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Monopoly Lessons by Goatmug

Just too much good research to let it disappear. Get a cup of coffee, take the phone off the receiver and snuggle up. Reprinted from one of my favs SlopeofHope

SEPTEMBER UPDATE

Overall, we are seeing divergent data coming through as usual, so we'll have to wait and see where we fall. In general, I tend to believe the longer term theme that I've laid out that our economic situation for consumers is slowly grinding to a halt while big business is taking full advantage of the globalization of the world economy and managing to keep busy. I think this is why some of this data remains stubbornly positive despite what the average guy is feeling here in the US. The fact that large multi-nationals are diverse enough to show gains abroad is great and is really beneficial to the US economy, if we didn't have that, I think we'd be in a much worse position.

TOTAL RAIL TRAFFIC - http://railfax.transmatch.com/

Rail traffic can reversed its season decline and all carriers have resumed their forward

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ICI Mutual Fund And Money Market Statistics

Carl Swenlin @ Decision Point comes up with some interesting stats at times. Your thoughts and comments below are encouraged.

The Investment Company Institute (ici.org) compiles statistics on mutual funds and publishes them monthly. (There is a one month delay between the end of the month being reported and publication.) Decision Point has been collecting these data for almost five years, and we finally have enough to start charting it. Amounts shown on the charts are in billions.

The bottom panel on the first chart shows the percentage of of mutual fund assets held in cash. A low percentage of cash indicates that fund managers are bullish on stocks and do not believe they will need much cash to meet redemptions, as would be the case if stock prices were to fall. The current percentage (3.4%) is lower than what it was near the top of the last bull market. I would consider that to be bearish for stocks.

Chart

The next chart shows assets in money market funds. What stands out to me is th

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Risk Appetite Returns On Global Data

This from Futures Magazine briefly reiterates what we already know from last week but gives a nice overview of what's coming this week both in the U.S. and [especially] abroad.

Risk rebounds on improving global data

The past week began with disappointment stemming from Japan ’s lack of direct currency intervention and risk aversion looked probable to continue into the week. This was not the case as better than expected Australian 2Q GDP started a ripple effect culminating into a global wave of positive data surprises. Upbeat manufacturing numbers midweek out of China and the US saw safe havens soften and sent US equities soaring higher by greater than 2% Wednesday. The positive data stream continued Thursday as US July Pending Home Sales printed a much better than consensus +5.2% as compared to an expected -1% decline. Friday’s much anticipated NFP capped the data session as Private Payrolls jumped by +67k and the headline number declined by a less than expected -54k versus expectatio

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Key ETFs The Farthest Above Their 50d Moving Average

Once in a while you come across an article that not only provides good ideas for long positions [healthier, above their 50d] but also for short ideas should and I say should the market turn on us. Not advise to long or short, but good, solid, basic research for investors [imho].This from BespokeInvestments:

Below we highlight the key ETFs that we follow that are currently trading the farthest above their 50-day moving averages. As shown, the Internet stock ETF (HHH) is currently on top of the list at 10.31% above its 50-day. Malaysia (EWM) ranks second at 9.29%, followed by Base Metals (DBB), Australia (EWA), and then REITs (IYR). A lot of times we'll see ETFs from one asset class clustered at the top of the most overbought list, but it is currently pretty diverse.

Below is a chart of the Internet ETF (HHH) that is currently trading 10% above its 50-day. As shown, the ETF has made a huge move over the last four days. We also provide a table of the stocks that make up HHH. As shown, A

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Reader Responds A Year After Walking Away

Slightly over one year ago, I received an email from "Morally Conflicted in Arizona" who at the time was considering "Walking Away". I responded to his email on August 18, 2009 in Bright Side of Falling Home Prices

It turns out "Morally Conflicted" did indeed walk away. Here is a followup email I received a few days ago, about his experience.

End of the Line

"Morally Conflicted" writes ...

Hello Mish,

It's been over a year since I asked for your opinion about how long it would take for the housing market to "recover," which was about the same time that I stopped paying my mortgage and decided to walk away.

Well, the game is finally over. I moved out last week, and the trustee's sale occurred last Thursday.

After thinking repeatedly about it recently, the end results look something like this:

After purchasing the house in 2005 for about $740K with only $40K down, if you count my mortgage payments as "rent," in a sense, I recovered my down payment over the past year by living "ren

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Blocking Stimulus For Politcal Gains?

Todays post from Barry Ritholtz refers to an accusation that further stimulus is being put off until after the November elections; something I strongly believe in, and eerily similar to my previous post on 1931 European Depression Redux where Austrian officials are putting off their 2011 budget until after their Fall elections [an unconstitutional act by the way]. Will we see more of this posturing for political gains across the globe? Me thinks so. I look forward to your thoughts and comments below. For your StockBuz consideration:

“Now I’m looking at the political system turning itself into a paralyzed beast. A lost decade now looms as a much bigger risk. The Fed’s running out of powder; Its really powerful ammunition has been expended.”

-Alan Blinder, former vice chairman Federal Reserve, on whether the US could sink into a Japan-style quagmire

>

Peter Goodman has a longish article in the NYT Week in Review, What Can Be Done to Cure the Ailing Economy?.

It is notable for a few r

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After a recent trip to one of our local Goodwill Stores(btw great place to find investment type books, especially after the market is going through, or just coming out of a bear market), I came away with a copy of "A Journey Through Economic Time, A Firsthand View" by John Kenneth Galbraith. I was truly excited to find and purchase a book by Galbraith, the late renowned and respected economist. Furthermore I was excited that it appeared to be an economic history of the twentieth century with some commentary in a format that was easy to understand.

The book starts with the early part of the twentieth century. Galbraith discusses World War I and the aftermath. He discusses the rise of John Meynard Keynes as an economist and the unintended consequences of German war reparations. Galbraith laments the fact that economic decisions are often made by the stupid or uninformed politicians. Galbraith continues by citing causes for the Great Depression and The Crash. He also discusses the effects

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1931 European Depression Redux?

Tight-lipped finance ministers from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg left a round table meeting in Vienna on Thursday without any statement to the public. According to Austrian Börse-Express talks centered around government budgets and bank secrecy (that's no pun.)
Austrian finance minister Josef Pröll had said earlier that Austria will not move on a loosening of bank secrecy as long as UK based trusts are able to invest anonymously and wants to shift this discussion onto the OECD level.
Conservative Pröll, currently breaching Austria's constitution with the nod of social democrat chancellor Werner Faymann, because both ruling parties want to delay the 2011 budget until after two provincial elections in October, may have other worries about the Austrian banking sector on his mind.
Recent data from Austria's central bank confirms that Austria's banks, mainly Raiffeisen group and Erste Group, are still heavily dependent on favorable forex crosses, i.e. Central

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Confessions Of A Uploading Dummy

Ah, the 70's. Everyone had Saturday Night [Disco] Fever, bad polyester shirts with ruffles [!],

Happy Days, Kojak with a lolli pop, The Waltons, 10% unemployment, block-long lines at the gas pump, a peanut-picker President and ah yes, computers began invading the office workspace. I remember it well as I begrudingly sat through computer training at Percy Wilson Mortgage downtown; the entire time chuckling under my breath with my coworkers that this computer b.s. would never work. Something called an "internet" would span the world and allow people on every continent to communicate within seconds without a wire? Surely someone was on drugs. Even if this *thing* worked, never, ever would we [in the mortgage business] be able to verify someone's income/assets without the mountains of paperwork that are involved. Folders stuffed 3" thick with credit reports, verifications of employment, letters of explanation, bank statements, divorce decrees and a 20-page long appraisal. No way no how bu

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Lately I've heard a lot of people sounding off about the possibility of a double dip recession. Among the most cited statisitics is present GDP growth slowing compared to the end of last year. Yet I had not seen one ounce of empirical data on GDP growth coming out of the most recent recessions regardless whether it proved or disproved slowed growth as an indicator of a double dip recession. Below you will find a chart of the last three recessions including the most recent. The chart was taken from the St. Louis Federal Reserve website.

As you can see it is common for growth to slow, even signifcantly, after the accelerated growth from the bottom of the trough of a recession.

While I will not argue that there are headwinds hindering the economy. Housing still is in the dumps, China may be slowing, and the dreaded Euro-credit-crap could all sink the ship in a worst case scenario. However the slowed domestic GDP growth is in no way indicative of a double dip recession if the two prev

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Given the price action in the market lately, there's been much discussion here on what constitutes a pullback and what constitutes a change in direction or trend. The suggestions have ranged from three weekly or monthly lower closes, a close below a certain moving average, various moving average crosses and more but in all honesty I don't think there's *one* holy grail. One indicator that satisfies all investors across all asset classes and we all have different loss tolerances and for that matter, different viewpoints or perspectives on the world economy and it's ongoing recovery.

This discussion however, brought to mind the following [somewhat lengthy] excerpt from the novel on Jesse Livermore, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, written in 1923 by Edwin Lefevre [available in PDF format in our Books Forum] This excerpt helps reinforce in my mind the importance trading in the direction of the primary move, and to avoid the noise of short-term fluctuations which quite honestly,

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