The Central Banks are pouring enormous amounts of liquidity into select financial institutions while pulling out their own principal. The bankers are printing fiat at an unprecedented scale and using it to prop equities after they dump their own shares. This would partially account for some of the huge price swings and volatility in the Vix.

You also have to take into account the run that’s occurring on major hedge funds. Hedge fund redemptions are leading to mass sell-offs of just about everything. Commodities the only asset with any real intrinsic value are being liquidated to raise capital.

Commodities will eventually be great investments when the market is finished imploding and liquidations slow down.

The long and short selling game could turn out to be a real gamble right now. There’s no way to know which financial institution will collapse next, or the next assets that will be liquidated.

Remember, the bankers are trying to unwind a quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble or as Warren Buffet called it “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

The following is a good article on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s changing of the rules for short sellers…. http://www.bearmarketinvestments.com/paulson-2

QLD it is.

You look great compared to ‘the church lady’ that was interviewing you. Good grief, she needs some color …

when visine stops working you switch to clear eyes. It gets the red out.

ll

Posted by: leftback | Oct 16, 2008 5:50:18 PM

lb,

isn’t that the most rippin’est? Still, it’s Good of you..

it’s been the craziest thing–from the response of NFW! to, now, @200.5, “What should I do?” and they Still refuse to get out of the middle of the road..

I really wonder how others are handling that, similiar, Schism.. I mean some have always been telling me ISMW: “F*’m, They don’t care, why should you?” Somehow, I never saw that to be the Key..

http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=Schism

You ever look at the back of a CDS contract… ON WEED?!?!

@ Mark Hoffer: “Someone on these threads, not to long ago, put it quite correctly..ISMW: “It’s a minefield out there, And it’s Your Leg.”

Respect, bro’. That is exactly how I feel about tomorrow’s expiration. I would like to have both my legs by Tuesday, then we’ll see about putting another toe in.

Mark, I know so many people who are out >40% and they barely know what day it is. I personally saved one person from three funds that have had 60-70% haircuts. Buy-and-hold leads to cry-and-fold.

hh,

no kidding, those 200.5k dead-enders are truly a breed apart, it’s almost Biblical–The Stumbling Herd shall Always be with you.

I just got off the phone w/ a friend, a MutFund Pimp, his ownself, who’s been trying to lever his clients/advisees out of their positions for over two years( yes, file under: Ripley’s ) a solid 60 % are, still, in Full Buy ‘n Die Mode AND Complaining to Him about their Ports being, after contribs, Down ~40+%…

To call it Surreal would be an insult to Dali..

“by and hold in my opinion is finished”

I agree…

But did it ever work anyway?

Most of the clients I have to deal with (My day job is a support role at a major brokerage firm) talk the buy and hold, but none of them truly “buy and hold”.

They buy when there’s a Bull on the cover of the newspaper, and sell at times like these.

Buy and hold doesnt work for most people because they are just plain too emotional and they dont do any homework. They expect to just buy mutual funds, get a xmas card from their broker, and maybe a yearly review if they’re lucky… And HOPE everything will be ok. Its a fatally flawed idea to begin with. All these types of folks should do is throw it all into index ETF’s and pray that their retirement happens to occur the same time as a bull market. Actually learning something is too much to ask. Making their own decisions? Thats just plain ludicrous. They probably know more about “ludacris” than whats in their portfolio.