, most are buying this pullback, if you can call it that. I was clear about my concern for the markets, and I am reiterating those concerns again tonight. At this point, I expect the risks are extremely high for negative market surprises. Volatility indexes are showing continued complacency as are other sentiment indicators. Complacency seems to me to be the one thing least appropriate at this time. Though the S&P500 is holding up to a degree, one should not be basing market decisions on the Dow Industrials or the S&P500, especially for market structure. Looks can be deceiving, and that is very likely what is going on with the major indexes right now, Though there is a possibility of a reaonsable bounce/retrace, I am concerned and prepared for a swan dive - something like one, two or three days of powerful and unusual selling into a climax - perhaps something rather more significantly extreme for the major indexes than most people or systems are prepared to handle.

I therefore, reiterate everything that I have said over the last two weeks. We were not in a wave 4 with 5 up to come...as nearly every elliotician recently projected and we are at the risk of significant market failure perhaps even catastrophic if one were to occur. The reality is that though the Fed retained its QE program, it has implemented other programs to remove more liquidity than the POMO (QE) effort infuses. This sets up a rather large drain on liquidity. Then there are the busts of all the rediculous carry trades which further impair liquidity. Additionally, as I drawn in my earlier dollar post and charts- the dollar may want a few little squiggles on those previous charts to complete, but the patterns are nonetherless, clear...and point to a large move in the dollar and most probably a large and significant effort to suppress interest rates by depserate leaders so that US debt can still be serviced and represented...which likely translates into an effort that will simply drive another bubble while simultaneously bursting quite a few others...ultimately ending in tears.

All in all, BURNanke, if he could get an award for incompetence would win first price. Obama and his trusted Wall Street advisers would be right behind tied for second. Goldman Sachs and JPM would get something too...between first and second prize. JPM is reporting earnings tomorrow. They once again have seriously manipulated their 10Q and in my opinion falsely represented their earnings while simultaneously not demontrating good faith or ability as a proper fiduciary. JPM's reporting is fraudulent....and what was their leverage ratio again? This bank is insolvent many times over...and needs to borrow and steal money to manipulate their earnings to their and the Fed's satisfaction...good luck Mr. Dimon...your time is nearly up.

All in all, these are very high risk times and nothing has changed in the last two weeks except that the risks increased even faster and more than I expected. I am expecting any bounce to be weaker than normal and the subsequent selling to be significantly stronger than anticipated.

9:00am update: added NQ short back and also restocked existing short by added contracts that I had reduced this morning. Of course JPM totally lies about earnings...nearly 40% of number is loan reserve reduction...and a lot of other suspect numbers.

Updated Dollar chart with normalized polarity

Can you see another carry trade blowing up? I can...and I am quite sure there will be many more. The issue is compounded by the fact that, despite PIMCO's best efforts, the fed and the government need interest rates on treasuries to remain low...at this point that is likely a far greater priority over keeping stock markets afloat. The fed can not itself control the interest rate on the 10 and 30 year...they need the market to do that...their best option is to pull their support for inflation assets and to support the dollar...which would happen regardless - with or without their efforts. If this case were to play out, as I believe it will, mist money managers, including Bill Gross, will be left at the station and on the wrong die of the trade which will only serve to accentuate the pain.