re: 1.) “markets less volatile” may be difficult to prove..
and, “the new rule might deal with some of these shenanigans”–to me, if you’re looking to tamp that stuff down, people should stop funding, and/or playing games with, crooks..

2.) “As he said, this gentleman” not sure who’s being referred to.. Cramer?

Thanks for the tip. I read it and two things came to mind:

1) Even if what he says is true to the extent he states (lots of people all of the time, as I read it), the markets were far less volatile before the uptick rule was abolished. Putting it back in can’t hurt. Plus, the new rule might deal with some of these shenanigans.

2) I taped Stewart last night and just watched it. As he said, this gentleman is one of the people we need to be protected from. He’s not a finance hero, he’s a crook who found a loophole to exploit.

re: up-tick, you should read the post by King, in the “Cafe`”

Is This Really the Bottom ?

not only is that guy sharp, he’s, obviously, been there..

Friday, March 6, 2009
Big Bottoms
This is it. I am calling the bottom of the move here at 675 SPX. For anyone in cash, this is the time to buy. Any shorts, please cover. You will see a 50% move up on this trade.

March 6 2009 10:05 am CST
Posted by Eric P. at 10:04 AM

http://southwestofwallstreet.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-bottoms.html

: Puh-leeze — the uptick rule is easily circumvented . . .

Question:

My trading techniques are very basic. I made this statement based on the claims of others and the certainty in which they made their statements. How about a link to an explanation of how it works, or doesn’t work in practice.

Re my FASB beliefs: Of those I am certain. Mark to market is a great idea with respect to normal assets in normal times. Assets with a cash flow but no market at this time must be worth more than bupkiss. Assets with no value because the market is paralyzed are very different from assets that have lost value in relation to each other or because there is no market, such as no market for 8086 chips any longer.

A lot of value will probably still be crapola. But there must be a way to allow judgment and circumstance into the picture without inviting fraud along with it. Once you get past basic bookkeeping, ALL accounting is basically rule based valuation for almost everything.

That said, I’m pretty sure stopping out was a mistake. You can almost hear the CNBC talking heads explaining away tomorrow’s losses on “profit taking before the weekend.” We’re very overbought on many short term indicators, and 752.44 was the “closing low” from last November, so for some chartists that will be the key closing level that that must be taken out.

All in all though, a very impressive move up from the lows. Will be most interesting to see how this plays out.

1 more thing … the pending return of the uptick rule in a few weeks. That should stop a few bear raids in their tracks. Fu*kers.

~~~

BR: Puh-leeze — the uptick rule is easily circumvented . . .

Agreed. The Q1 earnings will be more ugliness. But how ugly and how deep the low?
I am pretty convinced that SPX 666 was the capitulation bottom for Q1.