We are at that time of the year when many of us turn to prediction and reflection. Predictions are HARD to do. Few in the media or punditry ever get the economy or stock market right. Having made this observation I will venture out on the ledge and make one prediction. The media will continue…
Session 79–“The Wolf of Wall Street”
Just saw “The Wolf of Wall Street.” For those squeamish about a lot of gratuitous sex and drug use, you might want to take this one off your ‘must see’ holiday movie list. Oh yes, the language is primo. Of course, I hid my eyes (closed my ears) during the juicy parts (which was most…
Session 78–Apres Taper, What’s Next?
The confused nature of media reaction to the market’s move higher on last Wednesday’s Fed announcement on the taper of Quantitative Easing (QE), indicates they are totally lost. They can’t figure out why the market responded as it did, up nearly 300 points on the Dow. In my world it makes total sense. Here is…
Session 77–What Made The Media Salivate In 2013
I started my blog to give clarity and perspective to the daily barrage of hype and misinformation from the mainstream and financial media. I hope my work has been helpful in that respect. As we approach the New Year, I thought a retrospective on kortsessions might be useful, a look-back on the issues that the…
Session 76–“‘Crisis’ is a state of mind”
“Stock market could be hitting dangerous triple top.” With headlines like this you don’t have to be concerned about the integrity of that “Wall of Worry.’ What is even more overwhelming is the lengths to which the authors quoted in this piece would go to make their fearful point. What is a ‘triple top?’ In…
Session 75–“Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
“Double, double toil and trouble” is an apt descriptor of what the average hedge fund manager has been going through the past couple of years. To be hedged in a roaring bull market is indeed a witches’ curse. According to the Business Insider the average hedge fund was up 6% the first nine months of…
Session 74–“Buying Stocks at Record Highs: Will You Be Sorry?”
Did you see this front page story in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal (11/23/2013)? The article posits: “…whether stocks are overvalued or fairly valued isn’t the question investors should be asking. Instead, what you need to answer is this: how much can I stand to lose before I bail out?” This is very cautionary stuff, considering the fact…
Session 73–“Its déjà-vu all over again”
Thank you Laurence Peter Berra (a.k.a. Yogi) for this eternal verbal pearl…what a way with words! I cite Yogi’s pearl to point out suggestions on the part of a few brave market strategy types that the 2013 market is deja-vu 1982, the last time stocks lifted off for a secular bull run. This is a…
Session 72–One more time: “This is not a BUBBLE!”
I was chatting with a former colleague the other day and he bemoaned that all he was hearing from clients and prospective clients was their concern that the market was in a bubble, and that this may not be a good time to invest or even be invested in stocks. Of course, this is understandable because it…
Session 71–Let’s Party Like its 1999!
“Maybe Twitter was the bell!” Opening day for Twitter (TWTR–NYSE) felt like 1999. The stock was priced at $26, opened…